Philosophy as a Profession

Data on the Profession
Selected Demographic Information
on Philosophy Ph.D.'s, 1995

People who held Philosophy Ph.D.’s comprised 7% of all those who held humanities Ph.D.’s in the U.S. in 1995, approximately 8300 out of a total of 113,700.

Among all the fields in the humanities – History, Art History, Music, Philosophy, English/American Language/Literature, Classics, Modern Language/Literature and Other (including Linguistics, American Studies, etc.) – Philosophy was the most disproportionately male. Of the 8300 Ph.D.’s, 82.6% were male and 17.4% female. The average for all fields was 64.6% male and 35.4% female. This average reflects the fact that Art History was predominantly female (58.6%), but the closest to Philosophy was History, which was 78.7% male.

Far more women than men with Philosophy Ph.D.’s were employed part-time. Of men, 94.4% were employed full-time and 4.6% part-time; of women, 79.4% were employed full-time and 19.2% part-time. This sort of disparity was present, though somewhat less pronounced in other fields. On average, 92.1% of male Ph.D.’s in the humanities are employed full-time as compared to 84.4% of female Ph.D.’s, while 6.6% of male Ph.D.’s are employed part-time as compared to 12.7% of female Ph.D.’s.

Philosophy Ph.D.’s who are employed in the academy are more likely to be tenured than those in other fields of the humanities. Of the 5900 Philosophy Ph.D.’s who are academically employed, 66.4% are tenured. The average for all fields is 61%.

This data, together with information about age, occupations, salary and publication, may be found in Ingram, L. and P. Brown, Humanities Doctorates in the United States: 1995 Profile (Washington DC National Academy Press 1997).