The purpose of this society for women in philosophy is to make things a bit easier, to give our current female undergraduates a better chance of succeeding as well as their male counterparts; and to give those of us who struggle in our jobs for promotion or recognition a forum where we can get together and help each other. More specifically, this society aims to foster exchanges between women philosophers studying or working in the field in Turkey, but also to involve Turkish women studying or working in philosophy abroad who want to stay in touch with developments here. To this end we intend to instigate an annual SWIP-TR conference, where any woman philosopher can submit a paper and, after a process of blind refereeing, present this paper. In time, we also want to hold workshops, e.g. on professional development for graduate students, and set up a mentoring scheme, so that younger members of the profession may benefit from the experience of others and learn about funding opportunities. We also aim to create links with SWIP groups in other countries, so as to facilitate the international networking of our members.
A further, related aim of SWIP-TR is to raise the profile of women philosophers working in Turkey, as well as the profile of the profession in Turkey as a whole, and to encourage and support female undergraduates and post-graduates to continue in the profession in Turkey. In other words, the aim is not merely to support those already active in philosophy in Turkey, but also to improve the standing of the profession in Turkish society as a whole.
SWIP-TR aims to be non-partisan as concerns areas of study within philosophy, e.g., analytic or continental, ancient or modern, etc., and as concerns political orientation. The main aim is to provide a forum for women involved in philosophy on a professional level without further prejudging or stipulating the nature of this involvement. The aim is also as much as possible to foster co-operation between women philosophers in Turkey and beyond, in order to provide a mutually supportive and enjoyable atmosphere in which to exchange ideas, to provide feedback on and to critique each others' work, to learn from and support one another.
