ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the strategies that have been successful in combating the "woman problem" in Philosophy, strategies widely criticized by mainstream philosophers. Public campaigns that embrace and indulge the role of the feminist killjoy, often decried as "finger-pointing," "gossip," "social justice bullying," "partiality," and "coddling," have worked. The feminist killjoy, somewhat curiously, is also seen as having incredible power, used to smother self-expression, creativity, free speech, and natural human behavior. Discussions about the women missing from the discipline of Philosophy began as early as the 1980s. There is growing documentation of how Philosophy has created a climate that is anathema to women. The chapter presents three categories of "climate" concerns in Philosophy: hostile climate, uncontroversial harassment, and sexual assault. The blog "What It's Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy" is brimming with demoralizing accounts of microaggressions, macroaggressions, sexual predation, sexual assault, and disenfranchisement. Love is complex and can blossom in unusual ways; relationships and sex and life are messy.
