"... Feminism seeks to enlarge our understanding of nature and the world not just by including feminine experience and explanations, but also by insisting on including those domains of human experience that have been regulated to women: namely the personal, the emotional, the sexual."
This quote underlines the third aspect of the authors "three-storied method" of relating ecology and feminism but I think it is the most relevant and important. The author is highlighting to us that a large part of understanding nature has to come from understanding aspects of feminism that science usually leaves out. Masculine dominated sciences often tend to focus on the hard facts while ignoring the more emotional aspects that are tied to them.
The author says that feminism and ecology are inextricably linked because they have the same perspective. Many scientists attempt to force ecology, like other sciences, to abide by the same hierarchical construct that society does instead of understanding it in its own terms. By this the author means that, like feminism, there are more than simply facts involves and that often times the emotional, personal, and even sexual aspects of nature are overlooked by the hierarchical masculinity of most scientific viewpoints.
Another reason that feminism could help people to better understand ecology is that, while hierarchical views require an inferior alternative, a feminist view understands the nature is not dualist and that there are often times multiple factors and explanations for every event. The conclusion of this piece is that ecology needs the sensitive and personal perspective of feminism to be better understood. The one-sideness that scientists are currently examining the ecological world from impairs their ability to see all the components that ecology is made of.
Do you think that it is important to view science with a feminist eye or are the facts all that matter? What other aspects of science do you think feminism can help us understand?
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