Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion

In Women Healing Earth noted theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether brings together illuminating writings of fourteen Latin American, Asian, and African women on the meaning of eco-theological issues in their own contexts – and the implications they have for women in the first world. Ruether has spent the last several years exploring the environmental crisis, the roles of religion and feminists, and what third-world women have to say. Ecofeminists in the North must listen carefully to women in the South since common problems can only be solved by understanding cultural and historical differences. When women of the South reflect on ecological themes, these questions are rooted in life and death matters, not in theory, nor statistics. As Ruether writes, “Deforestation means women walking twice as far each day to gather wood …. Pollution means children in shantytowns dying of dehydration from unclean water”. Impoverishment of the environment equals literal impoverishment for the vast majority of people on the planet. In addressing the intertwining issues of ecology, of class and race, of religion and its liberative elements, Women Healing Earth offers profound insights for all women and men involved in the struggles to overcome violence against women and nature, and to ensure ecological preservation and social justice.