One of the most powerful feminist works of the late 20th century was Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly. There is nothing fluffy about her perspective. It is a scathing condemnation of the world that men have built. The title itself is provocative and suggests many layers of meaning. Of all those layers, what means the most to me personally is the wonder of nature and the incomprehensibility of what we have done and continue to do to her.

Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade and more recently, The Real Wealth of Nations made a crucial contribution to the feminist literature by showing us that the opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy. In fact, matriarchy is a patriarchal concept. The true opposite is partnership, a harmonious balance between the masculine and feminine, men and women.m Both patriarchy and matriarchy are models in which one group dominates another. This is the antithesis of gyn/ecology.