Toxic chemicals and their effects on reproduction

In our epoch, industrial chemicals are changing the reproductive bodies of many species: birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, including humans. Disrupting the hormonal flows associated with sex, sexual and caregiving behaviour and reproduction, these chemicals have potentially disastrous implications, scientists and environmentalists claim, for our shared futures. Feminist scientists and ecologists have played important roles in introducing these issues into scientific and popular debate, framing their significance as social and feminist matters of concern and building alliances with Indigenous activists and scholars working on issues of environmental justice. As a set of debates developing over several decades, this work has had impact on the international regulation of chemicals, on environmental health and justice movements and on queer and feminist theorising about sex, gender and embodiment.