The University of Copenhagen gets its first female philosophy professor

If you’ve ever been at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) during the summer, you will know how quiet it suddenly gets when students and staff have left for their holidays.

But at the end of a long white corridor in the KUA 2 building, the silence is interrupted by the sound of a printer.

Sabrina Ebbersmeyer appears from behind a wall. She is currently printing a draft of a new book. It is expected to be published in 2025 and is called Shaping Women Philosophers. Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, who is the publisher, has written the introduction and a chapter on the concept of genius and its relation to philosophy. The remaining chapters were written by philosophers from Australia, Canada, the US, and Europe.

»The book is linked to my research project Archaeology of the Female Intellectual Identity, which is about why women historically have been represented in some areas of philosophy, but excluded from others,« says Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, who considers herself a historian of philosophy.

But the book isn’t the only thing she’s been busy with lately. On 21 June, she held her inaugural lecture at the Department of Philosophy.

A very big day, says Sabrina Ebbersmeyer.

In January 2024, she was awarded the title of the first female philosophy professor in the whole of the University of Copenhagen’s 545-year history. A fact that is so tragicomical that it has the professor laughing. It speaks for itself, she says.

»I think the title of professor is appropriate, because it signals that I am an internationally recognised researcher. In fact, I have felt like a professor for a long time with my 30 years of experience, and I have had almost the same tasks as a professor has. So even though the title is different, I’m still the same,« says Sabrina Ebbersmeyer.

At her inaugural lecture, she packed the hall with a talk on why society needs philosophy in the first place, and about the problematic absence of women in the traditional history of philosophy.

A non-academic home

It was by no means a given that Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, who is from a non-academic home, would one day become a philosophy professor.

»It was really strange for my family that I had to study at university at all. The fact that I then chose philosophy was even harder for them to understand. Pride is not a category that is important to me. But if there is one thing that I’m proud of, it is that I stayed true to my values. That I didn’t waiver, or enter into compromises with my self,« she says.

It hasn’t been easy financially either, says the professor:

»I have considered whether I should do research on something that is more up-to-date, because there are more positions and more money. But I did not do it. I have always stayed in the area that I think is the most important and exciting.«

Sabrina Ebbersmeyer initially did her PhD on renaissance philosophy. But when it surprised her time and time again how little had been written about female philosophers through time – that they were actually written out of history – she wanted to write them in again.

She mentions Elisabeth of Bohemia and Birgitte Tott. The former was a German princess from the 1600s who had long exchanges of letters with the founder of modern philosophy René Descartes. Here she had many interesting, critical objections to his thoughts. Birgitte Tott is a complete unknown nowadays. This even though she was internationally known in her time in the 1700s, because she was the first to translate the Roman stoic philosopher Seneca into Danish. In this way she helped in the formation of a Danish philosophical language.

Curiosity, and the interest in philosophy led Sabrina Ebbersmeyer to universities in Berlin, Munich, Würzburg and Princeton.

She came to Denmark from Germany in 2014.

»As a child, I was always on summer vacation by the Danish west coast, so I feel a connection to Denmark. And since positions are rarely advertised in my area, I had to go for it,« says Sabrina Ebbersmeyer with a smile and continues:

»I love the flat hierarchy that exists at Danish universities. That we respect each other as human beings and not for the academic titles you may have. But I do miss the academic life at the German universities, where more people are affiliated to the university without being employed there. And where there were often evening events. In Denmark, there is no culture of staying on after working hours.«

Immanuel Kant: All thinkers have beards

Sabrina Ebbersmeyer is often the only woman at research conferences, university debates, and in the office corridor.

I do miss the academic life at the German universities

Professor Sabrina Ebbersmeyer

She was once invited to a debate organised by students, where she had to debate with her colleagues Søren Gosvig and Klemens Kappel. The two colleagues were situated within the continental and analytical traditions of philosophy, whereas Sabrina Ebbersmeyer is completely outside that dichotomy.

»Just for a bit of fun, I had put a moustache on for the debate. Both to point to the gender imbalance that almost always occurs in debates like this, but which we rarely talk about. But also because Kant once said something along the lines of: ‘if women really had something serious to say, they might just as well have a beard’.«

In 2014, Sabrina Ebbersmeyer became the first female associate professor of philosophy. And in January 2024, she became the first female philosophy professor at UCPH.

In the ten years she has been employed, there have been no positive trends in terms of gender balance at the Department of Philosophy, where three full-time positions have been abolished. Sabrina Ebbersmeyer is the last person to be hired at the Department of Philosophy.

»It’s a bit exhausting being the only woman in a ward. There is a lot you have to deal with subconsciously, like how you communicate and navigate between social codes. This would probably also be the case if you were the only man,« she says, and emphasizes at the same time that she is very fond of her male colleagues:

»We are good at working together, and we support each other. But I do prefer to have both male and female colleagues.«

If you are a female student, stay!

Among the new bachelor’s students on the philosophy programme, 55 per cent are men and 45 per cent are women, but after that the women drop out. At the master’s degree level, 69 per cent are men and 31 per cent are women.

According to Sabrina Ebbersmeyer, when so many women leave philosophy after three years, it is not because of the subject of philosophy per se, but due to academic circumstances.

The professor refers, for example, to the competitive mentality that prevails within the philosophy discipline. And many women, from bachelor’s students to postdocs, have expressed their unease about it for a long time.

»In this discipline, not everyone is comfortable with showing that your own arguments are right, and that others’ arguments are wrong. The students want to feel respected, and they want to invite others to think along with them rather than against them,« she says.

Academic frameworks, historically designed for men’s needs, are changing

Professor Sabrina Ebbersmeyer

Discussion and argumentation are legitimate parts of philosophy of course, the professor argues. But she also believes that you can philosophize by working together to achieve insights.

The professor reckons that the study and working environment at the Department of Philosophy needs to change.

And that transformation has already begun:

»When I started at UCPH, I talked to my colleagues about gender issues in philosophy. We drew up a gender policy and set up a workshop entitled ‘The Gender Agenda in Academic Philosophy’.«

»I have also set up a mentor programme for female students and PhDs to signal that there is space for them, and that they will thrive on the philosophy programme.«

Sabrina Ebbersmeyer emphasizes that it is also necessary to make the composition of the teaching staff more diverse so that more students can reflect themselves in their teaching staff.

Finally, the professor also has one piece of advice for female students who dream of an academic career:

»If you love philosophy, stay! Academic frameworks, historically designed for men’s needs, are changing. Philosophy needs every single woman to come in and change the frameworks so that they also suit their needs.«

When asked how long she thinks it should be before she gets a female professor colleague, the professor laughs:

»I hope it doesn’t take that long. We should not certainly not use the past and the past 545 years as a yardstick«.