feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and
political ecology
Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and pheno ...
. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of
gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
to analyze relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer
Françoise d'Eaubonne
Françoise d'Eaubonne (; 12 March 1920 – 3 August 2005) was a French author, labour rights activist, environmentalist, and feminist. Her 1974 book, ''Le Féminisme ou la Mort'', introduced the term ecofeminism. She co-founded the Front homos ...
in her 1974 book . Ecofeminist theory introduces a feminist perspective to
Green politics
Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy.#Wal10, Wall 2010. p. 12-13. ...
and calls for an
egalitarian
Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...
, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group.
Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism (or
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materia ...
ecofeminism). Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include
ecofeminist art
Ecofeminist art emerged in the 1970s in response to ecofeminist philosophy, that was particularly articulated by writers such as Carolyn Merchant, Val Plumwood, Donna Haraway, Starhawk, Greta Gaard, Karen J. Warren, and Rebecca Solnit. Those ...
,
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
and
political philosophy
Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...
, religion, economics, contemporary feminism, and literature.
Ecofeminist analyses address the political effects of culturally constructed parallels between the oppression of nature and the oppression of women. These parallels include, but are not limited to, seeing women and nature as property, seeing men as the curators of culture and women as the curators of nature, and how men dominate women and humans dominate nature. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected.
Worldwide activism
Professors of sociology, Maria Mies, Ariel Salleh and Susan Mann all associate the beginning of ecofeminism not with feminists but with women of many historically different backgrounds who have perceived connections between gender, race, class, and environmental issues. The ideal of
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
is upheld through the notion that in activist and theory circles marginalized groups must be included in the discussion. However, in early North American environmentalism, the issues of race and class were sometimes separated.
Women have long worked to protect
wildlife
Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...
, food, air and water. These efforts coincided with new developments in environmental theory from writers such as
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
,
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, Philosophy, philosopher, Natural history, naturalist, scientist, Ecology, ecologist, forester, Conservation biology, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a profes ...
,
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
, and
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) are credited with advancing mari ...
. Parallel examples from women environmental ethicists were the books ''
Silent Spring
''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during World War II. Carson acc ...
'' by Rachel Carson and ''Refuge'' by
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams (born September 8, 1955) is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of Utah. Her work foc ...
Land Ethic
A land ethic is a philosophy or theoretical framework about how, ethically, humans should regard the land. The term was coined by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) in his '' A Sand County Almanac'' (1949), a classic text of the environmental movement. ...
" (1949) as fundamental to her own ecofeminist philosophy, as Leopold was the first to pen an ethic for the land which understands all non-human parts of that community (animals, plants, land, air, water) as equal to and in a relationship with humans. That inclusive understanding of the environment helped launch the modern preservation movement showing how environmental issues can be viewed through a framework of caring.
In
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, in the state of
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
in 1973, women took part in the
Chipko movement
The Chipko movement () is a forest conservation movement in India. Opposed to commercial logging and the government's policies on deforestation, protesters in the 1970s engaged in tree hugging, wrapping their arms around trees so that they coul ...
to protect forests from
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
. Many men during this time were moving to cities in search of work, and women that stayed in the rural parts of India were reliant on the forests for subsistence. As documented by
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Ga ...
,
Non-violent protest
Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, construct ...
tactics were used to occupy trees so that
loggers
Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...
could not cut them down.
In
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
in 1977, the
Green Belt Movement
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an indigenous grassroots organization in Kenya that empowers women through the planting of trees. It is one of the most effective and well-known grassroots organisations addressing the problem of global deforest ...
was initiated by environmental and political activist Professor
Wangari Maathai Wangari is a name of Kikuyu origin that may refer to:
* Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), Kenyan environmental and political activist
* Catherine Wangari Wainaina (born 1985), Kenyan beauty pageant contestant
* Margaret Wangari Muriuki (born 1986), K ...
. It is a rural
tree planting
Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and les ...
program led by women, which Maathai designed to help prevent
desertification
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities.
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...
in the area. The program created a '
green belt
A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...
' of at least 1,000 trees around villages, and gave participants the ability to take charge in their communities. In later years, the Green Belt Movement was an advocate for informing and empowering citizens through seminars for civic and environmental education, as well as holding national leaders accountable for their actions and instilling agency in citizens. The work of the Green Belt Movement continues today.
