Gendered Power Relations

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

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

Citation:

Plumwood, Val. 1988. “Women, Humanity and Nature.” Radical Philosophy 48: 16–24.

Author: Val Plumwood

Annotation:

Summary:
“There is now a growing awareness that the Western philosophical tradition which has identified, on the one hand, maleness with the sphere of rationality, and on the other hand, femaleness with the sphere of nature, has provided one of the main intellectual bases for the domination of women in Western culture” (Plumwood 1988, 16).

Topics: Gender, Femininity/ies, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations

Year: 1988

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

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

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

Citation:

Gaard, Greta, ed. 1993. Ecofeminism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press

Author: Greta Gaard

Annotation:

Summary:
Drawing on the insights of ecology, feminism, and socialism, ecofeminism's basic premise is that the ideology that authorizes oppression based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology that sanctions the oppression of nature. In this collection of essays, feminist scholars and activists discuss the relationships among human begins, the natural environment, and nonhuman animals. They reject the nature/culture dualism of patriarchal thought and locate animals and humans within nature. The goal of these twelve articles is to contribute to the evolving dialogue among feminists, ecofeminists, animal liberationists, deep ecologists, and social ecologists in an effort to create a sustainable lifestyle for all inhabitants of the earth. Among the issues addressed are the conflicts between Green politics and ecofeminism, various applications of ecofeminist theory, the relationship of animal liberation to ecofeminism, harmful implications of the romanticized woman-nature association in Western culture, and cultural limitations of ecofeminism. (Summary from Temple University Press)

Table of Contents:

1. Living Interconnections with Animals and Nature
   Greta Gaard
2. Ecofeminism: Linking Theory and Practice
   Janis Birkeland
3. Dismantling Oppression: An Analysis of the Connection Between Women and Animals
   Lori Gruen
4. Roots: Rejoining Natural and Social History
   Stephanie Lahar
5. Ecofeminism and the Politics of Reality
   Linda Vance
6. Questioning Sour Grapes: Ecofeminism and the United Farm Workers Grape Boycott
   Ellen O'Loughlin
7. Animal Rights and Feminist Theory
   Josephine Donovan
8. The Feminist Traffic in Animals
   Carol J. Adams
9. For the Lover of Nature: Ecology and the Culture of the Romantic
   Chaia Heller
10. From Heroic to Holistic Ethics: The Ecofeminist Challenge
    Marti Kheel
11. A Cross-Cultural Critique of Ecofeminism
    Huey-li Li
12. Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures – Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism?
    Greta Gaard

Topics: Class, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Indigenous, Race, Rights Regions: Americas Countries: United States of America

Year: 1993

Citation:

Fakier, Khayaat, Diana Mulinari, and Nora Räthzel, eds. 2020. Marxist-Feminist Theories and Struggles Today: Essential Writings on Intersectionality, Labour and Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books.

Authors: Khayaat Fakier , Diana Mulinari, Nora Räthzel

Annotation:

Summary:

This vital new collection presents new Marxist-Feminist analyses of Capitalism as a gendered, racialized social formation that shapes and is shaped by specific nature-labour relationships. Leaving behind former overtly structuralist thinking, Marxist-Feminist Theories and Struggles Today interweaves strands of ecofeminism and intersectional analyses to develop an understanding of the relations of production and the production of nature through the interdependencies of gender, class, race and colonial relations. With contributions and analyses from scholars and theorists in both the global North and South, this volume offers a truly international lens that reveals the the vitality of contemporary global Marxist-Feminist thinking, as well as its continued relevance to feminist struggles across the globe (Summary from Zed Books).

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Khayaat Fakier, Diana Mulinari, Nora Räthzel

Part I – Conceptualising

1. Standpoint Theory
Cynthia Cockburn

2. Outside in the Funding Machine
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

3. Contradictions in Marxist Feminism
Frigga Haug

4. Ecofeminism as (Marxist) Sociology
Ariel Salleh

5. The ‘Flat Ontology’ of Neoliberal Feminism
Jennifer Cotter

6. The Byzantine Eunuch: Pre-capitalist Gender Category, ‘Tributary’ Modal Contradiction, and a Test for Materialist Feminism
Jules Gleeson

