This is a list of women philosophers ordered alphabetically by surname. While the vast majority of major philosophers have been male, there are a number of influential female philosophers. Women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field's history. While there were women philosophers since the earliest times, and some were accepted as philosophers during their lives, almost no woman philosophers have entered the philosophical Western canon. According to Eugene Sun Park, "[p]hilosophy is predominantly white and predominantly male. This homogeneity exists in almost all aspects and at all levels of the discipline." Some notable philosophers include Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 370-415 AD), Anne Conway (1631-1679), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001), Mary Warnock (born 1924) and Susan Haack (born 1945).
Maitreyi (later Vedic period)
Gargi Vachaknavi (born about 700 BC)
Theano of Croton (6th century BC)
Aristoclea of Delphi (6th century BC)
Aspasia of Miletus (approx. 470–400 BC)
Arete of Cyrene (4th century BC)
Sosipatra of Ephesus (4th century BC)
Hipparchia of Maroneia (4th century BC)
Nicarete of Megara (flourished around 300 BC)
Catherine of Alexandria (282–305)
Ptolemais of Cyrene (3rd century BC)
Aesara of Lucania (3rd century BC)
Diotima of Mantinea (appears in Plato's Symposium)
Ban Zhao (c. 35–100)D2
Xie Daoyun (before 340–after 399)
From the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century C.E. to the Renaissance in the 16th century.
Hypatia (5th century AD)
Aedesia of Alexandria (5th century AD)
Héloïse d'Argenteuil (1090–1164), contributed to the ethical thought of Peter Abelard.
Marguerite Porete (1250-1310)
Tullia d'Aragona (c. 1510–1556)
Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)
Moderata Fonte (1555–1592), critic of religion, feminist
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), German abbess, composer, and philosopher.
The seventeenth and early twentieth centuries roughly mark the beginning and the end of modern philosophy.
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), political theoristC O R W
Mary Astell (1666–1731)A B C D1 D2 R
Laura Bassi (1711–1778), philosopher and physicist
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891)
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921)D2
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930)W
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673)A B C R
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749)R
Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679–1749)A B C R W
Anne Conway (1631–1679)A B C D1 O R W
Helene von Druskowitz (1856–1918)
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819–1880)G R
Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680)A B C R
Sor Juana (1648–1695)
Edith Stein (1891-1942)
Felicia Nimue Ackerman (fl. 2014)
Marilyn McCord Adams (born 1943)O
Alia Al-Saji (fl. 2014)
Lilli Alanen (born 1946)
Linda Martín Alcoff (born 1955)
Amy Allen (fl. 2014)
Alice Ambrose (1906–2001)
Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861–1937)
Julia Annas (born 1946)
G. E. M. Anscombe (1919–2001)C O R W
Louise Antony (fl. 2014)
Nomy Arpaly (fl. 2014)
Babette Babich (born 1956)
Annette Baier (1929–2012)O
Dorit Bar-On (fl. 1990)
Marcia Baron (fl. 2014)
Nancy Bauer (born 1960)
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), author, feministD1 O R W
Helen Beebee (fl. 2014)
Seyla Benhabib (born 1950)
Peg Birmingham (fl. 2014)
Susanne Bobzien (born 1960)
Samantha Brennan (fl. 1997)
Janet Broughton (fl. 2014)
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (fl. 2014)
Inga Bostad (born 1963), Norwegian philosopher and educator
Judith Butler (born 1956)
Joan Callahan (professor emerita, 2011)
Elisabeth Camp (fl. 2014)
Nancy Cartwright (born 1944)O
Ruth Chang (fl. 2014)
Patricia Churchland (born 1943)C
Hélène Cixous (born 1937)R
Alice Crary (fl. 2014)
Ann Cudd (fl. 2014)
Chris Cuomo (fl. 2014)
Izydora Dąmbska (1904–1983)
Peggy DesAutels (fl. 2014)
