The Feminist Philosophers have a post with a link to an article discussing the idea that white men should refuse to participate in all-white male panels. The post also raises the question: should something similar be considered with respect to philosophy conferences? As some of you may remember, last year I wrote a post suggesting that, upon receiving a conference invitation, male philosophers could (should?) politely inquire as to the gender distribution of other invitees, and in case women were severely misrepresented, they could respectfully express their disapproval and perhaps suggest a few names.
(An aside: It would be great if we were at the point where something similar could be considered concerning other underrepresented groups in philosophy, but alas, we are very far removed even from *that*. Incidentally, the same Feminist Philosophers informed me yesterday that 50 out of 14.000 British (full) professors in the UK are black. That's about 0,35 %, while the black population in the UK is about 3 %, according to the post.)
Anyway, back to the issue of gender imbalance and conferences: I'm more of a 'gentle persuasion' kind of person, so the boycott approach seems to me to be a bit extreme. I do think inquiring into the gender distribution of a given conference upon being invited (even if not making a reasonable gender distribution a condition for acceptance) is not too much to ask for, but I was wondering what readers might think of the boycott proposal. (I realize that I'm running the risk of awakening undue associations with recent events!) Does it make sense? Is it (not) too extreme? Is it something that you, white dude, might be prepared to consider doing? We've seen here on this blog complaints that some NewAPPS'er were (are) schedules to speak at conferences with all-male line-ups; but such complaints would only be justified if there was something at all that white male philosophers could do about the line-ups of conferences they are invited to speak at (either declining the invitation altogether or ensuring, somehow, a better gender balance). What could that be?
I'm all ears! :)
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