Dr. Peggy DesAutels on Sexual Harassment in PHL

Dr. Peggy DesAutels contributes to a discussion of sexual harassment in the field of philosophy,
The discussion appears here:
www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/30/philosophers_consider_what_to_do_about_sexual_harassment

Peggy DesAutels, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Dayton and chair of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Women, said that the recent public discussion of sexual harassment is long overdue. She said that the stories being posted on blogs are consistent with situations she has witnessed over the years or that she has heard directly from women who have sought her out because of her role in the APA.

"It's so frustrating to always hear all these stories, again and again, as women talk to each other about what they have experienced, and some men talk about what they have seen," she said. Women have discussed how to draw more attention to the problem and been held back by legal fears of simply accusing individual philosophers. The website What It Is Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?, she said, seems to have found a way to set off the discussion without being sued.

DesAutels said she personally could verify that some of the top philosophers in academe have mistreated many women over the years. "There are well known, famous, serial harassers," she said. And she said that most women in philosophy have seen firsthand that famous philosophers don't seem to pay a price for the way they treat women. "To the degree that they are famous, they move from university to university," she said.

Part of the problem is that the number of women in philosophy is still low. In a circumstance that would not be possible in other humanities disciplines, "there are departments that have no feminist influence and very few women and that are very treacherous for women."

So is shunning -- as is being discussed now -- the way to go?

[later in the article the author again turns to Dr. DesAutels]

DesAutels said that she practices a personal form of shunning. "If I'm organizing a panel or a conference, there are men I would not invite" based on their reputations for harassing women. But DesAutels said that this was "a private action" on her part. She said it was "difficult" to imagine any sort of collective list of harassers, given that different philosophers know about different incidents. When she has personally witnessed behavior, she said, she has no problem putting a man on her mental list of non-invitees, but she said she's less sure of what to do about individuals regarding whom her information is less direct.

One of the most significant things that have happened this week, DesAutels said, was that the debate spread from What Is It Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy? to a discussion involving many more philosophers. She said she was struck that the authors of the New APPS post were three men in the field, all stating their belief that the problems facing women are real.

"We're finally seeing men challenge men," she said. "There are a large number of men out there who are not sexist and who are not harassing," but who need to become involved, she said, either by shunning the harassers or by helping the discipline think of other strategies.