We're officially in the final stretch with just SIX DAYS TO GO! 

Over the last two years, we have had the privilege of meeting a community of people who care as much as we do about women philosophers and their ideas. All of you who have supported the book have helped us to this moment where the book will be officially launched and available to the public on September 17th, and the following week internationally.

We want September 17th to be a celebration of the lives and legacies of women philosophers past and present, so we are holding a <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BPm1KZu8RCaZBKa0Jh9t6w">virtual launch event</a> and we would love for you to join us. Pets, children, celebratory drinks are all very welcome. We are delighted to be joined by Professor Angie Hobbs, who has made huge contributions to public philosophy over the years, who will run a Q&amp;A about the book with us and some of our amazing contributors. The event will be 19.00-20.00 UK time and you just need to sign up <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BPm1KZu8RCaZBKa0Jh9t6w">here</a>. The more the merrier so do feel free to share with friends.

If you’re not able to join for the event, you can still follow along with the excitement throughout the day via our twitter account @ThePhiloQueens and personal accounts @rebeccabuxton &amp; @lisawhiting_

We will hopefully (virtually) chat to you soon!

Our heartfelt thanks, as ever.

Lisa &amp; Rebecca

The Philosopher Queens: LAUNCH EVENT! 17th September

Hello to all of our lovely subscribers!

We hope you’re doing well and are healthy and safe. We wanted to give an update on our plans for The Philosopher Queens in the current circumstances.

In conjunction with Unbound, we've decided to push back the official publication of The Philosopher Queens to 17th September 2020. We’re doing this for several reasons. First, we want to have the best possible chance of meeting some of you in person when the book is released. Even though this is still unlikely in September, releasing the book at this time allows us a little more space to potentially plan some events in the autumn and still have an exciting new book to offer. Second, it also gives our distributor the most time to plan for the release. Of course, like everyone else, the warehouse that prints and distributes the books has been hit by the coronavirus, and so they need more time to get ready for the release. And of course, we’re hoping that bookshops might be reopening sometime in autumn, so it gives the book a chance of being picked up by people who don’t know about it already.

However, we are able to confirm that Unbound will aim to send copies to those of you who have pre-ordered the book through the Unbound website this summer, likely in July 2020. We hope that getting it before it hits bookshops will give you something to look forward to and read in the coming months! The two of us received our advance copies this week, and we’re so proud of how beautiful the book looks and feels. We can’t wait for you all to get your hands on it.

We hope you understand our postponing the publication for a few months. It really will give the book the best possible chance of being successful.

Rebecca and Lisa

The Philosopher Queens: New Publication Date

A very happy new year to all of our supporters! We’re so excited to be in 2020 and moving ever closer to the publication of The Philosopher Queens on the 11th of June. 

It’s now nearly a year and four months since we launched the project, which we know feels like a long time to wait for a book. You haven’t heard from us in a while, but we’ve been busy working on perfecting the cover and the design so that the final version will be complete by the end of January. There are a few things that we’d like to update you all on. 

We are currently in the process of planning our book tour for June 2020. If you have a venue near you or even know a literary festival that you think we might be well-suited to, please drop us an email at thephilosopherqueens@gmail.com. We currently have several events lined up for the year which we will be able to tell you more about very soon. 

We have also had our first confirmed translation deal! The Philosopher Queens will be translated into Romanian and published in late 2020. We hope to have more translations on the horizon, so we will make sure to keep you all updated.

Thank you again for supporting this project, here’s to a big year in 2020. 

Rebecca and Lisa

It's the year of The Philosopher Queens!

This is the update that we’ve been waiting to send for a long-time. Last week, The Philosopher Queens reached 1000 supporters. There are now 1010 of you whose names will appear in every edition of the book.

As a special thank you, we are now able to share the cover of the book. There may be a few small tweaks and changes made over the next month, but we just couldn’t wait to give you a sneak peek. We hope that you love it as much as we do. 

As always, thank you for supporting us. This wouldn’t have happened without you. 

