ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that women living in rural areas with close direct relations to the natural world may provide unique insights into human interactions with the environment and into feminist theorizing and political action. It examines rural women's relationship with animals to reveal how women benefit from their association with animals, how daily work with animals is gendered, as well as the ways in which symbolic and economic control of animals reinforces patriarchal culture. The chapter analyses ecofeminism, a broader view of women's relationship to nature. Many cultures have adopted the concept of the nurturing mother as a guiding metaphor. During the 1980s, feminists within the environmental movement worried about the lack of attention to women's issues and began to promote the connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature. From an epistemological standpoint, ecofeminists build on the work of feminist critics of science by recognizing the connection between the domination of women and domination of nature.
