Environment

Rachel Carson Died of Breast Cancer: The Coming of Age of Feminist Environmentalism

Citation:

Seager, Joni. 2003. “Rachel Carson Died of Breast Cancer: The Coming of Age of Feminist Environmentalism.” Signs 28 (3): 945–72.

Author: Joni Seager

Abstract:

To discuss the state of feminist environmentalism, discussion opens with an examination of ecofeminism. Arguing that debates surrounding ecofeminism have exhausted their intellectual & political returns, recent feminist environmental scholarship on animal rights, public health, & global political economy is reviewed. Some remarks are then offered on the "population question," particularly with respect to how environmental policy is underpinned by the blaming of poor, minority, & non-Euro-American women for global environmental ills; the critical feminist environmentalist literature on populationism is briefly touched on. 

Topics: Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Health, Rights Regions: Americas Countries: United States of America

Year: 2003

Good-Natured Feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy

Citation:

Sandilands, Catriona. 1999. Good-Natured Feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Author: Catriona Sandilands

Annotation:

Summary:
Heroic mothers defending home and hearth against a nature deformed by multinationalist corporate practice: this may be a compelling story, but it is not necessarily the source of valid feminist or ecological critique. What’s missing is the democratic element, an insistence on bringing to public debate all the relations of gender and nature that such a view takes for granted. This book aims to situate a commitment to theory and politics—that is, to democratic practice—at the center of ecofeminism and, thus, to move toward an ecofeminism that is truly both feminist and ecological. The Good-Natured Feminist inaugurates a sustained conversation between ecofeminism and recent writings in feminist postmodernism and radical democracy. Starting with the assumption that ecofeminism is a body of democratic theory, the book tells how the movement originated in debates about “nature” in North American radical feminisms, how it then became entangled with identity politics, and how it now seeks to include nature in democratic conversation and, especially, to politicize relations between gender and nature in both theoretical and activist milieus. (Summary from ProQuest)

 

 

 

 

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender Regions: Americas, North America

Year: 1999

Embodied Materialism in Action

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel. 2017. “Embodied Materialism in Action.” Multitudes 67 (2): 37–45.

Author: Ariel Salleh

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
In this 2010 interview, Ariel Salleh presents her version of ecofeminism: an “embodied materialism” which refuses postmodernism—a servant of neoliberalism in her view—and which attempts to reconstruct the suspected notions of woman and nature. She unfolds the political implications of this position on various topics (ecological and post-colonial debts, agro-industry, etc.), and justifies her hope to see the class of “meta-industrial workers” launch a just and sustainable alternative to globalization. 

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
Dans cet entretien réalisé en 2010 pour la revue canadienne Poligraph, Ariel Salleh expose sa version de l’écoféminisme : un « matérialisme incarné » qui refuse le postmodernisme, valet du néolibéralisme à ses yeux, et cherche à reconstruire les notions décriées de femme et de nature. Elle en développe les implications politiques sur divers sujets d’actualité (dette écologique et postcoloniale, agro-industrie…) et justifie l’espoir qu’elle place dans la classe des « travailleurs méta-industriels » pour impulser une alternative juste et soutenable à la mondialisation.

Topics: Agriculture, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Women

Year: 2017

Deeper Than Deep Ecology: The Eco-Feminist Connection

Citation:

Salleh, Ariel. 1984. "Deeper Than Deep Ecology: The Eco-Feminist Connection." Environmental Ethics 6 (4): 339–345.

Author: Ariel Salleh

Abstract:

This chapter offers a feminist critique of deep ecology as presented in the seminal papers of Ame Naess and Bill Devall. It outlines the fundamental premises involved and analyzes their internal coherence. Not only are there problems on logical grounds, but the tacit methodological approaches of the two papers are inconsistent with the deep ecologists’ own substantive comments. It discusses these shortcomings in terms of a broader feminist critique of patriarchal culture and points out some practical and theoretical contributions which eco-feminism can make to genuinely deep ecology problematic. 

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

Year: 1984

New Woman, New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation

Citation:

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. 1995. New Woman, New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press.

Author: Rosemary Radford Ruether

Annotation:

Summary:
First published in 1975, New Woman, New Earth explores the connections between sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, environmental destruction, and other forms of domination. Long ahead of its time, it remains an unparalleled introduction to women's studies and the feminist critique of religion. (Summary from Google Books)

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Race, Religion

Year: 1995

Ecofeminism at the Crossroads in India: A Review

Citation:

Rao, Manisha. 2012. “Ecofeminism at the Crossroads in India: A Review.” DEP - Deportate, Esuli, Profughe 20 (12): 124–42.