Rebecca and Lisa


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The Philosopher Queens: The Cover

Hello wonderful supporters. We can't believe there are now 955 of you!

We thought it was time to give you an update on the exciting goings-on of the team behind The Philosopher Queens. Our biggest announcement is that our publication date has been brought forward from August to 11th June 2020! You will therefore receive your copies in good time for summer holiday reading.

Although this may still seem a while away, we promise you that everything between now and then is going into making the book as perfect as possible. This does mean that the supporters list will be closing around the end of August, so if you know people who have been meaning to pledge, they may want to do so soon. We would love to get to 1,000 supporters before the book goes to press because every new pledge helps Unbound persuade bookshops that The Philosopher Queens is worthy of a spot on their shelves.

In other exciting developments, we are now into the text and cover design stages! When these are ready to share, we will be sending you all a sneak peek.

Lastly, thank you again for your continuous support for our project. This time a year ago TPQ was only a dream in our heads and it is only thanks to you that is has become real.

Much love

Lisa and Rebecca

Publication date, supporters list, and text and cover design

Today we’re very excited to be speaking at the University of Bristol about The Philosopher Queens and the representation of women in philosophy. The first half of the talk looks at data on women and minorities in philosophy, so we thought we would share with you some of the shocking statistics that we found!

<ul>
	<li>In the UK women make up only 29.7% of academic staff in philosophy. That’s less than all non-STEM subjects including economics. It’s even lower than women in parliament which is 32%.</li>
	<li>In the US around 17% of full-time philosopher professors are women and only 1% are Black.</li>
	<li>Even though women make up around 29% of academic staff, a recent study found that only 15% of publications in the top 25 philosophy journals are by women.</li>
	<li>Another study found that 6.3% of all citations in the 500 most-cited articles in four journals belong to the philosopher David Lewis alone—this was twice the number of citations that all women received in the same 500 most-cited articles from those four journals.</li>
</ul>

We created The Philosopher Queens, in part, to help young women believe that they could be philosophers too. But obviously, this can’t all be accomplished with just one book. There’s a really long way to go for women and minorities in philosophy. We hope The Philosopher Queens is just one way of showing why women are so important in the history of our discipline.

If you’d like us to speak at your University or school, check out the ‘Talk’ pledge on our Unbound page. If you’re from a state school, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to discuss alternative arrangements.

Rebecca &amp; Lisa

The Philosopher Queens: The Representation of Women Philosophers

This week we're celebrating International Women's Day! Any new supporters can get 10% off their pledge by using the promo code IWD19 at the checkout.

But we also wanted to give our amazing supporters a little something extra. As you know, we've commissioned an illustration for each chapter of the book. We're very happy to be able to share a sneak peek. 

So here are the first drafts of Ban Zhao and Simone De Beauvoir by our illustrator Emmy Smith (Little by Lupin). They are not quite finished but we just couldn't wait to show them to you all. We hope you love them as much as we do. 

<img alt class="doksoft_image_img" height="500" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0728/3615/3620/files/image1_c6de2401-7114-4d21-8a9b-9f4107c25c20.jpg?v=1690912371" width="313"> <img alt class="doksoft_image_img" height="500" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0728/3615/3620/files/image2_efae9c1a-8841-4a8d-b60e-d84c05ec0fcc.jpg?v=1690912371" width="313">

Happy International Women's Day! 

Rebecca &amp; Lisa

The Philosopher Queens: International Women's Day 2019

It's been nearly a whole year since Lisa first went looking for an introduction to women in philosophy. Over an angry Twitter rant and tea (how we come up with most of our good ideas), we decided to do it ourselves.​

 
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<img alt class="doksoft_image_img" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0728/3615/3620/files/Screenshot_2019-02-03_at_13.47.08.png?v=1690912375" width="500" height="476">

Today, we submitted the full manuscript of The Philosopher Queens.

This book has been written by some incredible women that we have had the absolute privilege of working with. The hard work isn’t quite over yet, but we feel so humbled to have been supported by these writers who have given their time and effort to the project. We could not have done it without them.