In 1978 in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, mother and environmentalist
Lois Gibbs
Lois Marie Gibbs (born June 25, 1951) is an American environmental activist. As a primary organizer of the Love Canal Homeowners Association, Lois Gibbs brought wide public attention to the environmental crisis in Love Canal. Her actions resulted ...
led her community in protest after discovering that their entire neighborhood,
Love Canal
Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an environmental disaster discovered in 1977. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals killed residents and harm ...
, was built on top of a toxic dump site. The toxins in the ground were causing illness among children and reproductive issues among women, as well as
birth defect
A birth defect is an abnormal condition that is present at birth, regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can range from mild to severe. Birth de ...
s in babies born to pregnant women exposed to the toxins. The Love Canal movement eventually led to the evacuation and relocation of nearly 800 families by the
federal government
A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
.
In 1980 and 1981, women like ecofeminist Ynestra King organized a peaceful protest at the
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...
. Women stood, hand in hand, demanding equal rights (including social, economic, and
reproductive rights
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to human reproduction, reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights:
Reproductive rights ...
) as well as an end to militaristic actions taken by the government and exploitation of the community (people and the environment). This movement is known as the Women's Pentagon Actions.
In 1985, the
Akwesasne
The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne ( ; ; ) is a Mohawk Nation (''Kanienʼkehá:ka'') territory that straddles the intersection of international (United States and Canada) borders and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) boundaries on both banks of the St ...
Mother's Milk Project was launched by
Katsi Cook
Sherrill Elizabeth Tekatsitsiakawa “Katsi” (pronounced Gudji) Cook is a Mohawk Native American midwife, environmentalist, Native American rights activist, and women's health advocate. She is best known for her environmental justice and re ...
. This study was funded by the government, and investigated how the higher level of contaminants in water near the Mohawkreservation impacted babies. It revealed that through
breast milk
Breast milk (sometimes spelled as breastmilk) or mother's milk is milk produced by the mammary glands in the breasts of women. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborn infants, comprising fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and a var ...
, Mohawk children were being exposed to 200% more toxins than children not on the reservation. Toxins contaminate water all over the world, but due to
environmental racism
Environmental racism, ecological racism, or ecological apartheid is a form of racism leading to negative environmental outcomes such as landfills, Incineration, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal disproportionately impacting Community ...
, certain marginalized groups are exposed to a much higher amount.
The Greening of Harlem Coalition is another example of an ecofeminist movement. In 1989,
Bernadette Cozart
Bernadette Cozart (May 17, 1949 – July 27, 2009) was an American professional gardener, botanist, and urban horticulture, urban gardening advocate. She worked for a time with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Biography
In 1 ...
founded the coalition, which is responsible for many urban gardens around
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
. Cozart's goal is to turn vacant lots into
community gardens
A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given ge ...
. This is economically beneficial, and also provides a way for very urban communities to be in touch with nature and each other. The majority of people interested in this project (as noted in 1990) were women. Through these gardens, they were able to participate in and become leaders of their communities. Urban greening exists in other places as well. Beginning in 1994, a group of
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
women in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
have developed city gardens, and call themselves the Gardening Angels. Similar garden movements have occurred globally.
The development of
vegetarian ecofeminism
Vegetarian ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement which states that all types of oppression are linked and must be eradicated, with a focus on including the domination of humans over nonhuman animals. Through the feminist concept known ...
can be traced to the mid-80s and 90s, where it first appeared in writing. However, the roots of a
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
ecofeminist view can be traced back further by looking at sympathy for non-humans and counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s. At the culmination of the decade, ecofeminism had spread to both USA coasts and articulated an intersectional analysis of women and the environment. Eventually, challenging ideas of environmental
classism
Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of ...
and racism, resisting toxic dumping and other threats to the impoverished.Vegetarian ecofeminists assert that "omitting the oppression of animals from feminist and ecofeminist analyses … is inconsistent with the activist and philosophical foundations of both feminism (as a "movement to end all forms of oppression") and ecofeminism." Here, "
the personal is political
''The personal is political'', also termed ''The private is political'', is a political argument used as a rallying slogan by student activist movements and second-wave feminism from the late 1960s. In the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970 ...
", as many ecofeminists believe that "meat-eating is a form of patriarchal violence." During a 1995 interview with ''
On the Issues
On the Issues or OnTheIssues is an American non-partisan, non-profit organization providing information to American voters on American candidates, primarily via their website. The organization was started in 1996, went non-profit in 2000, and is ...
