The canon of the history of Philosophy is very small when compared to literature, and it is rigidly fixed. Furthermore, the traditional application of philosophy is tied to a set of values, methods, and self-definitions which have excluded women. Because philosophical work attributed to women has been devalued, and therefore not included in recognized works, the traditional history of philosophy is a history of men’s ideas. However, because womanless history is a distortion of the past which serves to justify the status quo, women philosophers are challenging mainstream philosophy to cease evaluating itself according to the standards set by men.