FOOD FOR THOUGHT: WOMEN, ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (New York: Harper & Row, 1980) ("The ancient identity of nature as a nurturing mother links women's history with the history of the environment and ecological change. The female earth was central to the organic cosmology that was undermined by the Scientific revolution and the rise of a market-oriented culture in the early modern Europe. The ecology movement has reawakened interest in the values and concepts associated historically with the premodern organic world. The ecology model and its associated ethics makes possible a fresh an critical interpretation of the rise of modern science in the crucial period when our cosmos ceased to be viewed as an organism and became instead a machine." "Both the women's movement* and the ecology movement are sharply critical of the costs of competition, aggression, and domination arising from the market economy's modus operandi in nature and society. Ecology has been a subversive science in its criticism of the consequences of uncontrolled growth associated with capitalism, technology, and progress--concepts that over the last two hundred years have been treated with reverence in Western culture. The vision of the ecology movement has been to restore the balance of  nature disrupted by industrialization and overpopulation. It has emphasized the need to live with the cycles of nature, as opposed to the exploitative, linear mentality of forward progress. It focuses on the costs of progress, the limits to growth, the deficiencies of technological decision making, and the urgency of the conservation and recycling of natural resources. Similarly, the women's movement has exposed the costs for all human beings of competition in the marketplace, the loss of meaningful productive economic roles for women in early capitalist society, and the view of both women and nature as psychological and recreational resources for the harried entrepreneur-husband." "It is not the purpose of this analysis to reinstate nature as the mother of humankind but to advocate that women reassume the role of nurturer dictated by that historical identity. Both need to be liberated from the anthropomorphic and stereotypic labels that degrade the serious underlying issues. [] Nor an I asserting the existence of female perceptions or receptive behavior. My intent is instead to examine the values associated with the images of women and nature as they relate to the formation of our modern world and their implications for our lives today." Id. at xvi-xvii. *Obviously, since the book is dated 1980 it may not quite apply to the current wave (for example, the 'Lean-In" wave) of the women's movement.).