...and a somewhat odd interpretation of it by Prof. Schwitzgebel, but it could be I am misunderstanding the data presented. Looking at data on PhDs awarded to women in philosophy, engineering, and physical sciences, he writes:
The overall trend is clear: Although philosophy's percentages are currently similar to the percentages in engineering and physical sciences, the trend in philosophy has flattened out in the 21st century, while engineering and the physical sciences continue to make progress toward gender parity. All the broad areas show roughly linear upward trends, except for the humanities which appears to have flattened at approximately parity.
But what the chart shows is that engineering and physical sciences started well below philosophy in percentage of PhDs earned by women, and the physical sciences have finally caught up to philosophy, while engineering still lags behind philosophy, but has improved over the time period examined. Only if engineering and the physical sciences continue to award more PhDs to women going forward would Schwitzgebel's interpretation make sense. As of now, it may be that all three fields have or will plateau in the 25-30% range. Am I misreading his data?
