I drink, therefore I am – a female perspective

Dec 11 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

Philosophy gets a woman’s touch. Laura Davis reports

IN THE same year that the weary midwife brought the first child of her own into the world, a second baby was born, this time a girl, with the same remarkable abilities as her son.

During the 70 years between that celebratory day of his birth and his execution by a draught of hemlock, Socrates would build a reputation as a great philosopher that would keep his name alive for the next 2,000 years.

His followers, Plato and Xenophon among them, would inspire later generations of thinkers who would go on to motivate others, and so on through the centuries until we reach the present day and a group of modern philosophers who meet in pubs.

For the past five years, they have discussed the meaning of life and other issues, in watering holes across Merseyside, until they realised the one topic that was particularly pertinent to their existence: Why did so few women come to their gatherings?

For as long as there have been male philosophers, there have been female ones, too – from Aspasia, courtesan to the Athenian statesman Pericles, who was born in the same year as Socrates, to Simone de Beauvoir, long-term partner of French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.

So there must be a reason other than inferior intellect or debating skills that was deterring women from joining the group.

“We contacted women who had come along in the past and then stopped coming and asked them why,” says 48-year-old Sheila Culshaw, a member of the Philosophy in Pubs movement, that breaks down into six different groups across Merseyside.

“None of them had specific reasons like ‘it wasn’t very friendly’ or ‘it was very male dominated’; they were saying things like ‘I am intending to come back, I just haven’t got round to it’.”

Perhaps this is one of the great mysteries of the universe, along with the Fibonacci sequence and why there is only one word for thesaurus.

Not to be deterred by the lack of answers, Philosophy in Pubs went straight to finding the solution.

“We had several meetings with women who were already involved and we explored ways of encouraging more women to come,” explains Sheila, a community investment consultant from Toxteth.

“We’ve tried things like buddying up with other women, following up with a phone call, and each group then had a key woman they could contact.

“It just grew from there and we decided that maybe the best way to attract women would be to have a wider enquiry on female philosophers or women who’d had a great impact on society. It generated a lot of interest.”

So a female-orientated group was set up, with the first meeting taking place in the Monroe Pub, on Duke Street, in Liverpool city centre. Men are allowed, but the subject under discussion always has to have a female angle.

At the first meeting, the topic was 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of the author Mary Shelley. The evening took the usual Philosophy in Pubs format of one member giving a short presentation on the subject before everyone divides into small teams for discussion.

“We decide enquiry subjects from the wider groups, but this will be a bit different because if people are particularly interested in a subject and we want to take an enquiry further we’ll do a Sunday breakfast meeting.

“In our first meeting, we look- ed at how Mary Wollstonecraft lived her life and what her ideas were and how they impacted on the women who came after her,” explains Sheila, a mother-of -one who became involved with Philosophy in Pubs through knowing one of the group founders from when studying psychology at university.

“The part I become interested in is the history of the person we’re looking at and what might of influenced them to think the way they did.

“Philosophy is just something I’m interested in and I found it really stimulating talking about something other than what was on telly last week.”

FOR further information, visit www.philosophyinpubs.org.uk

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk

How many of these great female thinkers have you heard of? >>>