Guggenheim Fellows: Two Feminist Philosophers

If you look at the 2014 list of Guggenheim Fellowship recipients, you’ll see only two names under Philosophy: Eva Kittay and Laurie Paul.  Congratulations to our colleagues for this well-deserved honor!  It is an especial pleasure to see two feminists constitute the entire Philosophy list.

Congratulations are due to other philosophers and feminists, as well. Recipients in Classics include a notable philosopher, John Palmer, and recipients in Religion include a notable feminist, Joyce Flueckiger, author of When the World Becomes Female: Possibilities of a South Indian Goddess.  All recipients are to be commended.

SASSY Sharing Academic Sexism Stories w/You

 

@anyatopolski alerted me to the Sassy platform (Sharing Academic Sexism Stories with You),  which was launched on International Women’s Day last month. The site, in four languages, was founded by an independent group of volunteers from Belgian academic institutions and NGOs who wanted to provide an online space for stories that are otherwise only shared in private conversations.

Yesterday at the first official meeting of SWIP.NL (in Dutch), which was attended by both Dutch and Belgian members, the question was raised whether sexism was worse in the Netherlands or in Belgium. The proportion of female professors is appalling in both countries, and appears to be even worse for philosophy than for other subjects.

It would be nice if all the SWIPs in the world would team up together and get some funding to get it properly researched!

This SASSY project, however, is yet another good initiative to show that there really is a problem with sexism in academia.