John asked:

Why have there been no female philosophers? I was surprised to find no similar question in your
archives. I do have a couple of theories: 1. Women have just recently been able to change their roles
and were, unfortunately, not encouraged to pursue such activities/careers. 2. The all-male society of
philosophers fails to recognize women such as Ayn Rand as philosophers. (She most certainly
considered herself as such).

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It isn't true that the 'society of philosophers' is all-male; there are plenty of women working in
philosophy who have produced work every bit as important as male philosophers. Simone de
Beauvoir, Suzanne Langer, Martha Nussbaum, Phillipa Foot and a number of others spring to mind
immediately. There are fewer women working in philosophy, but I should think that this true of most
academic subjects. This might well be reasonably put down to changes in attitude towards women in
the last century, and we should hope that attitudes to women will continue to become more liberal in
all areas of life.

Ayn Rand is not recognised as a philosopher by other philosophers not because she was a woman in
a male-dominated subject but because, in their view, she was just bad at philosophy. The first page of
Ayn Rand's book on Epistemology is enough to show that she was not a philosopher. I think that the
female philosophers I mentioned above would certainly agree with that estimation.

Adam Gatward

I think your first theory on why there have been no female philosophers is correct. If you find women
who, in the past, have been philosophers, I expect you will find they were rich and/or childless.

It unlikely to be the case that a "male dominated society of philosophers" have failed to recognise
female philosophers simply because they are female. Philosophy may be dominated historically by
men, but women are well recognised today. If a philosopher is not recognised it does not mean that
he/she is not a good philosopher. It is probably that he/she addresses issues which are not popular,
or they receive inadequate publicity.

There do seem to be fewer female than male philosophers, and perhaps women find philosophy too
abstract. Perhaps there is a certain personality type which is attracted to the abstract which is mainly
to be found in men. Antony Storr in Human Aggressionhas suggested that two philosophers —
Descartes and Schopenhauer — had schizoid personalities: cold, aloof, superior and detached. It
would be a plausible suggestion to say that this type is likely to be attracted to analytical philosophy.
However, Kant is well known to have been sociable and very likeable. So that falsifies that!

On Nietzsche's account (and Freud and probably many others) a woman would only be a philosopher
if she goes against her nature, and there are more natural than unnatural women. That could be it!

Rachel Browne