I willl cite two recent examples:
While taking Environmental Ethics, I asked my professor why we didn't read
more from womyn authors. He responded that it is only recently that womyn
have been able to write about such things. He added that now womyn are
just beginning to move up un academia and there work respected. He
comforted me by saying that there will be more included by womyn in the
next few years. My quess is that this professor is in his early to mid
thirties.
I located a web site which has compiled a list of womyn philosophers and
their works. Much to the creators' credit, there is also a search engine.
I entered the word "environment" and recieved 57 references dating from
1961 to 1995. The site is:
http://macserver.ius.indiana.edu.h...ninPhilosophy
Another assignment in my Environmental Science required us to find a
science article from a popular magazine and critique it for presentation
of "hard scientific fact." Wanting to find something specific to womyn
was a difficult task using basic keyword searches. Through an article in
a Social Science journal I was able to locate an article in Ms. Magazine
from the references. I was also able to locate other articles, though
from "mainstream popular" magazines, which also dealt with my topic.
My main point is that whenever I have wanted to find materials
specifically concerning womyn's issues I have had to dig. This may not be
true in other areas of the world or with research tools not available at
my school. There seems to be a lot more available in the social sciences,
health (especially reproduction), and psychology being printed recently.
I have also decided to focus on references which maintain a feminist
perspective, especially difficult in the "hard" sciences. Where older
books or articles are cited, I do an author search for more recent
writings. Unfortunately, I have noticed that many womyn (though not all)
take on more "mainstream" topics as their careers advance. I guess that
leaves room for another generation.
The United Nations, and many of its organizations, has been very rich in
objective fact and full of additional references.
Randi Zimmerman
