Ecology and constructivism are motivated by broadly shared political aspirations and
subscribe to similar critiques of technocratism, patriarchy. and "instrumental rational
ity." But they diverge considerably in respect to the discourses they offer on "nature."
By staging an encounter between ecological argument and feminist comtructivist theory,
this article seeks to illuminate, and to indicate the means of resolving, the ontological
tensions between these respective critiques of modernity. It recognizes that the constructivist emphasis on the "discursivity" of nature offers an important corrective to the more
simplistic, and potentially reactionary, aspects of ecological rhetoric but defends a realist
perspective as essential to the coherence of any gender theory and politics.
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