Singing in the Fire

Reviews / Votes

Each piece is well written, and the editing retains each woman's voice. An excellent addition to public as well academic collections. * Library Journal * Sexist and racist prejudice are as virulent in the academy as elsewhere. The statistics are familiar but the point is brought home by this collection of autobiographical essays by women philosophers. The contributors are among those who have made it, have found a relatively secure niche in their chosen profession. What they describe is the obstacles they encountered along the way. These range from discriminatory practices that are technically illegal to embarrassing little sexist jokes. What enabled these women to survive is their passion for philosophy and for teaching together with the support of at least one sympathetic soul-colleague, friend, or spouse. Their stories-detailed, circumstantial, and even-tempered-are both informative and moving. (Think of those women, perhaps equally talented, who are less indefatigable or less lucky and who have been left behind!) -- Mary Mothersill, Barnard College These twelve war stories need to be read by young women entering philosophy and veterans alike. We can laugh (at the absurdities of venerable scholars acting as proverbial sexist fools), cry (with the authors as they face painful affronts to their dignity and self-esteem), and celebrate the immense courage of the generation of women who have worked to transform a particularly intransigent segment of academia, and open more doors for women in philosophy. The book is full of both fire and song. It is a book we need today. -- Eva Kittay, professor of philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook I couldn't put down this moving, informative, and often witty collection of essays. They reveal important sources of feminist philosophy in the life experiences of women philosophers, not to mention glimpses of the normal, everyday misogyny that, alas, is still detectable in philosophy departments today, some three decades after the episodes reported here. These essays should be required reading for every graduate student in philosophy, male or female, and for the rest of the profession. -- Sandra Harding, UCLA Singing in the Fire is able to bring women from all across the field of philosophy with completely different life stories together so that more can be learned of them as a whole, while their individual experiences allow the reader to have a greater understanding of who they are and where they come from. It is a great book with so many aspects of the field represented and many useful applications that it is a must for the shelves of all women philosophers, present as well as up and coming. * Dialogue * This superb volume reveals how misogyny and patriarchal normative structures and practices, within the alleged 'ethereal' and abstract field of philosophy, operate to denigrate and sexualize women as objects, rendering their bodies, identities, and concerns incompatible with the demands of the life of the mind. Singing in the Fire is an apt and effective metaphor for this collection of honest personal narratives by prominent women philosophers who forged their philosophical identities with courage, vision, and tenacity. -- George Yancy, professor of philosophy, Emory University In various less spectacular ways than documented by tales of the arrogance and oafishness woman philosophers face, these essays drive home the impact of the autobiographical on the philosophical. When philosophers share the details of their lives, the impact extends to the reader. -- Carlin Romano * The Chronicle of Higher Education * Reading Singing in the Fire: Stories of Women in Philosophy is like attending a great dinner party, where every guest is smart and fascinating, an you stay too late, knowing you'll regret it at work the next day but you don't care, because you want to talk, really talk, to everyone there. * Metapsychology Online *