,'' Carol Adams stated, "Manhood is constructed in our culture in part by access to meat-eating and control of other bodies, whether it's women or animals". According to Adams, "We cannot work for justice and challenge the oppression of nature without understanding that the most frequent way we interact with nature is by eating animals". Vegetarian ecofeminism is a clearly committed system of ethics and action. Laura Wright would propose Vegan Studies as an academic discipline.
In terms of the international movement,
Ariel Salleh
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations, political ecology, social change movements, and ecofeminism.
Background
Salleh is a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong; Vi ...
's book ''Ecofeminism as Politics'' (last reprinted in 2017) contains a detailed account of women's ecofeminist actions from
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
to
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
.
Early texts
Though the scope of ecofeminist analysis is dynamic and diverse ecofeminist perspectives have emerged from women activists and thinkers all over the world, academic studies of ecofeminism have been dominated by North American universities. Thus,
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art.
Biography
Spretnak was born in Pittsbu ...
described ecofeminist work developing: 1) through the study of political theory as well as history; 2) through belief and study of nature-based religions; and 3) through
environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...
. In a 1993 essay entitled "Ecofeminism: Toward Global Justice and Planetary Health", authors
Greta Gaard
Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her ...
and
Lori Gruen
Lori Gruen is an American philosopher, ethicist, and author who is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.Rosemary Ruether and
Carolyn Merchant
Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936 in Rochester, New York) is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory (and book of the same title) on '' The Death of Nature'', whereby she identifies the Scien ...
, Gaard and Gruen argued that there are four forces behind this political framework:
# The rise of patriarchal religions and their establishment of gender hierarchies along with their denial of
immanent
The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheist ...
scientific revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...
and the subsequent reduction of all things into mere resources to be optimized, dead inert matter to be used.
# Traditional cultural dualisms based on masculinity v femininity, self v other, humanity v nature, and the inherent power and domination ethic these entail.
#
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
and its intrinsic need for the instrumental exploitation of animals, earth and people for the sole purpose of creating
wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...
.
These four factors have brought Western cultures to what ecofeminists see as a "separation between nature and culture" that is the root source of our planetary ills.
Some ecofeminist approaches developed out of anarcha-feminist concerns to abolish all forms of domination, including the oppressive character of humanity's relationship to the natural world. According to d'Eaubonne's book ''Le Féminisme ou la Mort'', ecofeminism relates the
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced.
No universally accepted model ...
of all marginalized groups (women, people of color, children, the poor) to the oppression and domination of nature (animals, land, water, air, etc.). She argued that domination, exploitation, and
colonization
475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence.
Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...
under Western
patriarchal
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
society has directly caused irreversible environmental damage. An activist and organizer, d'Eaubonne worked for the eradication of all social injustice, not just injustice against
women and the environment
In the early 1960s, an interest in women and their connection with the environment was sparked largely by Ester Boserup's book ''Woman's Role in Economic Development''. Starting in the 1980s, policy makers and governments became more mindful of th ...
.
Influential early texts included: ''Women and Nature'' (
Susan Griffin
Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works.
Life
Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 26, 1943, and h ...
Carolyn Merchant
Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936 in Rochester, New York) is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory (and book of the same title) on '' The Death of Nature'', whereby she identifies the Scien ...
1980) and ''Gyn/Ecology'' (
Mary Daly
Mary Daly (October 16, 1928 – January 3, 2010) was an American radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years. Once a practicing ...
1978), which helped propel the association between domination by men of women and the domination of culture over nature. Meanwhile feminist activism of the 1980s included grass-roots movements such as the National Toxics Campaign, Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), and Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE) led by women devoted to issues of human health and environmental justice. Writing from this circle discussed ecofeminism drawing from
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
politics,
peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...
s, and
direct action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
movements. A key figure at this time was
Petra Kelly
Petra Karin Kelly (29 November 1947 – 1 October 1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence both nationally in Germany and w ...
, a founder of the
German Green Party
Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Germany in 1990). Th ...
.
Gendering nature
A reoccurring claim within ecofeminist literature is that masculinist structures justify their dominance through binary oppositions, these include but are not limited to:
heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
/earth, mind/body,
male
Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...
/
female
An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction.
A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...
, human/animal, spirit/matter, culture/nature,
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
/non-white, and abled/disabled. Oppression is reinforced by applying these
binaries
A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document files ...
in social judgements of value/non-value. Ecofeminist theory asserts that
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
is built on
paternalist
Paternalism is action that limits a person's or group's liberty or autonomy against their will and is intended to promote their own good. It has been defended in a variety of contexts as a means of protecting individuals from significant harm, s ...
and masculinist values, such that the effects of capitalism can not benefit women.
