Until recently, there was relatively little systematic data on the representation of women in academic philosophy in Germany, especially compared with the US and the UK. Klonschinski 2020 provided a first comprehensive picture of gender representation in German academic philosophy and documented the familiar pattern of a “leaky pipeline”: women are not strongly underrepresented at the beginning of philosophy studies, but their share declines at later academic career stages. Our subsequent work adds further data to this emerging map of the profession.
One project looks at appointments to philosophy professorships in Germany. In Klonschinski & Kraft 2022, we analyse appointment data in order to examine how the gender distribution among newly appointed professors has changed over time and how these patterns relate to the broader “leaky pipeline”. The data show that the share of women among new appointments has increased substantially. At the same time, the idea that appointments have become “women only” is far from the truth.
A second project looks at introductory logic courses, a particularly interesting case because logic is both a standard part of philosophy curricula and a field strongly associated with formal and mathematical reasoning. In Kraft 2023, I analyse data on the gender of authors of German-language logic textbooks, the instructors of introductory logic courses at German universities, and student grades from logic courses at one university. Women are strikingly underrepresented among textbook authors and logic instructors. By contrast, the grade data provide no evidence that female students perform worse in logic. They also illustrate how differences between philosophy and STEM students can create the misleading appearance of a gender difference where none is visible within the relevant subgroups.
My papers
- with Andrea Klonschinski: “»Leaky Pipeline« oder »Women only«? Berufungen im Fach Philosophie an deutschen Universitäten.” Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Philosophie 56 (2022), pp. 1–8. PDF
- “Logik und Geschlecht? Empirische Daten zu Logikeinführungen im Philosophiestudium an deutschen Universitäten.” Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 77(3) (2023), pp. 321–346. DOI · PhilPapers · PDF (Draft)
References
- Andrea Klonschinski, “Frauen in der akademischen Philosophie in Deutschland. Eine Bestandsaufnahme.” Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 74 (2020), pp. 593–616. DOI
