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Feminism
Gender
Profession

Why does it seem that everything that I read in philosophy always uses "she" or "her" instead of "his" or "he"?

A suggestion: let's use the plural indefinite "they", like we all do when we're talking: "If anyone wanted the last piece of cake, they should have spoken up." That's what I do, but I have to have fights with editors about it.
Profession

How much does a philosopher read per day? How long do you read each day?

This varies enormously from person to person, and from day to day., and on how hard the material is. When I'm working intensively on a paper, or trying to develop a new course, I might read one or two very challenging articles a day, or I might try to "blitz" through the relevant literature and read four or five. It generally takes me a week or so to read an entire academic philosophy book. If I'm developing a new course, I'll try to read six or seven pieces for every one I assign (exclusive of essays I know I want students to read.) Then there are novels and political magazines and knitting books The New Yorker . I read about one of these every week. My line is that I'm engaging with popular culture in a way that will ultimately enrich my philosophy Some philosophers, like David Chalmers, read about 17books a day. Linguist and political critic Noam Chomsky writes about 17 books a day.
Profession

This is kind of a counterfactual question. If the atmosphere in the past had been made more inviting to women would we presently have knowledge that we do not have at present? We all know I think that sensitivities enter and often create philosophy along with poetry. Some sensitivities have been left on the sidelines, just how heavy a price have we paid for this? Is it presently even productive to ask such a question? James Ont, Canada

Many feminist philosophers have argued that a lot would be different if women had been equally involved with men in the generation of knowledge. These philosophers contend that science, philosophy, and other branches of knowledge are both incomplete and distorted for having neglected the perspectives of, not only women, but all socially marginalized people. They argue that social stratification, rather than inherent differences in the way men and women think, produces distortions of perspective that influence the way theories are conceived, developed, and tested, and that affect even the way we think about what knowledge is. Other feminist philosophers, like myself, take a alightly different view. We agree that social stratification has had many bad consequences for human knowledge, the worst being the way institutionalized science has increasingly come to serve the needs of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the most vulnerable members of our human community. But we don't...