They Have Begun to Shake the Dirt

Since the zombie lies are once again staggering out of their graves and into the night, this might be a good time to remind ourselves of some basic facts about what American philosophy departments look like. As of last year, in the top 54 American philosophy departments, only one had as many women on faculty as guys. Whereas two had no women at all. I know this is a tricky issue, and it gets even trickier when you consider how gendered--and, I supsect, related to race and ethnicity-- the different subdisciplines of philosophy are. (In a year with so many ethics and social and political jobs, you're going to see more black people and women getting fly-outs. In a year with more straight-up metaphysics, mind and language jobs, you'd see a lot more of the snowy white sausage party we know and love.) On the whole, though, the white man's doing just fine in philosophy. Let's not lose sight of the dead fucking obvious.

Also remember why the zombie tales of women and other underrepresented groups getting all the good fly-outs just won't die. Sometimes they seem like the only way to soften the devastating blow that comes with total and unqualified failure. I know, because I've been there. I'll probably be there again before the end of next week. That doesn't make the zombie lies right, but it does make them common.

Update: Via Nate in comments, here's (warning: pdf) Sally Haslanger's jaw-droppingly insightful paper about women in philosophy. If you haven't already, read it. If you have already read it, read it again. (And as an aside to the guys, most of the crap Haslanger talks about is invisible to us most of the time--unless we actively try to see it for what it is. Read the paper, see philosophy through someone else's eyes.)