Ecofeminist scholars emphasized that it is not ''because'' women are female or "feminine" that they are sensitive to nature, but because they experience oppression by the same masculinist forces. This
marginalization
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...
is evident in the standard gendered language used to describe nature, such as "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature", and the animalized language used to describe women in derogatory terms. By contrast, other ecofeminists prefer to emphasise the value of women's skills learned from the traditional social role as '
caregiver
A caregiver, carer or support worker is a paid or unpaid person who helps an individual with activities of daily living. Caregivers who are members of a care recipient's family or social network, who may have specific professional training, are o ...
'.
The Indian ecofeminist and activist Vandana Shiva wrote that women farmers have a special connection to the environment through daily experience and that this has been underestimated. According to Shiva's book ''Staying Alive'' (1989), women in subsistence economies who produce "wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in ecological knowledge of nature's processes". She makes the point that "these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the
reductionist
Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical posit ...
capitalist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women's lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth (23)". Shiva attributes this failure to the global domination of Western perceptions of development and progress. According to Shiva,
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...
has left women, nature, and many other groups outside of the economy, labelling them "unproductive". Similarly, Ariel Salleh deepens this materialist ecofeminist approach in a critical dialogue with green politics and
ecosocialism
Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism, socialist ecology, ecological materialism, or revolutionary ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. E ...
.
Conceptual approaches
Materialist ecofeminism
In the book ''Ecofeminism'' (1993), Vandana Shiva and
Maria Mies
Maria Mies (; 6 February 1931 – 15 May 2023) was a German professor of sociology, a Marxist feminist, an activist for women's rights, and an author. She came from a rural background in the Volcanic Eifel, and initially trained to be a teach ...
interrogate
modern science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Protoscience, early sciences, and natural philosophies such as al ...
and its acceptance as a universal and value-free system. They view the dominant stream of science not as objective but rather as a projection of Western patriarchal
instrumentalism
In philosophy of science and in epistemology, instrumentalism is a methodological view that ideas are useful instruments, and that the worth of an idea is based on how effective it is in explaining and predicting natural phenomena.
According to in ...
.(Mies, Maria, and Vandana Shiva. ''Ecofeminism''. Halifax, N.S. : Fernwood Publications; 1993. 24.) The determination of what is considered scientific knowledge and its usage has been largely restricted to men. Examples include the medicalization of
childbirth
Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...
and the industrialization of
plant reproduction
Plants may reproduce sexually or asexually.
Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Vegetative reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion o ...
.
The key activist-scholars developing a materialist ecofeminism are Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen in Germany; Vandana Shiva in India; Ariel Salleh in Australia;
Mary Mellor
Mary Mellor (born 1946) is a British academic and activist, who is Emeritus Professor in Social science, Social Science at Northumbria University, where she was the founding chair of the Sustainable Cities Research Institute. She has published wi ...
in the UK; and Ana Isla in
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. Materialist ecofeminism is not widely known in North America aside from the journal collective at ''Capitalism Nature Socialism''. A
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materia ...
analysis studies economic institutions such as labor, power, and property as a critical mechanism for control over women and nature. The contrast is between
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stat ...
, which is valued, versus
reproduction
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...
of living relations, which is not. This ecofeminism is referred to variously as "social feminism", "socialist ecofeminism", or "Marxist ecofeminism". According to Carolyn Merchant, "Social ecofeminism advocates the liberation of women through overturning economic and social hierarchies that turn all aspects of life into a market society that today even invades the womb". Ecofeminism in this sense seeks to eliminate social
hierarchies
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an importan ...
which favor the production of
commodities
In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
Th ...
for
profit
Profit may refer to:
Business and law
* Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market
* Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit
* Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...
over biological and social reproduction traditionally seen as the sphere of women's work.
Spiritual and cultural ecofeminism
Spiritual ecofeminism is an approach popular among North American authors such as
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and writer. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
,
Riane Eisler
Riane Tennenhaus Eisler (born July 22, 1931) is an Austrian-born American systems scientist, futurist, attorney, and author who writes about the effect of gender and family politics historically on societies, and vice versa. She is best known ...
, Carol Christ and Carol Adams. Starhawk calls for an earth-based spirituality, which recognizes that the Earth is alive, and that we are all interconnected. Spiritual ecofeminism is not linked to any specific religion, but is centered around values of caring,
compassion
Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based ...
