demographics
TagU.S. Philosophy PhDs: Still Overwhelmingly White
How has the racial and ethnic composition of philosophy PhDs in the US changed over the past decade or so? (more…)
Do Men and Women Philosophers Argue Differently?
There is no statistically significant gender difference in the argument types used by frequently cited contemporary men and women philosophers in their articles, according to a new study that uses corpus linguistic analysis to search their works for “indicator pairs” of words that are likely to differentiate between deductive, inductive, and abductive arguments. (m..
Women in Philosophy: Recent Reports (updated)
Two studies have recently been conducted on the status of women in the philosophy profession, with one published by the British Philosophical Association (BPA) and the Society For Women In Philosophy (SWIP), and the other described in a post at the Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA) site. (more…)
Recruitment and Hiring Strategies to Make Philosophy More Diverse
The Demographics in Philosophy Project has issued a set of diversity-enhancing recommendations for philosophy department recruitment and hiring practices. (more…)
The Effects of the Pandemic on Journal Submissions
Journal editors: how has the pandemic been affecting submissions to your journals over the past eight months? (more…)
Some Good News, Some Bad News in the APA’s State of the Profession Report (guest post)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) today released a new report, “State of the Profession 1967-2017 and Beyond: Institutions and Faculty.” (more…)
Demographic Trends in the Philosophy Major Might Be Mostly Due to Pre-College Factors (guest post)
This guest post* looks at two questions related to demographic trends among philosophy majors. First, are women disproportionately less interested in the philosophy major at the beginning of their first year of study? And second, is the recent apparent increase in interest in philosophy reflected in first-year intention to major? (more…)
Curry on George Floyd and the “Fake Outrage” of Academic Philosophy
“The fake outrage of academic philosophy amazes me.” (more…)
The Sexual Orientations of First-Year Philosophy Undergrads
What’s the distribution of sexual orientations among first-year undergraduates who are majoring in philosophy? Eric Schwitzgebel (Riverside), Morgan Thompson (Pittsburgh), and Eric Winsberg (South Florida) looked at data from Higher Education Research Institute’s “Freshman Survey” to find out that and other information. (more…)
The Philosophy Major Sees Increase in Numbers and Diversity (guest post)
“In the midst of this general sharp decline of the humanities, philosophy’s admittedly small and partial recovery stands out.” (more…)
Philosophical Intuitions and Demographic Differences
Philosophers are disagreeing over what lessons should be learned from the growing body of work on the interplay between demographics and philosophical intuitions. (more…)
Women and the “Philosophical Personality” (guest post by Christina Easton)
“Research suggests that there is a cognitive task on which philosophers tend to perform better than non-philosophers and men tend to perform better than women.” Does this explain the gender gap in philosophy? (more…)
Graduate Students on Diversity and Inclusivity in Philosophy (guest post by Carolyn Dicey Jennings)
The following is a guest post* by Carolyn Dicey Jennings, associate professor of philosophy and cognitive science at University of California, Merced, and creator of Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA). (more…)
Visualization of Gender Distribution in Philosophy Research Topics
Maximilian Noichl, whose visualizations we’ve discussed previously (here and here)Â has produced one depicting the gender distribution in philosophy research topics. (more…)
Demographic Diversity is Good for Philosophy
In light of some recent discussions here and elsewhere about demographic diversity in philosophy, I thought it might be helpful to set out one argument in favor of it that I haven’t seen made explicit. (more…)
Diversity in Philosophy Journals
The Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) will include a session on diversity in philosophy journals, with several speakers and an additional panel consisting of representatives from nearly 20 academic philosophy journals. (more…)
What Proportion of Philosophy Majors Are Women? (guest post by Eric Schwitzgebel)
The following is a guest post* by Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at University of California, Riverside. It first appeared at his blog, The Splintered Mind.
The Perception of Philosophy as Masculine
A recent study looks at whether perceptions about how “masculine” philosophy is can help explain the gender disparities in the field. (more…)
Slight Increase in Philosophy PhDs Awarded, and other Humanities Data
The Humanities Indicators project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has released new data regarding graduate degree completion in the humanities, number of jobs advertised per discipline, and the demographics of humanities graduate students. (more…)
New Study on Gender and Program-Prestige in Tenure-Track Hiring of Philosophers
Market outcomes starting in 2014 and going back 10 years offer no evidence women are at a disadvantage in tenure-track competitions.
That’s the primary finding of a study by Sean Allen-Hermanson, associate professor of philosophy at Florida International University. The study, “Leaky Pipeline Myths: In Search of Gender Effects on the Job Market and Early Career P..
Women in Philosophy Journals: New Data
There are new findings on the presence of women in academic philosophy journals:
- Though approximately 25% of philosophy faculty in the United States are women, only 14-16% of the articles that appear in the discipline’s top journals are by women.
- Journals which do not use anonymous review seem to have a higher percentage of women authors than journals which ..
Focus On The Fire, Not The Spark (guest post by Sally Haslanger)
The following is a guest post* by Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, regarding the recent Hypatia controversy.
Data on Diversity in (mostly) US Philosophy
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has released a new report on its membership demographics over the past three years. Has philosophy become more demographically diverse during this period? It’s not easy to tell from the data.
Demographic Data on U.S. Philosophy Faculty
Trends show a slow decrease in the extent to which U.S. full-time philosophy faculty at four-year institutions is male and white, according to data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics by Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) and posted at The Splintered Mind:
Gender data:
1988: philosophy*: 91% male (vs. 75% for all fields).
1993: philosophy..
“Raw Intellectual Talent” and Academia’s Gender and Race Gaps
Cultural beliefs and stereotypes that associate men but not women with “raw intellectual talent” can help explain the differing gender gaps across various academic disciplines, according to a new study by Sarah-Jane Leslie (Princeton), Andrei Cimpian (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Meredith Meyer (Ottterbein), and Edward Freeland (Princeton) published today in Science..
Minorities in Philosophy: Data Visualized
Data from 860 philosophers who identified themselves on the UPDirectory (previously) as belonging to minority demographic groups has been analyzed and depicted in various graphs and diagrams by Andrew Higgins, a recent graduate of University of Illinois, specializing in metaphysics and digital humanities, and currently working at Heartland Community College.
The..
APA Member Demographics
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has published a table that provides some basic demographic information about its membership, including gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT status, disability status, employment status, and tenure status. According to the introductory page, “All demographic data collection is voluntary, and members may provide or update their inf..