This article1En stor takk til Synnøve des Bouvrie, Ingeborg W. Owesen, Kristin Sampson, Vigdis Songe-Møller, Ingebjørg Seip, Elin Svenneby og Else Wiestad for konstruktive bidrag og svært nyttige innspill til denne artikkelen. I 2014 hadde nærmere én av tre høyere utdanning. Blant folk mellom 25 og 39 år har mer enn halvparten av kvinnene høyere utdanning, noe som gjør denne aldersgruppen til den høyest utdannede i Norge.2Kilde er Statistisk sentralbyrå: https://www.ssb.no/utniv/ [Lesedato 3. oktober 2015]. presents reflections on women's presence in Norwegian philosophy, partly as a result of input from key persons in the Norwegian philosophy environment. We discuss the low proportion of women among students and staff in the field, then we investigate whether gender perspectives are present in the study of philosophy and why women's low participation in the study of philosophy is regarded as a vital challenge.
We argue that awareness of the impact history of categorization of gender is important and it is necessary to examine current direct and indirect stereotypes of gender, rationality and natural properties and their role in Norwegian philosophy today. We identify characteristics of the Norwegian post-war philosophy, such as diversity and openness, power struggles and gender blindness, and argue that women throughout the postwar period and until today been a minority in philosophy.
Our material shows that measures to improve gender balance in philosophy, and attempts to integrate gender perspectives, has met fierce resistance. The article also shows how the study of feminist philosophy and its influence and position in Norway, is well suited to give us a richer and more complex picture of the Norwegian philosophy. It may tell us something about how open-minded or closed the philosophical communities are, but it can also throw light on how philosophy itself plays the role as critical and self-reflective.