, and
non-violence
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
.Eisler, Riane. "The Gaia Tradition & The Partnership Future: An Ecofeminist Manifesto." ''Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism,'' edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Orenstein, Sierra Club Books, 1990, pp. 23-34. Often, ecofeminists refer to ancient traditions, such as the worship of
Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...
, the Goddess of nature and spirituality (also known as Mother Earth).
Wicca
Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esote ...
and
Paganism
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...
are particularly influential in spiritual ecofeminism. Wicca, in particular
Dianic Wicca
Dianic Wicca, also known as Dianic Witchcraft, and, to some also as "Dianism," "Dianic Feminist Witchcraft," or simply "Feminist Witchcraft"' is a modern pagan goddess tradition focused on female experience and empowerment. Leadership is by wo ...
, traditionally demonstrates a deep respect for nature, a feminine outlook, and an aim to establish strong community values.
In her book ''Radical Ecology,'' Carolyn Merchant refers to spiritual ecofeminism as "cultural ecofeminism". According to Merchant, cultural ecofeminism "celebrates the relationship between women and nature through the revival of ancient rituals centered on goddess worship, the moon, animals, and the
female reproductive system
The human female reproductive system is made up of the internal and external sex organs that function in the reproduction of new offspring. The reproductive system is immature at birth and develops at puberty to be able to release matured ov ...
." Cultural ecofeminist practice intuition and an ethic of care in human-nature interrelationships.
Ecofeminism in Latin America
Latin American ecofeminism emerged as a distinct strand within the broader ecofeminist movement. While early ecofeminist frameworks were primarily shaped in the Global North, the publication of Staying Alive by Vandana Shiva in the mid-1980s marked a turning point. This work introduced the foundations for a postcolonial ecofeminism that would inspire and inform debates and reformulations in the Global South, including Latin America.
Latin America also had an early ecofeminist trajectory, although with less dissemination and influence in the global feminist theory. However, some scholars would agree that there is still a long way to go in the construction of a Latin American ecofeminism, which considers the leading role in the social and political struggles of rural women in the Global South committed to the sustainability of their practices of food production, the livelihood of their families, solidarity community relations, an inclusive economy and the support of human and non-human life.
From a Feminist Political Ecology perspective, there are new emphases through the cross-cutting influence of posthumanist thought, as well as postcolonial and decolonial ideas. These new emphases allow for a renewed engagement with Latin American and Global South ecofeminisms, while also opening up space for the inclusion of conceptual frameworks, lived experiences, and research contributions from both Latin American academia and activism.
It is also worth highlighting the role of the rural space as a place for deep structural violence against women, which constantly erases the stories, knowledge and experiences of many people, who are not allowed to speak and transmit valid knowledge about themselves and about the relationships of care, existence and life support that they build with nature, contemplating environmental preservation and sustainability.
Cuerpo Territorio
The concept of "''Cuerpo-Territorio''" - Body-Territory is a pivotal idea within Latin American ecofeminism, emerging from the struggles of indigenous communities against intertwined forms of oppression: patriarchy, colonialism, and extractivism. It serves both as a theoretical framework and a practical method of resistance, linking women's bodies as territories to be defended and the Earth as an entity endowed with rights against exploitation. It is said to have emerged as a concept and method from a political group of Maya-Xinka indigenous women in Guatemala and is central to the political project of community feministsFerreira, L., & Marinho, S. (2022). ''Resisting violence, creating dignity: Negotiating violence against women and girls through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro''. People’s Palace Projects. https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/body-mapping-report-1.pdf.
Historically, colonialism involved the conquest and exploitation of territories, which also entailed the domination of bodies, particularly female bodies. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, women were subjected to exploitation, including commodification, mass rape, and mutilation. Thus, the conquest of land became intertwined with the exploitation of women's bodies, making their bodies territories to be defended.
The emergence of the cuerpo-territorio concept within indigenous communities is no coincidence. These territories are systematically targeted by extractivism and colonization. Women in these communities are affected in their bodies but also use their bodies to resist and fight. The concept is constructed and utilized in opposition to the hierarchical dichotomy between body and nature, interior and exterior, which supposedly legitimizes the exploitation of nature by bodies.
The concept of cuerpo territorio asserts the body as a continuum of the land, seeing “the body as territory, and the territory as a body”. It frames the body as “ones most intimate and immediate geography,” and affirms a worldview in which bodies are part of the wider network of all life.
