Feminist Perspectives on Environment and Society

Citation:

Littig, Beate. 2001. Feminist Perspectives on Environment and Society. London: Routledge.

Author: Beate Littig

Annotation:

Summary:
“Feminist perspectives, or gender issues, are rarely dealt with explicitly in environmental sociology (Die Grünen 1987; Schultz and Weller 1995; Schultz 1998). The specific effects of certain environmental measures on women, or the study of specific female practices, form, at most, only apart of more general studies; for instance, representative surveys that try to compare the level of environmental consciousness between men and women. Nor is feminist theory much concerned with questions of environmental sociology - at any rate, the effects of equal rights policies or welfare regimes or of reproductive work on the environment are hardly ever discussed. Nevertheless, in specific feminist fields of study - for example, feminist analysis of housing and traffic planning - environmental effects play an important part. Falling between environmental sociology and feminist theory one may find the so called ecofeminism. This is concerned with the destructive relationship between society and the environment based on a radically feminist analysis of patriarchy, which challenges both environmental sociology and feminist theory. This hook offers a critical overview of the sociological and feminist discussions dealing with the interrelationships of environment and society. Based on this critique I will propose a new feminist approach to investigate environmental problems which I call gender-sensitive socio-ecological research, combining both gender studies and environmental studies” (Littig 2001, 2).

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy

Year: 2001