Call to Action and a Petition in support of the Gendered Conference Campaign (revised)

[This version is slightly improved from the earlier call.--ES & ML]

In response to substantial feedback from colleagues on our earlier version of this proposal, we have revised our call. We offer the following result of that collective discussion and hope the profession will support.  In particular, this version of the proposal is indebted to Martin Kusch who suggested the general form that we have adopted here. 

 

Petition in support of the Gendered Conference Campaign.

• Professional, academic philosophy has a well-documented and ongoing pattern of excluding women. The situation is bad in the English-speaking philosophical world, and it is no better in much of Europe. We recognize, of course, the significance and severity of other sources of exclusion.
• One non-trivial way in which the status quo replicates and reinforces itself is through conferences and edited volumes that have only male, invited keynote-speakers and contributors.
• Keynote speakers are visible examples of recognized leaders in the field. Among the functions of keynote speakers is to confer prestige on events and topics, and to provide a model for younger philosophers of how philosophy is to be practiced as a profession.
• In light of these considerations, we call on all senior male philosophers to refuse invitations to keynote at conferences with two or more keynotes none of which are women.  (There will sometimes be extraordinary circumstances in which accepting an invitation may do more to respond to various dimensions of exclusion in philosophy than refusing, and there is no way to codify every possible circumstance. What we are calling for is a strong defeasible commitment not to participate in exclusionary conference line-ups.) The aim of this call is not the refusal, but the deployment of leverage, where it resides, so that inclusiveness becomes an integral part of conference-planning. Further, we ask senior male philosophers to carefully consider refusing invitations to conferences and edited volumes in which the line-up is disproportionately male.
• We call on all philosophers - of any gender or rank - not to organize male-only or male-almost-only conferences,workshops, or edited volumes. (Information on female experts in various areas is available here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
• We call on all philosophers to add to their websites and email signatures the following line: "I am a signatory of the 'Online Petition in Support of the Gendered Conference Campaign'; please visit [Online Petition] for details."
• We call on all philosophers to engage in positive steps to educate our community about the Gendered Conference Campaign.

Mark Lance & Eric Schliesser