Women as Sacred Custodians of the Earth?

Women, Spirituality and the Environment

Alaine Low & Soraya Tremayne

Berghahn Books
New York
2001
English
Paperback
208 pages

Synopsis

Literature on women, development and environment is abundant. The relationship between women and ecology has been analyzed by various disciplines, by specialists from the North as well as the South. This book offers a new perspective, specifically to challenge the assumption that women have a special affinity with the Earth and therefore a historic mission for the care of the environment. The book explores spiritual, religious and philosophical beliefs concerning women and ecology, and whether women are truly "sacred custodians" of the Earth.

Review

The book challenges policy solutions which are devised to be on a global scale and to create unrealistic global aspirations, and the value of targeting women in a particular attempt to achieve environmentally sustainable development.

Authors

Alaine Low has a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford. She has taught and carries out field work in Latin America and is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University.

Soraya Tremayne has a D.Phil. in Social Anthropology from the University of Paris, Sorbonne and currently is the Co-ordinating Director of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group, University of Oxford.