Statement

This collective statement demonstrates solidarity across the institutions and our support for one another in promoting gender diversity. Together, we stand for cultivating a gender-inclusive culture and practices within our philosophy departments, which we believe will increase the representation of women and gender minorities in all academic levels in philosophy, from undergraduate students to tenured professors. This stance can be summed up in three overarching foci, elaborated in the statement below, and followed by a more comprehensive list:

1. Solidarity: The society ventures to be a contact point between local networks focusing on women and gender minorities in philosophy to promote a national conversation beyond localized efforts. We offer a meeting point for philosophers to support one another in promoting gender diversity.
2. Gender-inclusive programs: The society promotes the conscious use of gender-inclusive research and teaching that engages the perspectives of gender minorities in the many subfields of philosophy.
3. Gender-inclusive practices: The society promotes formal and descriptive, but more importantly also substantive and symbolic representation of gender minorities in philosophy departments. This involves gender inclusive practices in pedagogy, hiring, culture and communication.

Many women and gender minorities in philosophy struggle with inclusion in their departments. The forms of non-inclusion are varied but often continue as a lasting problem because these issues are individualized, and equal inclusion is falsely presumed. To promote confidence and intellectual agency in all genders, we must confront the problem structurally, which means including gender diversity in the very structure of philosophy and philosophical thinking. This includes intersectional and decolonial approaches and perspectives.

We can track the appeal for greater inclusion of women philosophers and feminist philosophy in Norway from the mid-1970s. The major change since then is an improvement in descriptive representation, i.e. the number of women: There are now more women and gender minorities in philosophy departments, but despite great interest for gender perspectives among students, departments are sticking to male-centered canons. Overall, women and gender minorities tend to move to other departments (students as well as faculty), and many are discouraged by the slow rate of gender-related progress in philosophy departments in Norway. This discouragement is, among others, an effect of the lack of research and teaching focus on feminist/gender aspects of philosophy. 

Compared to philosophy departments abroad, especially in the UK and the US, which have long since been interested in improving gender diversity, Norwegian philosophy departments lag behind in acknowledging feminist philosophy as a central philosophical discipline and as valid critical perspectives in most philosophical questions. In this regard, Norwegian philosophy departments also lag behind other disciplines in the country, such as sociology, literature, archaeology, and art, where feminist theories and gender perspectives are integral. 

Feminism and critical thinking on gender have been a core question in Western philosophy since Ancient Greece, throughout the Enlightenment, and in contemporary times. Although most gender-interested philosophers today oppose the Cartesian cogito in favor of embodiment, enlightenment women loved mind-body dualism because it allowed them to argue equality through rationality. Teaching and doing philosophy as though women had been absent or gender has not been a concern for philosophy is misleading at best, especially when so many canonical thinkers had derogatory views of women.

In concurrence with the Society for Women Philosophers in the UK (SWIP) and the American Philosophy Association (APA), we assert the prevalence of women and gender minorities in philosophy, the social milieu, and the construction of syllabi are co-constitutive. This means that including women and gender-diverse philosophers and feminist philosophy in syllabi is important for promoting the welfare and continued interest in philosophy for students and prospective philosophers. History shows us that philosophy canons are constructed and should not be exempt from philosophers’ keen and critical questioning. Women and gender-diverse philosophers have written and participated in philosophic exchange of ideas for as long as philosophy has existed. Many well-written anthologies, reading lists, and syllabi have been made and can be utilized with ease.

Solidarity Society stands together in advancing these concrete goals:

1. Solidarity – Connections between networks
• The Society works to supply a venue for solidarity across networks in different departments and support each other in the work to promote gender diversity in Norwegian philosophy.
• The Society works to support participants’ academic development as students, becoming PhDs, as employees, and hired as philosophers in permanent positions.
2. Gender-inclusive programs – syllabi and pedagogy
• Syllabi and curriculum:  To include women and gender minority people’s contributions in syllabi not only in subjects related to feminist philosophy and the history of philosophy, but throughout the discipline.
• Feminist philosophy in its rich scope should be an essential part of a bachelor’s program in philosophy. It should no longer be possible to get a degree in philosophy in Norway without becoming well acquainted with women philosophers and feminist philosophical perspectives on central philosophical questions.
• Likewise, it should not be the case that women philosophers are represented on syllabi as mainly or only concerned with gender.
• Pedagogy: Is the professor mindful of whose and what kinds of perspectives they respect and encourage among students? Pedagogy should involve an acute and inclusive awareness on the part of the professor of their legitimating function in relation to students as a teacher of philosophical inquiry.
3. Gender inclusive practices – substantive and symbolic representation
• It is not enough to cover formal and descriptive representation to achieve a gender inclusive department. Descriptive representation entails having faculty members who represent/belong to underrepresented gender, whereas substantive and symbolic types of representation entails having faculty members who specialize in feminist philosophy/gender as a philosophical question, and gender perspectives being included as possible perspectives in most sub-fields.
• The Society works to promote departmental use of gender-inclusive practices in recruitment. This could be reassessing hiring criteria that disproportionately favor a dominantly represented gender.
• The Society works to support the improvement of department culture, such as intentional mentorship opportunities and peer support among groups with a gender inclusive focus.
• The Society works to support intentionally inclusive communication strategies, such as gender inclusive language in communications with students and society. This could be addressing people by their preferred pronouns. 

Relevant networks (Norway)

Kvinnenettverket i filosofi (NTNU)

Bergensnettverket for kvinner i filosofi (UiB)

Forskningsnettverket i feministisk filosofi (UiT Norges arktiske universitet)

Sister organisations and relevant institutions (abroad)

Society for Women in Philosophy UK

Society for Women in Philosophy US

The International Association of Women Philosophers

League of African Women Philosophers

Collegium of Black Women Philosophers

(Women) in Parenthesis

Committee on the Status of Women

Map for the Gap: Minorities and Philosophy

Women in Philosophy: Task Force

Center for The History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (Paderborn University)