Author: Manisha Rao

Abstract:

A large and growing body of literature on ecofeminism in the West relates gender and environment mainly in ideological terms. In India however, growing protests against environmental destruction and struggles for survival and subsistence point to the fact that caste, class and gender issues are deeply interlinked. In this paper, I will look at the main tenets of ecofeminism and the critiques that have been leveled against them. Then I will try to contextualize this debate within the Indian environmental movement and highlight the interconnections of caste, class and gender issues in it. Further I would attempt to see whether the issue of environment has been taken up by the Indian women’s movement. If not, whether the women’s movement would benefit and become more broad-based by taking up the issues that concern women of different caste and class. At the same time, whether the Indian environment movement would benefit by taking up a feminist perspective.

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2012

Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology

Citation:

Oksala, Johanna. 2018. “Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology.” Hypatia 33 (2): 216–34.

Author: Johanna Oksala

Abstract:

This article critically assesses the different ways of theoretically connecting feminism, capitalism, and ecology. I take the existing tradition of socialist ecofeminism as my starting point and outline two different ways that the connections among capitalism, the subordination of women, and the destruction of the environment have been made in this literature: materialist ecofeminism and Marxist ecofeminism. I will demonstrate the political and theoretical advantages of these positions in comparison to some of the earlier forms of theorizing the relationship between women and nature, but I will also submit them to philosophical critique. I will show how the Marxist ecofeminist position needs to be both updated and revised in order to account for the different, sometimes contradictory mechanisms for the capitalization of nature that have become prominent today. I will underscore two developments in particular: the dominance of neoliberalism and the development of biotechnology. I will conclude by summing up the theoretical grounds on which a contemporary political alliance between feminist and ecological struggles against capitalism can be built. (Abstract from original source)

Topics: Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations Regions: Europe, Nordic states Countries: Finland

Year: 2018

Moon Phases, Menstrual Cycles, and Mother Earth: The Construction of a Special Relationship between Women and Nature

Citation:

Nordgaard, Kari. 1999. “Moon Phases, Menstrual Cycles, and Mother Earth: The Construction of a Special Relationship between Women and Nature.” Ethics and the Environment 4 (2): 197-209.

Author: Kari Nordgaard

Annotation:

Summary:

“This paper will explore a number of contradictions to the theme of a special relationship between women and nature by examining associations between men and nature and ways that women may be considered distance from nature. I will suggest a variety of reasons why literature in women and environment, ecofeminism, and feminist political ecology has chosen this particular story about a special connection between women and nature (and thus failed to include other stories), and I will ask whether ecofeminist constructions of gender inadvertently reinforce the very social and ecological relations so many of us critique. Although much of my discussion will be directed towards ecofeminism, the fields of women and environment and feminist political ecology share the emphasis on women and nature to which I refer. I recognize that whether theorists see relationships between women and nature as biological or social has been the subject of much writing and criticism between theorists who consider themselves to be in different fields. But at this point, the fact that there is now such a large body of literature focusing on relationships between women and nature (or environment) sets up a cultural story that is present across fields. I will use the term special relationship to refer to the full range of ways that women and nature have been connected” (Nordgaard 1999, 198).

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender Regions: Americas Countries: United States of America

Year: 1999

Eco/Feminism on the Edge

Citation:

Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona. 2008. “Eco/Feminism on the Edge.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 10 (3): 305-13.

Author: Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands

Abstract:

In this commentary I extend and converse with Niamh Moore's account of ecofeminist politics at Clayoquot Sound during the 1993 peace camp. In agreeing with her argument that such activist moments are more complex than the charges of maternalism and essentialism that have been thrown at them, I support her genealogical approach to understanding the particular gender relations that unfolded during the protest. In addition, I suggest that an understanding of the wider gender politics of the region, in addition to further consideration of other ecofeminist problematiques, would extend and enrich such analyses of ecofeminist activisms. 

Keywords: ecofeminism, maternalism, essentialism, evironmentalism, peace activism, Clayoquot Sound

Topics: Environment, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2008

The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution

Citation:

Merchant, Carolyn. 1980. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row.

Author: Carolyn Merchant

Annotation:

Summary:
"An examination of the Scientific Revolution that shows how the mechanistic world view of modern science has sanctioned the exploitation of nature, unrestrained commercial expansion, and a new socioeconomic order that subordinates women." (Summary from publisher's website, for 1989 paperback edition)

 

Topics: Environment, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations

Year: 1980

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Environment