This is a list of women philosophers ordered alphabetically by surname. Although often overlooked in mainstream historiography, women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field's history. Some notable philosophers include Maitreyi (1000 BCE), Gargi Vachaknavi (900 BCE), Ghosha (800 BCE), Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370–415 CE), Anne Conway (1631–1679), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), Harriet Martineau (1802–1876), Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810–1850), Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904), Vernon Lee (1856–1935), Edith Stein (1891–1942), Ayn Rand (1905–1982), Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), Iris Murdoch (1919–1999), Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001), Mary Midgley (1919–2018), Philippa Foot (1920–2010), Mary Warnock (1924–2019), Joyce Mitchell Cook (1933–2015, the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy), Cora Diamond (born 1937), and Susan Haack (born 1945).

By period

Ancient philosophy

Medieval philosophy

From the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century C.E. to the Renaissance in the 16th century.

Modern philosophy

It is still debated when the Modern period began, but some scholars place 15th and 16th century philosophers into the category of “Early Modern Philosophy”, and those in the 17th through the early 20th centuries into the categories of Modern and “Post Modern” philosophy.

Contemporary philosophy

Alphabetically

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E

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G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W

Z

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