This book is also only coming into existence because of our amazing supporters. Thank you again for making this a reality for us and helping to create something which we hope will inspire the future generations of women in philosophy.

Rebecca &amp; Lisa

The Philosopher Queens: Manuscript Submission

Since The Philosopher Queens hit its crowdfunding target in October, you’re probably wondering what we’ve been up to. Needless to say, it’s been a very busy few months.

With the two of us beginning a PhD and a Masters Degree, we’ve been working as hard as we can on the book in any spare time we can find. We’ve now received over half of the chapters from our amazing authors, and most are ready for the manuscript submission at the end of January. This, of course, means lots more hard work for us over Christmas and New Year, but we can’t wait to get this book on your shelves.

We’re also giving lots of talks in schools over the next few months! On Monday, we’re speaking at a school in Reading, and in January we’re speaking at City of London School for Girls. We cannot wait to introduce these students to some of the women that are featured in the book. If you’re interested in us speaking at your school, university, group, or company please do take a look at our ‘Philosophy Talks’ pledge.

Our book is now over 112% funded, with more people discovering the project every week. We wanted to say thank you again to all of you for making this book a reality - we cannot wait to hand in our manuscript and start sending you sneak-peeks of chapters and illustrations.

Happy December!

Rebecca and Lisa

The Philosopher Queens: December Update

On Monday morning, at around 9am, The Philosopher Queens reached its crowdfunding target. After only three weeks of spamming you on Twitter, sending hundreds of emails, and generally shouting the news from the hilltops, we now know that this book will be published. The two of us want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the last few weeks and months. We are so humbled to have the chance to edit this volume and can’t wait for you all to read it. 

So, what happens now?

As the book is fully funded, it goes into production. That means Lisa and I have already started working on the manuscript with our confirmed authors. Because we want this book to hit your postboxes as soon as possible, we’re aiming for a January manuscript hand in. After that our book will go through several stages of editing, plus the development of the illustrations and cover design.

People can still pledge even though the book is fully funded. This means that we can make the book even better. On that note, we have an exciting chapter announcement for you.

Our 19th confirmed chapter is on Ban Zhao, a Chinese philosopher, historian and politician from 45-116 AD. This chapter will be written by Professor Eva Man. Eva is a Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and is interested in Comparative Aesthetics, Neo-Confucian Philosophy, Feminist Aesthetics and Gender Studies.

We will have more exciting chapter announcements very soon. In the meantime, we’ll keep working hard on the manuscript.

The Philosopher Queens: 100%! What Happens Now?

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, so we wanted to take a moment to update you on what’s been happening with The Philosopher Queens. First, a huge thank you to our new supporters (there are now 552 of you!). We are overwhelmed by your generosity in helping us reach the 80% milestone. A special shout-out to Corey Mohler from Existential Comics for publicly supporting the project and helping us spread the word.

On our side, we’ve been working hard to make sure the book will be ready as soon as possible and exploring some additional perks for our supporters if we get past the 100% mark.

We are also very happy to announce one of our final chapters will be…

Diotima to be written by Zoi Aliozi! Diotima was an ancient Greek philosopher who heavily influenced the teachings of Socrates, particularly his philosophy of love. Who wouldn’t want to learn about the woman who influenced the most famous philosopher in history?

Although we’re getting closer to our target, we still have a way to go so it’s important we keep up the momentum. If you’ve been meaning to share the page or have a few people in mind to message, now is the time!

Best wishes

Lisa and Rebeca

The Philosopher Queens: Week Two, Chapter Announcement and 80%!

We wanted to send a quick update to thank you all for your support in our first week of crowdfunding. We reached 30% last night, just before the one week mark, and we couldn’t be happier.

We’ve also had so many pledges from around the world, particularly Canada and New Zealand which is very exciting. We’re not quite sure what happened at the University of Calgary but we have so many supporters from there so thank you!

As we’re nearly a third of the way to reaching 100% if each person who has pledged so far found just two other people to support the book we could finish very soon. Remember, the sooner the book is funded the sooner it will be on your bookshelves.

