Rachel Carson's Legacy: Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Gender Concerns

Abstract

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring ignited a controversy over synthetic chemical residues, which illustrates several important elements of gender in Carson's legacy. First, Carson's approaches in Silent Spring challenged traditional gender stereotypes. Second, the reception to Silent Spring reveals assumptions about gender that influenced the ways in which Carson's critics understood human and environmental health. Finally, endocrine disrupting chemicals had the potential to disrupt sexual differentiation in exposed animals. Two of Carson's core insights – the trans generational effects of synthetic chemicals and the ecological context of human health – have continuing relevance for understand ing the environmental and human health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals.