Ecofeminism integrates feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyze relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her 1974 book . Ecofeminist theory introduces a feminist perspective to green politics and calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group.
Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism (or materialist ecofeminism). Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art, social justice and political philosophy, religion, economics, contemporary feminism, and literature.
Ecofeminist analysis addresses the political effects of culturally constructed parallels between the oppression of wildlife and the oppression of women. These parallels include, but are not limited to, seeing women and nature as property, seeing men as the curators of culture and women as the curators of nature, and how men dominate women and humans dominate nature. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected.
Worldwide activism Professors of sociology, Maria Mies, Ariel Salleh and Susan Mann all associate the beginning of ecofeminism not with feminists but with women of many historically different backgrounds who have perceived connections between gender, race, class, and environmental issues. The ideal of intersectionality is upheld through the notion that in activist and theory circles marginalized groups must be included in the discussion. However, in early North American environmentalism, the issues of race and class were sometimes separated.
Women have long worked to protect wildlife, food, air and water. These efforts coincided with new developments in environmental theory from writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. Parallel examples from women environmental ethicists were the books Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams.
Ecofeminist Karen Warren lists Aldo Leopold's essay "Land Ethic" (1949) as fundamental to her own ecofeminist philosophy, as Leopold was the first to pen an ethic for the land which understands all non-human parts of that community (animals, plants, land, air, water) as equal to and in a relationship with humans. That inclusive understanding of the environment helped launch the modern preservation movement showing how environmental issues can be viewed through a framework of caring.
In India, in the state of Uttarakhand in 1973, women took part in the Chipko movement to protect forests from deforestation. Many men during this time were moving to cities in search of work, and women that stayed in the rural parts of India were reliant on the forests for subsistence. As documented by Vandana Shiva, Non-violent protest tactics were used to occupy trees so that loggers could not cut them down.
In Kenya in 1977, the Green Belt Movement was initiated by environmental and political activist Professor Wangari Maathai. It is a rural tree planting program led by women, which Maathai designed to help prevent desertification in the area. The program created a 'green belt' of at least 1,000 trees around villages, and gave participants the ability to take charge in their communities. In later years, the Green Belt Movement was an advocate for informing and empowering citizens through seminars for civic and environmental education, as well as holding national leaders accountable for their actions and instilling agency in citizens. The work of the Green Belt Movement continues today.
In 1978 in New York, mother and environmentalist Lois Gibbs led her community in protest after discovering that their entire neighborhood, Love Canal, was built on top of a toxic dump site. The toxins in the ground were causing illness among children and reproductive issues among women, as well as birth defects in babies born to pregnant women exposed to the toxins. The Love Canal movement eventually led to the evacuation and relocation of nearly 800 families by the federal government.
In 1980 and 1981, women like ecofeminist Ynestra King organized a peaceful protest at the Pentagon. Women stood, hand in hand, demanding equal rights (including social, economic, and reproductive rights) as well as an end to militaristic actions taken by the government and exploitation of the community (people and the environment). This movement is known as the Women's Pentagon Actions.
In 1985, the Akwesasne Mother's Milk Project was launched by Katsi Cook. This study was funded by the government, and investigated how the higher level of contaminants in water near the Mohawk reservation impacted babies. It revealed that through breast milk, Mohawk children were being exposed to 200% more toxins than children not on the reservation. Toxins contaminate water all over the world, but due to environmental racism, certain marginalized groups are exposed to a much higher amount.
The Greening of Harlem Coalition is another example of an ecofeminist movement. In 1989, Bernadette Cozart founded the coalition, which is responsible for many urban gardens around Harlem. Cozart's goal is to turn vacant lots into community gardens. This is economically beneficial, and also provides a way for very urban communities to be in touch with nature and each other. The majority of people interested in this project (as noted in 1990) were women. Through these gardens, they were able to participate in and become leaders of their communities. Urban greening exists in other places as well. Beginning in 1994, a group of African-American women in Detroit have developed city gardens, and call themselves the Gardening Angels. Similar garden movements have occurred globally.
