Feminism is a movement that has become increasingly popular recently. Luckily, more women and young girls are happy to speak up about their beliefs on gender equality and an increasing amount of public figures and well-known brands are trying to do their bit to spread feminist messages too.
With more awareness on feminism comes more awareness of the various branches and ideas within feminism- ecofeminism is one of the subcategories that comes within feminism.
Francoise d’Eaubonne first coined the term eco-feminisme in 1974, but what exactly does ecofeminism mean? The name indicates it’s the interlinking of feminism and eco-friendly; but it’s a wonder why they are linked together.
Anyone with half a brain should refer to himself or herself as a feminist and we all should also be aware of how we treat the earth, but it’s not too obvious what is the connection between the two.
Gynosome spoke to Ariel Salleh, a strong supporter and academic writer on ecofeminism, who explained the concept to us. In her text ‘What is Ecofeminist Politics?’ she explains that “the domination of nature is interlinked with men’s exploitation of women, ecofeminists argue that deep cultural changes are needed. The capture and devaluation of women’s sexuality and labour is central to the prevailing economic system”. Ariel says it began in the 60s and 70s when “it was mainly housewives and indigenous women who started protesting over toxic dumps and nuclear weapons”; women have arguably always had a stronger connection to the earth and a desire to protect nature.
Also a Visiting Professor in Culture, Philosophy & Environment, Ariel argues that women get blamed for the damage of the earth when they are not entirely responsible- “while environmental damage results from an economy of competitive over-production, women get blamed for it”. She states that the military is the “world’s main contributor to the degradation of land, air and sea”. Around 15% of the military services are women; so this indicates that men are the main contributor to the damaging of the environment.
According to Ariel “Governments and NGOs, usually operated by powerful men, too often overlook the social, cultural, psychological, and medical context of their decisions”. Many of Ariel’s beliefs align the idea that men are destroying nature with the act of men degrading women. She further argues that a woman’s ecological footprint is much smaller than a man’s and that “women more readily make lifestyle adjustments to minimize energy pollution”.
It seems that the facts do point towards men being more responsible for the destruction of nature. Karen Warren, an ecofeminist and author to more than 40 articles on the subject, has broken down the concept of ecofeminism into a simple theory. She uses the following argument schemas to set out ‘the logic of domination’:
A1. Humans do, and plants and rocks do not, have the capacity to consciously and radically change the community in which they live.
A2. Whatever has the capacity to consciously and radically change the community in which it lives is morally superior to whatever lacks this capacity.
A3. Thus, humans are morally superior to plants and rocks.
A4. For any X and Y, if X is morally superior to Y, then X is morally justified in subordinating Y.
A5. Thus, humans are morally justified in subordinating plants and rocks.
Warren claims that there is an interconnection between the domination of nature by humans and the domination of women by men as this theory can be applied to the way women were viewed in society in earlier history.
Some ecofeminists believe that women are naturally closer to nature, just by being a woman. According to feminist writer, Janet Biehl, “ecofeminists lay claim to this connection with nature as part of being woman. There are quite a few feminists who see the association of woman with nature as totally detrimental to their cause”. This isn’t exactly a lie; a woman’s menstrual cycle has been tied to the lunar cycle since the dawn of time. A woman also carries and gives life to a child, which is often seen as the most natural thing in the world.
Does the fact that our bodies are cyclical mean we women must be closer to nature? Catherine Roach points out, in her book ‘Loving Your Mother: On the Woman-Nature Relation’, “although men do not menstruate, bear children, or breast-feed, they do share all other human biological processes (eating, sleeping, eliminating wastes, getting sick, dying), and in addition, in their ejaculation of semen they have experience of a tangible stuff of the reproduction of life”.
Ecofeminism, when broken down does make sense; and if all feminists united to protect the environment we could make a substantial difference. However there have also been many flaws found within the movement. Susan Feldman, a Professor of Philosophy, argues that the “domination of nature cannot be assimilated to the domination of women”. She expands that “the claim that the domination of nature is wrong in the same way that the domination of women is wrong makes no sense, since (according to Warren’s framework) domination can only be considered to be unjust when the object dominated has a will”.
The domination framework may have been applicable when the feminist movement originated, however women most definitely do have a will and do have the capacity to consciously and radically change the community- feminists have proven this.
To be completely honest, Ecofeminism has proven to be quite confusing. Essentially it makes sense, however a lot of feminists are working hard to stray away from the idea of being ‘man haters’ and are fighting for equality for all- men and women. Some of Ariel’s texts did seem to focus heavily on the blame of men, but it was factually correct.
Feminism is incredibly important, as is being environmentally friendly- linking the two may be confusing but we can’t see any harm with it. Many could argue that sustaining the environment is not just a woman’s cause; but isn’t feminism a humanist matter, not just a woman’s issue?
Would you consider yourself an ecofeminist? Do you have anything you could add to this discussion? Join the debate now!