7. Reading Marx against the Grain: Rethinking the Exploitation of Care Work Beyond Profit-Seeking
Tine Haubner

Part II – Production

8. Marx and Social Reproduction Theory: Three Different Historical Strands
Ankica Čakardić

9. The Best Thing I Have Done Is to Give Birth; The Second Is to Strike
Paula Mulinari

10. Women in Small Scale Fishing in South Africa: An Ecofeminist Engagement with the ‘Blue Economy’
Natasha Solari and Khayaat Fakier

11. The ‘Crisis of Care’ and the Neoliberal Restructuring of the Public Sector – a Feminist Polanyian Analysis
Rebecca Selberg

12. Gender Regimes and Women’s Labour: Volvo Factories in Sweden, Mexico, and South Africa
Nora Räthzel, Diana Mulinari, Aina Tollefsen

Part III – Religions and Politics

13. Religious Resistance: A Flower on the Chain or a Tunnel towards Liberation?
Gabriele Dietrich

14. A Marxist-Feminist Perspective: From Former Yugoslavia to Turbo Fascism to Neoliberal Postmodern Fascist Europe
Marina Gržinić

15. Feminism, Antisemitism and the Question of Palestine/Israel
Nira Yuval Davis

Part IV – Solidarities

16. Women in Brazilian's Trade Union Movement
Patricia Vieira Trópia

17. Argentinean Feminist Movements: Debates from Praxis
Ana Isabel González Montes

18. Marxist Feminism for a Global Women’s Movement against Capitalism
Ligaya Lindio McGovern

19. Marxist/Socialist Feminist Theory and Practice in the USA Today
Nancy Holmstrom 

20. Solidarity in Troubled Times: Social Movements in the Face of Climate Change
Kathryn Russell

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Care Economies, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Intersectionality, Race, Religion Regions: Africa, MENA, Southern Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Europe, Balkans, Nordic states Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, South Africa, Sweden, United States of America

Year: 2020

Citation:

Eubonne, Françoise d'. 1974. Le Féminisme Ou La Mort. Paris: P. Horay.

Author: Françoise d' Eubonne

Annotation:

Summary:

"It was not until the 1974 publication of Le Féminisme ou la Mort by French feminist author and civil rights activist Françoise d´Eaubonne (1920-2005) that a term to describe feminist efforts and attitudes towards environmental practices was coined: Ecofeminism. In her book, d´Eaubonne argues that many parallels exist between the patriarchal suppression of women and the suppression of nature, and this suppression results in environmental destruction. Since then, numerous theoretical and practical additions to d´Eaubonne’s argument have been made. Many begin by collapsing patriarchal dualisms: male/female, nature/culture, and mind/body but come to fundamentally challenge dominant epistemologies that inherently and efficiently bury other standpoints and ways of knowing. Issues such as the exploitation of nature by industrial resource consumption and Western paradigms of progress and technology have been explicitly designated as ecofeminist concerns. Furthermore, the ecofeminist movement strives for anti-oppression practices, meaning a society free of hierarchy, in which all living beings interact equally and are treated as parts of a common organism, the Earth" (Summary from Environment & Society Portal).

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

Year: 1974

Citation:

Dātār, Chāyā. 2011. Ecofeminism Revisited: Introduction to the Discourse. Jaipur: Rawat Publications.

Author: Chāyā Dātār

Annotation:

Summary:

"Most strands of feminism uphold, in varying degrees, the modernist dichotomy between nature and culture. Simone de Beauvoir, in her book Second Sex, points out that this distinction equates women with nature (characterized by their biological composition) and men with culture (characterized by their ‘risk-taking’ behaviour). Liberal and Marxist feminists argue that the traditional notion of a connection between women and nature is a relic of patriarchy—an instrument of oppression—which should be allowed to wither away. For them, ecofeminism smacks of essentialism (biological determinism). Despite such criticism, one needs to acknowledge the fact that exploring ecofeminist arguments rising from a material base (social, historical, dialectical) creates support in favour of alternative development models as opposed to market-oriented capitalist ones. Poor women often find a potential for liberation within such models. It also provides a better understanding of movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, opposition to SEZ etc. which strongly emphasise on women in the third world, their concern for food security and as such their vested interest in the preservation of ecological bases for the survival of their communities. Concepts like ‘decentralised communities’, ‘subsistence production’ etc. need to be understood against a theoretical background which justifies the need to start thinking about alternative development models. The book aims at an introduction to the discourse of ecofeminism as a perspective from which to understand the world around us, where women’s concerns of reproduction and subsistence are placed at the centre stage of the human activities" (Summary from Rawat Publications). 

Topics: Development, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2011