As readers may remember, a few weeks ago we had a series of posts discussing the issue of sexual harassment in the philosophy profession (here is a post with all the relevant links). It attracted quite a lot of attention and provoked different reactions; in particular, many readers had objections to the idea of social shunning of notorious sexual harassers. We had also pointed out that sexual harassment was just one facet of the many challenges encountered by women in the profession; a much wider range of these difficulties is documented in the ‘What is it like to be a woman in philosophy’ blog.
But bringing ‘bad news’ to the fore, although essential, is not sufficient. The realization of the systematic difficulties encountered by women in the philosophy profession should also lead to a general willingness to do something about it, i.e. to initiatives aimed at redressing these difficulties. In this spirit, the creator of the ‘What is it like’ blog, Jender, created another blog, ‘What we are doing about what it is like’, which is supposed to be the ‘good news’ side of the story. People are encouraged to contribute short reports on what they or others have been doing to foster the position of women in the profession, which are supposed not only to illustrate that things *can* get better (in spite of the apparent inexorability of the situation), but also to serve as a source of ideas for those looking for guidance on possible measures to be taken.
It is a well-known fact that ‘bad news’ sells much better than ‘good news’, but we urge all those who have been interested in reading the material in ‘What is it like’ (and everybody else too, actually!) to check out the posts in ‘What we are doing’, and to submit your stories, if you have any. In other words, it is crucial to have a register of the bad things that happen to women in the philosophy profession, but it is equally crucial to have a repository of what can be and is being done about it by a number of people.
Moreover, we recently had a very perceptive comment by an anonymous reader here:
Has there been any other follow-up on this issue through the efforts of the APPS bloggers and philosophers? APA newsletter articles, journal publications forthcoming, material for chairs of departments to read or for us to use in our classes?
This is an excellent question. The APA has had a committee for women in philosophy for quite a few years already, and the issue of harassment seems to have been taken into account in e.g. APA’s recommendation against job interviews being conducted in hotel rooms. (I'm not entirely sure of the facts here, not being in North-America myself; please correct me if I'm wrong). But it seems clear that more systematic, sustained and institutional efforts to address the problem are still very much needed at this point, and again the 'What we're doing' blog is the perfect place to advertise such initiatives, both informal and formal.
Catarina Dutilh Novaes
Mark Lance
John Protevi
Eric Schiliesser
Jon Cogburn
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