The Few Universities Where Women Are a Majority of Ph.D. Recipients in Philosophy

A new study by Carolyn Dicey Jennings, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Merced, identifies the universities that have done the best job in graduating women Ph.D.s in philosophy. Of the 86 Ph.D. programs studied, women earned on average 29.3 percent of all doctorates awarded in the field from 2004 to 2014.

Only six universities had a majority of women graduates in their Ph.D. programs in philosophy. The University of Memphis led all other universities. There, 63.4 percent of all Ph.D. graduates in philosophy from 2004 to 2014 were women.

California Institute of Integral Studies was in second place with women being more than 58 percent of all Ph.D. graduates in philosophy. The four other universities that had a majority of women graduates in their Ph.D. programs during the 2004 to 2014 period were the University of Oregon, the University of New Mexico, the University of Minnesota, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In contrast, only six of the 47 recipients of a philosophy doctorate at the University of California, Riverside during the period were women. Other universities where women were less than 15 percent of all doctoral degree recipients in philosophy were the University of Missouri, Baylor University, and the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Jennings joined the faculty at the University of California, Merced in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She holds a master’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University.

The report, “Women in Philosophy 2004-2014: Which Programs Do Best?” was published on the New Apps blog. It may be viewed here.