At the culmination of the decade, ecofeminism had spread to both USA coasts and articulated an intersectional analysis of women and the environment. Eventually, challenging ideas of environmental classism and racism, resisting toxic dumping and other threats to the impoverished.
In terms of the international movement, Ariel Salleh's book Ecofeminism as Politics (last reprinted in 2017) contains a detailed account of women's ecofeminist actions from Japan and the Pacific to Scandinavia.
Early texts Though the scope of ecofeminist analysis is dynamic and diverse ecofeminist perspectives have emerged from women activists and thinkers all over the world, academic studies of ecofeminism have been dominated by North American universities. Thus, Charlene Spretnak described ecofeminist work developing: 1) through the study of political theory as well as history; 2) through belief and study of nature-based religions; and 3) through environmentalism. In a 1993 essay entitled "Ecofeminism: Toward Global Justice and Planetary Health", authors Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen defined what they call the "ecofeminist framework". The essay provides a wealth of data and statistics in addition to outlining the theoretical aspects of the ecofeminist critique. The framework was intended to establish ways of viewing and understanding the current global crisis so as to better understand how we arrived at this point and what may be done to ameliorate it.
Building on the work of Rosemary Ruether and Carolyn Merchant, Gaard and Gruen argued that there are four forces behind this political framework:
The rise of patriarchal religions and their establishment of gender hierarchies along with their denial of immanent divinity. The mechanistic materialist model of the universe that resulted from the scientific revolution and the subsequent reduction of all things into mere resources to be optimized, dead inert matter to be used. Traditional cultural dualisms based on masculinity v femininity, self v other, humanity v nature, and the inherent power and domination ethic these entail. Capitalism and its intrinsic need for the instrumental exploitation of animals, earth and people for the sole purpose of creating wealth.
These four factors have brought Western cultures to what ecofeminists see as a "separation between nature and culture" that is the root source of our planetary ills.
Some ecofeminist approaches developed out of anarcha-feminist concerns to abolish all forms of domination, including the oppressive character of humanity's relationship to the natural world. According to d'Eaubonne's book Le Féminisme ou la Mort, ecofeminism relates the oppression of all marginalized groups (women, people of color, children, the poor) to the oppression and domination of nature (animals, land, water, air, etc.). She argued that domination, exploitation, and colonization under Western patriarchal society has directly caused irreversible environmental damage. An activist and organizer, d'Eaubonne worked for the eradication of all social injustice, not just injustice against women and the environment.
Influential early texts included: Women and Nature (Susan Griffin 1978), The Death of Nature (Carolyn Merchant 1980) and Gyn/Ecology (Mary Daly 1978), which helped propel the association between domination by men of women and the domination of culture over nature. Meanwhile feminist activism of the 1980s included grass-roots movements such as the National Toxics Campaign, Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), and Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE) led by women devoted to issues of human health and environmental justice. Writing from this circle discussed ecofeminism drawing from Green Party politics, peace movements, and direct action movements. A key figure at this time was Petra Kelly, a founder of the German Green Party.
Gendering nature
A recurring claim within ecofeminist literature is that masculinist structures justify their dominance through binary oppositions, these include but are not limited to: heaven/earth, mind/body, male/female, human/animal, spirit/matter, culture/nature, white/non-white, and abled/disabled. Oppression is reinforced by applying these binaries in social judgements of value/non-value. Ecofeminist theory asserts that capitalism is built on paternalist and masculinist values, such that the effects of capitalism cannot benefit women.
Ecofeminist scholars emphasized that it is not because women are female or "feminine" that they are sensitive to nature, but because they experience oppression by the same masculinist forces. This marginalization is evident in the standard gendered language used to describe nature, such as "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature", and the animalized language used to describe women in derogatory terms. By contrast, other ecofeminists prefer to emphasise the value of women's skills learned from the traditional social role as 'caregiver'.