Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2020
In this essay, I will argue that contemporary ecofeminist discourse, while potentially adequate to deal with the issue of animals, is now inadequate because it fails to give consistent conceptual place to the domination of animals as a significant aspect of the domination of nature. I will examine six answers ecofeminists could give for not including animals explicitly in ecofeminist analyses and show how a persistent patriarchal ideology regarding animals as instruments has kept the experience of animals from being fully incorporated within ecofeminism.2
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at two conferences: “Ecofeminism: The Woman/Earth Connection,” April 1990, Douglass College (sponsored by the Rutgers School of Law-Newark and Women's Rights Law Reporter), and “Women's Worlds: Realities and Choices, Fourth International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women,” June 1990, Hunter College. Thanks to Karen Warren, Nancy Tuana, Melinda Vadas, Marti Kheel, Batya Bauman, Greta Gaard, Tom Regan, Neal Barnard, and Teal Willoughby for assistance in thinking and writing on this topic.