Why Is It “Mother” Nature?

Why is it "Mother" Nature—not Father, not Uncle, not Grandpa? Why are women perceived to be closer to nature and men more in touch with culture?



Interesting question, but somewhat complicated to explore and explain. Let’s continue with another question: What do Rachel Carson, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Margaret Murie, Wangari Maathai, and Lois Marie Gibbs have in common? Answer: All were women who fought to save the environment—or Mother Nature—in one way or another: Carson and the fight against DDT, Douglas and the conservation of the Everglades, Murie with the Alaskan wilderness, Maathai and saving trees in Africa, and Gibbs in her work to draw attention to the contamination of Love Canal.



Women notice problems in the environment more quickly than men, one reason because of their physical bodies. Many dangerous chemicals are stored in fatty tissue—like the breasts—and so women are often the "canary in the coal mine" when it comes to contamination. Breast cancer rates rise. Miscarriage numbers increase. Children get birth defects. And women see these things up close because that’s where their focus is.



And for the sake of their children, women know that problems in the environment can’t wait for money or politics or a more convenient time.



Women have been the defenders of the planet also because their traditional roles have put them in charge of the family. Finding food and clean drinking water for their husbands and children has preoccupied the lives of many women, especially those in developing countries. If it used to be a twenty-minute walk to find fresh water and good firewood, and five years later it’s a two-hour walk, women notice because they’re probably the ones walking. And it’s not something you can avoid: Mothers and wives can’t say, "Oh, let’s just go without water and cooked food today."



We seem to try awfully hard to avoid our connection to nature, despite our dependence on it. Our general estrangement from nature probably began around 4500 BC, when the nature-based religion with a Goddess figure of the Earth was replaced with a thunderbolt God of the sky. One problem in this transition is that once nature is no longer perceived as sacred, people find it much easier to subdue and misuse the Earth for personal gain and political power. But women have had to interact and make that connection: their families depend on their connection to Mother Earth.



Perhaps it’s time to turn to Mother Earth again—if not to worship her, at least to understand the intricate ways in which our survival is linked to hers.