Made from this earth : American women and nature / Vera Norwood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Norwood, Vera.

Series:

Gender & American culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women naturalists--United States--History.

Women naturalists.

Women conservationists--United States--History.

Women conservationists.

Ecofeminism.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

xxii, 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [1993]

Summary:

The broad sweep of environmental and ecological history has until now been written and understood in predominantly male terms. In Made From This Earth, Vera Norwood seeks to reclaim the contribution American women have made to the study of nature from the early nineteenth century to the present. Norwood explores the relationship of women to the natural environment through the work of writers, illustrators, landscape and garden designers, ornithologists, botanists, biologists, and conservationists. Norwood begins by showing that the study and promotion of botany was an activity deemed appropriate for women in the early 1800s. After highlighting the work of nineteenth-century scientific illustrators and garden designers, she focuses on nature's advocates such as Rachel Carson and Dian Fossey who differed strongly with men on both women's "nature" and the value of the natural world. These women challenged the dominant, male-controlled ideologies, often framing their critique with reference to values arising from the female experience. Norwood concludes with an analysis of the utopian solutions posed by ecofeminists, the most recent group of women to contest men over the meaning and value of nature.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0807820628

0807843962

OCLC:

26128609