Beyond Nature's Housekeepers

From pre-Columbian times to the environmental justice movements of the present women and men frequently responded to the environment and environmental issues in profoundly different ways. Although both environmental history and women''s history are flourishing explorations of the synergy produced by the interplay between environment and sex sexuality and gender are just beginning. Offering more than great women in environmental history this book examines the intersections that shaped women''s unique environmental concerns and activism and that framed the way the larger culture responded. Women discussed include Native Americans colonists enslaved field workers pioneers homemakers municipal housekeepers immigrants hunters nature writers soil conservationists scientists migrant laborers lesbians nuclear protestors and environmental justice activists. As women they fared thought and acted in ways complicated by social political and economic norms as well as issues of sexuality and childbearing. The housekeeping role assigned to women has long been recognized as important in environmental history. But that emphasis ignores the vast range of their influence and experiences. Enslaved women left to do the fieldwork in disproportionate numbers used their environmental knowledge to subtly undermine their masters hastening the coming of the Civil War. Many pregnant women faced with childbirth on the western trails eyed frontier environments with considerable apprehension. In more recent times lesbians have created alternative environments to resist homophobia and in many economically disadvantaged communities women have been at the forefront of the fight against environmental racism.Women are not always the heroes in this story as when the popularity of hats lavishly decorated with feathers brought some bird species to near extinction. For better and sometimes for worse women have played a unique role in the shaping of the American environment. Their stories feature vibrant characters and shine a light on an underappreciated often inspiring and always complex history.