If you work at a University or have networks in philosophy please do share the page and tell your colleagues. Let’s get this thing funded!

The Philosopher Queens: Week One Complete!

Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged so far and shown their support for the book. We never imagined reaching 20% within the first week and it gives us hope that so many people want this book to exist as much as we do. Please do continue to post and share as much as you can!

Now with the emotional stuff out of the way, we have an exciting announcement for you. Not only is our book written by amazing women, but it’s also being ILLUSTRATED by one! Each chapter of the book will feature an illustration of the Philosopher Queen themselves by the amazing Emmy Smith. 

Emmy Smith (Little by Lupin) is a wonderful artist specialising in digital illustrations of the female form, inclusion and positivity. Expect styling to use pastel tones, patterns, fine lines and hand lettering. We are so excited to have her working on the book. 

Emmy will also be creating our limited edition print which you will get when you purchase ‘the full philosopher’ pledge level. You can check out her other work on her <a href="https://littlelupin.com/">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/littlebylupin/">Instagram </a>or <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/littlebylupin">Etsy</a>.

 


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The Philosopher Queens: We have a little announcement for you…

The history of philosophy has not done women justice: you’ve probably heard the names Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Locke – but what about Hypatia, Arendt, Oluwole and Young? 
The Philosopher Queens is a long-awaited book about the lives and works of women in philosophy by women in philosophy. This collection brings to centre stage twenty prominent women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world.
You’ll learn about Ban Zhao, the first woman historian in ancient Chinese history; Angela Davis, perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American Black Power Movement; Azizah Y. al-Hibri, known for examining the intersection of Islamic law and gender equality; and many more.
For anyone who has wondered where the women philosophers are, or anyone curious about the history of ideas – it's time to meet the philosopher queens.

Introduction


 Most people probably wouldn’t think of Plato’s Republic as a
 work of feminist philosophy. But when Plato proposed that women, as well as
 men, were capable of leading his ideal city-state, he was thinking far
 ahead of his time. He argued that women who were as competent as men should
 be chosen “to serve with them as guardians since they are capable of it and
 akin by nature.” These ‘Philosopher Kings’, as Plato named them, would rule
 over the Republic, providing perfect philosophical enlightenment.


 Over two thousand years later, you would forgive people for assuming that
 men have been doing most of the thinking since then. Women have not seemed
 to fulfill Plato’s great prediction that they were able to become great
 philosophers. Or, at least, that is how the books and philosophy lectures
 today make it look. Books about the history of philosophy have not done
 women justice. In Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers only two women
 feature, with Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir taking the seats
 of honour. The same two share the limelight in Philosophy: The World’s
 Greatest Thinkers, which has space for fifty eight men. You’re beginning to
 sense a theme.


 It is important to note that this gap is not due to a lack of books being
 published about philosophy. On the contrary, texts are being written on
 incredibly broad topics, such as Golf and Philosophy: Lessons from the
 Links, Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington, and last but certainly
 not least, Surfing with Sartre. And yet, very little has been written for a
 general audience to celebrate the work of great women, despite the amazing
 work being done in universities to better understand the lives and works of
 these women. One notable exception was a book written by a great
 philosopher herself, Baroness Mary Warnock (Chapter 15), who wrote Women in
 Philosophy over 20 years ago.


 It is of course true that women have been underrepresented in philosophy,
 and indeed most of academia, because they were historically excluded from
 education. The first four women in the UK to receive degrees in any subject
 graduated in 1880 from University College London. Cambridge University was
 the last institution to allow women to take full degrees in the late year
 of 1947. This institutional exclusion meant that women were prescribed
 roles in society that kept their thinking, and their freedom, to a minimum.


