The Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) has just announced that the Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award of 2011 goes to Jennifer Saul (University of Sheffield). Previous winners include Sally Haslanger (2010), Ruth Millikan (2006) and Sara Ruddick (2002) (for a list of past recipients, see here). Here is the full announcement, from which I would like to single out the following statement (my emphasis):
Jenny Saul has demonstrated courage and leadership, and she is leading feminists forward to new ways of thinking and connecting.
Indeed, these are perhaps two of the most admirable features of Jenny’s work. Her work on the role of implicit biases in sexism (and other –isms) has significantly contributed to a new recasting of the issues: the most subtle, most ubiquitous and arguably most dangerous expressions of sexism are in fact related to highly unconscious cognitive processes. So it is not (only) a matter of opposing sexism on explicit, ideological grounds; perhaps more importantly, what needs to be addressed are these underlying mechanisms which even those who do not see themselves as sexist fall prey to. Among other things, this approach sheds new and important light on the issue of the blameworthiness of sexist behavior. Another important aspect of her work is that it can be described as ‘empirically-informed feminism’, which is a great development. (On a personal note: it is no secret to anybody that I am a fan of pretty much anything that is ‘empirically-informed’, and the move away from purely ideological/conceptual discourse towards empirically-informed analysis is one of the reasons why I felt compelled to become a bit of a feminist myself.)
As for ‘connecting’, Jenny was one of the founders of the wonderful blog Feminist Philosophers, which then developed into an admirable example of collective feminist work. I can say without hesitation that the main factors in my own turn towards feminism were reading Sally Haslanger’s seminal piece in Hypatia and becoming a regular reader of Feminist Philosophers. The same collective effort, with Jenny’s ever-passionate involvement, then gave rise to two important blogs, ‘What is it like to be a woman in philosophy?’ and ‘What we are doing about what it’s like’. In short, Jenny has made highly effective use of modern technologies in order to connect and unite people, and to disseminate an incredible amount of relevant information and discussion in wider circles.
Finally, it is important to mention that, besides her work in feminist philosophy, Jenny has done a lot of great work in philosophy of language too (and in the intersection between the two areas). (Check here for the list of her papers in PhilPapers.) I believe that the Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award is granted not only on the basis of the recipient's work in feminist philosophy specifically, but for the totality of her philosophical work, and in Jenny's case it includes important contributions in philosophy of language as well as in feminist philosophy.
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