What does \"ontological\" mean?

In the excerpt from the encyclopedia entry on Feminist Ethics,the authors used the term \"ontological\" in describing thefoundation of the various feminist approaches.

\"Ontology\" is a branch, or field, of Philosophy. In this field,philosophers investigate \"reality\" or \"existence.\"

To do so, they attempt to answer questions like: What is thenature of reality? What exists fundamentally? What is the\"bottom-line\" of all that is?

We can ask these ontological questions about specific things,too, like human beings.

Feminist argue that the ontological question \"What is a humanbeing\" has been answered as if it were actually the question \"Whatis a man?\" In other words, men answered the question about what isreal by examining their experiences andthen universalizing this for all human beings. As a result, womenwere ignored and/or found to be morally deficient.

For example, Aristotle claimed that women had barely enoughreason to handle household matters, like knowing how to keep foodstocked(!). Contrasting men an women, he wrote \"a man would bethought a coward if he were only as brave as a brave woman...\"Politics,1227b.

You can see why feminist thinkers challenged this idea of\"reality.\" They sought to correct the \"ontological status\" of menand women.