 But this is 2018 and things have certainly improved over the past century.
 More women are taking degrees in philosophy than ever before, with most
 universities seeing more women than men in their undergraduate classes in
 recent years. In spite of this progress, there is still a huge gender
 disparity higher up. There are very few philosophy departments where women
 make up anywhere near fifty percent of faculty staff. In 2015, women made
 up only twenty two percent of Professors at the twenty top US universities.
 In some fields of philosophy, there has been almost no increase in the
 number of women since the 1970s. So, even though more young women are
 taking their first dive into the man’s world of philosophy, this is not
 quickly translating into more women at the top. Likewise, whereas some
 women have secured lectureships and professorships, an overwhelming number
 of them are white. Non-white women are still hugely underrepresented in
 philosophy, with very few senior positions filled by people from minority
 backgrounds. In her New York Times Interview, The Pain and Promise of Black
 Women in Philosophy, Professor Anita L Allen (Chapter 20) noted only one
 percent of full-time philosophy professors are black, whilst around
 seventeen percent are women.


 Studying philosophy at university, we knew that women were underrepresented
 in our discipline. Both of us had only a handful of female lecturers, and
 our classes were dominated by men from hundreds of years ago, as well as
 the men standing before us. A typical philosophy syllabus features almost
 no women whatsoever, with the focus being on the “Philosophical canon”.
 That is: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Hume,
 Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Rawls, to name only a few.
 Women are instead only mentioned briefly, perhaps in reference to a male
 counterpart with whom they worked or had a relationship, or (if you’re
 lucky) as part of a ‘Gender and Philosophy’ module. When attempts are made
 to diversify the curriculum to include different important philosophical
 voices, this is often accompanied by media outcry over “snowflake” students
 and lecturers.


 Despite these frustrations, there is much cause for hope. Outstanding work
 is going on in academic philosophy to reclaim the history of women
 philosophers and ensure that their voices and perspectives are preserved
 for the next generation of thinkers. The Centre for New Narratives in the
 History of Philosophy and Project Vox showcase the work of women
 philosophers from the early modern period. The Society for Women in
 Philosophy runs events and mentoring programmes aimed at promoting women in
 philosophy, past, present, and future. The Centre for the History of Women
 Philosophers and Scientists at Paderborn University, Germany, runs an
 annual summer school, teaching students about the great contribution that
 women have made to the history of thought. The In Parenthesis project at
 Durham University explores and archives the work of the Oxford four: Mary
 Midgley, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Philippa Foot. All of this
 work is helping to break down barriers for women in philosophy, by showing
 that women in this field are far from new. We have, in fact, been
 philosophers all along.


 Unfortunately, there is a long way to go to change popular perceptions of
 philosophy. When creating our promotional video for this book, we asked
 members of the public to name as many philosophers as they could. When they
 all listed off the usual male suspects, we asked whether they could name
 any women philosophers. No one that we surveyed could name a single one.


 This book is an attempt to combat these perceptions. Here we intentionally
 adopt a broad definition of ‘philosopher’. We believe that part of the
 reason that women have been excluded from our subject is because many of
 these thinkers have instead been considered activists at best and ‘learned
 ladies’ at worst. This has led to a conception of the white, male
 philosopher thinking from his arm chair. Instead, it’s time to recognise
 the clear intellectual rigour that make these women worthy of the
 ‘philosopher’ title.


 The authors and subjects in this book come from many different disciplines
 and backgrounds with their own unique ideas, experiences, and histories.
 The philosophers written about here are complex, challenging, often
 inspiring and sometimes deeply problematic, but they all contribute an
 important element to our understanding of philosophy. Some of them you will
 have heard of, and perhaps studied. Others you might encounter for the
 first time in the pages that follow. You can enjoy this book by simply
 selecting chapters that pique your interest or following along
 chronologically, the choice is yours. There have, of course, been many
 women that we have not been able to include. You can find a list of more
 Philosopher Queens at the back of this book. We encourage you to look them
 up and explore for yourself.


 So if you’re considering studying philosophy at university, or just
 interested in women and their ideas, we hope this book will serve as a
 reminder that many Philosopher Queens have come before you and that their
 ideas have shaped the world - women’s as well as men’s.


 Rebecca and Lisa

The Philosopher Queens

The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women

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