Once a powerful social justice movement, ecofeminism has become a little-known philosophy of the past. As the name suggests, ecofeminism is a movement grounded in both ecology and feminism. The primary idea behind ecofeminist philosophy is that the domination, exploitation, and oppression of women is fundamentally linked to the domination, exploitation, and oppression of nature. Ecofeminists believe that this is because women and nature are undervalued by patriarchy and exploited by capitalism, among other things.
Ecofeminists also believe that women have been associated with nature in order to disempower both. For example, women and nature are often described in similar terms, positively and negatively. They are both described as fertile, pure, and life giving, as well as erratic, chaotic, and irrational. These parallels encourage a deeper understanding of the relationship between women and nature.
The main perspective that ecofeminists bring to the ecology discussion is the concept of androcentrism. Deep ecology is a popular ecological philosophy that states that environmental problems are a result of an anthropocentric, or human-centered, perspective, and they can only be solved by prioritizing ecological needs. Ecofeminists argue that the problem is instead androcentrism, because only male needs have historically been prioritized, not all human needs.
Origins
The 1970s brought with it a perfect storm out of which ecofeminism was born. The peace movement, ecology movement, and feminist movement all achieving mainstream popularity during this decade allowed for a movement combining all three: ecofeminism.
How individual ecofeminists came to the movement during this time was varied. Some came from radical feminism, which champions the idea that cultural norms and power structures need to be critically examined and, ultimately, dismantled. For them, ecofeminism made sense as an extension of social justice work toward issues affecting the environment. In this way, ecofeminism was essentially the product of extending intersectionality to include nature. Other radical feminists moved toward ecofeminism as a result of their academic studies. They criticized the Marxist idea that domination is based solely on class by asserting that gender is also a factor that leads to oppression and domination. In this analysis of dominance theory, however, many of these feminists came to realize that nature was another often-overlooked victim of domination.
Other ecofeminists were introduced to the movement through their participation in nature-based, female-centered religions. They felt spiritually connected to nature and to their female deity, and thus were primed to join the ecofeminist movement.
Still others found their way to ecofeminism through academic environmentalism. Most men and women who studied environmental issues and policy were exposed to ecofeminist analysis at some point in their career, and many were impressed with the depth of meaning in ecofeminist philosophy and analysis.
Radical Ecofeminism
By the time ecofeminism had matured in the late 1980’s, two factions had emerged: radical ecofeminism and cultural ecofeminism. Radical ecofeminists generally wanted to dissociate women from nature, in the hopes that this would encourage greater equality between women and men. They disliked how women and nature were regarded as in need of control, and men were regarded as a controlling force. This view can be criticized as further demonizing nature rather than promoting ecological progress.
Cultural Ecofeminism
Cultural ecofeminists, however, encouraged a connection between women and nature. They felt that women were more spiritually connected to nature because of their biological cycles of menstruation, lactation, and pregnancy, and because of traditional anthropological gender roles of women as primary food providers and, therefore, more dependent on nature. Cultural ecofeminists were often the same people who practiced nature-based religions and goddess worship. Unsurprisingly, this view was often criticized as being too essentialist, promoting gender roles that are based on biology and could lead to more sexist stereotyping and oppression.
Non-Western Ecofeminism
While ecofeminism in the U.S. was largely academic and philosophical, women in other countries engaged in more concrete forms of environmental activism.
The Chipko movement in northern India was a major ecofeminist victory in the 1970s. About thirty women in the Himalayas banded together to save over 10,000 square miles of forest. Deforestation in the region had led to flooding, landslides, and soil erosion, and women in particular were affected because they were forced to hike further up the mountains in search of fuel since so many trees had been cut down. To protest, these women literally hugged trees that were marked for chopping and refused to move.
A couple years later, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya marked another ecofeminist breakthrough. Like the women in India, these Kenyan women were faced with massive deforestation in their communities. The Green Belt Movement started out as a local tree planting initiative and has since planted over 51 million trees in an effort to counteract the damaging effects of deforestation.
Further Reading
http://www.britannica.com/topic/ecofeminism
http://home.moravian.edu/public/relig/ecoSpirit/issues/Vol3No2.pdf
http://www.wloe.org/what-is-ecofeminism.76.0.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/ecofeminism.htm
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