Penelope Deutscher (fl. 2014)
Heather Douglas (born 1969)
Raya Dunayevskaya (1910–1987)
Dorothy Edgington (born 1941)
Frances Egan (fl. 2014)
Dorothy Emmet (1904–2000)
Carla Fehr (fl. 2014)
Carrie Figdor (fl. 2014)
Gail Fine (fl. 2014)
Juliet Floyd (fl. 2014)
Philippa Foot (1920–2010)C O W
Nancy Fraser (born 1947)
Marilyn Frye (born 1941)
Ann Garry (fl. 2014)
Tamar Gendler (born 1965)
Margaret Gilbert (born 1942)
Mary Louise Gill (fl. 2014)
Kathryn Gines (fl. 2014)
Lydia Goehr (fl. 2014)
Patricia Greenspan (fl. 2014)
Germaine Greer (born 1939)
Marjorie Grene (1910–2009)
Susan Haack (born 1945)W
Ruth Hagengruber (born 1958)
Käte Hamburger (1896–1992), literary scholar
Donna Haraway (born 1944)
Sandra Harding (born 1935), feminist
Sally Haslanger (fl. 2014)
Jane Heal (born 1946)
Virginia Held (born 1929)
Ágnes Heller (born 1929)
Jeanne Hersch (1910–2000)
Mary Hesse (1924-2016)
Pamela Hieronymi (fl. 2014)
Jennifer Hornsby (born 1951)O
Susan Hurley (1954–2007)
Rosalind Hursthouse (fl. 2014)
Luce Irigaray (born 1930)C O R
Jenann Ismael (fl. 2014)
Alison Jaggar (fl. 2014)
Susan James (born 1951)
Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins (fl. 2014)
Barbara Johnson (1947–2009)
Patricia Kitcher (born 1948)
Eva Kittay (fl. 2014)
Martha Klein (retired 2006)
Martha Kneale (1909-2001)
Helen Knight (1899–1984)
Sarah Kofman (1934–1994)
Christine Korsgaard (born 1952)
Julia Kristeva (born 1941)C O R
İoanna Kuçuradi (born 1936)
Jennifer Lackey (fl. 2014)
Susanne Langer (1895–1985)O R W
Rae Langton (born 1961)
Thelma Z. Lavine (1915–2011)
Michèle Le Dœuff (born 1948)O R
Hilde Lindemann (fl. 2014)
Sharon Lloyd (fl. 2014)
Helen Longino (born 1944)
Béatrice Longuenesse (born 1950)
Penelope Maddy (born 1950)
Ruth Barcan Marcus (1921–2012)C O
Noëlle McAfee (fl. 2014)
Alison McIntyre (fl. 2014)
Margaret MacDonald (1907–1956)
Mary Kate McGowan (fl. 2014)
Susan Mendus (born 1951)
Christia Mercer (fl. 2014)
Mary Midgley (born 1919)W
Ruth Millikan (born 1933)O
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)O W
Nancey Murphy (born 1951
Jennifer Nagel (graduated 1990)
Uma Narayan (born 1958)
Susan Neiman (born 1955)
Nel Noddings (born 1929)
Kathryn Norlock (born 1969)
Martha Nussbaum (born 1947)C O
Peg O'Connor (born 1965)
Onora O'Neill (born 1941)O W
Maria Ossowska, (1896–1974)
Ayn Rand (1905–1982)
Janet Radcliffe Richards (born 1944)O
Rosemary Radford Ruether (born 1936)
Yvanka B. Raynova (born 1959)
Helena Roerich (1879–1955)
Avital Ronell (born 1952)
Amélie Rorty (born 1932)
Renata Salecl (born 1962)
Debra Satz (fl. 2015)
Jennifer Saul (fl. 2014)
Susanna Schellenberg (born 1974)
Naomi Scheman (fl. 2014)
Londa Schiebinger (born 1952), feminist
Sally Scholz (born 1968)
Ofelia Schutte (professor emerita, 2012)
Lisa H. Schwartzman (born 1969)
Nancy Sherman (fl. 2014)
Seana Shiffrin (fl. 2014)
Vandana Shiva (born 1952), feminist
Laurie Shrage (born 1953)
Susanna Siegel (fl. 2014)
Alison Simmons (born 1965)
Dorothy Smith (born 1926)
Holly Martin Smith (fl. 2014)
Nancy Snow (fl. 2014)
Miriam Solomon (fl. 2014)
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942)
Susanne Sreedhar (fl. 2014)
Susan Stebbing (1885–1943)W
Edith Stein (1891–1942), pedagogueD1
Helene Stöcker (1869–1943), feminist, sexual reformer
Anita Superson (fl. 2014)
Judith Jarvis Thomson (born 1929)C O W
Valerie Tiberius (fl. 2014)
Kate Tickel (born 1981)
Lynne Tirrell (fl. 2014)
Margaret Urban Walker (fl. 2014)
Georgia Warnke (fl. 2014)
Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock (born 1924)O
Simone Weil (1909–1943), critical marxistC D1 O R
Elsie Whetnall (1897–c.1998)
Jennifer Whiting (fl. 2014)
Jessica Wilson (fl. 2014)
Margaret Dauler Wilson (1939–1998)
Charlotte Witt (born 1951)
Monique Wittig (1935–2003)
Susan Wolf (born 1952)
Ursula Wolf (born 1951)
Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976)
Alison Wylie (born 1954)
Naomi Zack (fl. 2014)
Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (born 1946)
Ewa Ziarek (fl. 2014)
Alenka Zupančič (born 1966)
