Mary Kate McGowan

Mary Kate McGowan (born 1968) is an American philosopher who is the Luella LaMer Professor of Women's Studies as well as Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. McGowan has written a large number of peer-reviewed articles, contributed three commissioned book chapters, and has co-edited one book: Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech. After receiving her doctorate, McGowan accepted a position as assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which she left to accept a position as assistant professor of philosophy at Wellesley College in 1998. Her more recent work has generalized this phenomenon to settings that are not entirely conversational, arguing that sexist speech, some pornography, and some types of hate speech are much more harmful than are currently recognized, and that this has significant implications in public and legal debates over the limits of free speech.