Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Exploration

Animals and Women is a collection of pioneering essays that explores the theoretical connections between feminism and animal defense. Offering a feminist perspective on the status of animals, this unique volume argues persuasively that both the social construction and oppressions of women are inextricably connected to the ways in which we comprehend and abuse other species. Furthermore, it demonstrates that such a focus does not distract from the struggle for women’s rights, but rather contributes to it.

This wide-ranging multidisciplinary anthology presents original material from scholars in a variety of fields, as well as a rare, early article by Virginia Woolf. Exploring the leading edge of the species/gender boundary, it addresses such issues as the relationship between abortion rights and animal rights, the connection between woman-battering and animal abuse, and the speciesist basis for much sexist language. Also considered are the ways in which animals have been regarded by science, literature, and the environmentalist movement. A striking meditation on women and wolves is presented, as is an examination of sexual harassment and the taxonomy of hunters and hunting. Finally, this compelling collection suggests that the subordination and degradation of women is a prototype for other forms of abuse, and that to deny this connection is to participate in the continued mistreatment of Animals and Women.

"This is an outstanding collection. The authors write expertly on the surprisingly intimate relation between attitudes toward Animals and Women in our culture. From reading their work on pornography, the treatment of ‘laboratory’ animals, hunting, wife-beating, and factory farming I have learned a tremendous amount. This superbly edited volume makes an important contribution to the cause orf animal and human liberation."
—Jane Tompkins, Duke University

 

“The best of feminist animal rights theorizing … reimagines a human relationship to the nonhuman world by locating action and theory in the lived world and moral universe of women’s identity and on the basis of feminist political insights. As a genre, feminist animal rights theorizing thus emerges as one of the sharpest cutting edges of contemporary philosophical and environmental work. Four anthologies encompass the range of this work: a special issue of Hypatia edited by Karen Warren in 1991; Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, edited by Greta Gaard (1993); Carol Adams and Josephine Donovan’s anthology Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations (Adams and Donovan 1995); and a second anthology by the same editors, Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals (Donovan and Adams 1996).”
--Joni Seager, “Rachel Carson Died of Breast Cancer: The Coming Age of Feminist Environmentalism” Signs 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 445-72.

Edited with Josephine Donovan (Duke University Press, 1995)

Table of Contents

Part 1: Sexism/Speciesism: Interlocking Oppression

• Joan Dunayer: Sexist Words, Speciesist Roots

• Lynda Birke : Exploring the Boundaries: Feminism, Animals and Science

• Carol J. Adams: Woman-Battering and Harm to Animals

• Marti Kheel: An Ecofeminist Critique of Hunters' Discourse

• Maria Comninou: Speech, Pornography, and Hunting

• Gary L. Francione: Abortion and Animal Rights: Are They Comparable Issues?

Part 2: Alternative Stories

• Linda Vance: Beyond Just-So Stories: Narrative, Animals, and Ethics

• Karen Davis: Thinking Like a Chicken: Farm Animals and the Feminine Connection

• Diane Antonio: Of Wolves and Women

• Marian Scholtmeijer: The Power of Otherness: Animals in Women's Fiction

• Reginald Abbott: Birds Don't Sing in Greek: Virginia Woolf and "The Plumage Bill"

• Brian Luke: Taming Ourselves or Going Feral? Toward a Nonpatriarchal Metaethic of Animal Liberation

• Susanne Kappeler: Speciesism, Racism, Nationalism... or the Power of Scientific Subjectivity

Bibliography of Feminist Approaches to Animal Issues