As Lorena Cabnal of the Indigenous Women’s Association of Santa María Xalapán explains, "''territorio cuerpo-tierra'' is a motto to be recuperated and defended and implemented as a political banner in the defense of the land. It is a framework of struggle against sexual violence and mining. It is a political category of indigenous community feminism, a way to suggest and feel the body as territory alive and historical. It alludes to a cosmological interpretation and a politic that acknowledges how bodies have a relation and being in the network of all life. Concurrently, it pushes us to rethink how bodies have been constructed by multiple oppressions, the historical structure of patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and neoliberal capitalism, which have led to exploitation via different agreements and policies".
= Body Mapping
=
Body mapping is a methodological approach grounded in the theory of cuerpo-territorio. Its methods center the body as a source of information. It is held as a decolonial methodology as it seeks to counter traditional Euro-centric research methods that heavily rely on written language via interviews, focus groups, and survey responses. In contrast to these Western methods, body mapping provides a safe, trauma informed way to feel and communicate the emotions and sensations related to bodily experiences. It has been framed by decolonial feminist scholars as a tool for self-empowerment and collective meaning making.
Body mapping creates a physical representation through drawing of the body and the violences it has suffered. This mapping overlays territorial conflicts onto the body to understand them from a corporeal and subjective perspective. Researcher Delmy Tania Cruz Hernández provides a concrete example in her book, recounting the story of a survivor of the Acteal massacre who, after the tragedy, drew a red cross over the heart in her mapping, leaving the rest of the body blank due to trauma. Thus, mapping becomes a form of resistance, concretizing the repercussions of territorial exploitation on bodies.
Body mapping methods often include some variation of the following steps:
# Collectively creating a shared space of safety and support. This step often is used to build trust between participants and between participants and the researchers. For some projects, this includes crafting an ethics protocol together that outlines how they want to engage with each other, the space, and the final research output.
# Perform a sensory group exercise to ground into the body and recognize them as full of life, feelings, memories and emotions.
# An explanation of ''cuerpo territorio.''
# Participants help each other trace an outline of their silhouette on a body-sized piece of paper.
# Participants then reflect on a series of questions asked by the researchers related to the topic, while participants answer them via writing, drawing, and creating in whatever form they like on the drawing of their body as a response. Each person then has their own unique body territory map.
# Participants then may be asked to describe the meaning of their finished map.
# Many projects emphasize that while maps are individual reflections of experience, a key aspect of the methodology is the sharing of their stories in community. Correlations, compassion, and larger shared themes are revealed, creating a process of collective meaning making.
Agua Territorio
The concept of "''Agua Territorio"'' - Water-Body-Territory is used to describe the material and symbolic link between natural resources, women's bodies and land, deriving from the rural communities in Latin America, especially in the Andes, both in Chile and in Argentina, where water has been the blood of their territories.
It is a concept that is used in decolonial ecofeminisim, political ecology and critical geographies. Latin American decolonial thinking in critical geography and political ecology serves to think of the embodiment of collective death and further debates on collective bodily autonomy.
Lobos Castro argues that the historical and structural dispossession of water in Chile - accelerated by Chile’s Water Code of 1981 with water as a common good began to fade - has produced an ecological and personal harm. This includes contamination, reduced access to water for subsistence agriculture, and exposure to toxic agrochemicals. Despite these challenges women in Chile developed "re-existences": practices of resistance and resilience that include reclaiming ancestral knowledge, cultivating communal solidarity, and defending local ecosystems. These actions reassert their connection to the land and their agency over environmental and social conditions.
The concept of agua terrritorio emphasizes the gendered nature of environmental conflicts and the importance of integrating women's voices and experiences in struggles for ecological justice and territorial autonomy.
Common misconceptions
Essentialism debate
In the 1980s and 1990s, critics challenged the political radicalism of ecofeminism by claiming it was '
essentialist
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In '' Categories'', Aristotle s ...
'. Ecofeminists were seen to be reinforcing patriarchal norms of domination by emphasising links between women and nature.
Poststructuralist
Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...
and some Third wave feminists in particular, saw essentialism as grouping all women under one inferior category, so enforcing the very societal norms that feminism tries to break from. For the problem is that traditionally, just as 'feminine' qualities are seen as less worthy, nature and the animal world is also judged of 'lesser value' than what masculinist patriarchal cultures define as 'humanity proper'.
Meanwhile, ecofeminists were opposing liberal or 'equality' feminisms on the basis that mainstream political institutions are unconsciously masculinist - both sex/gender exclusionary and destructive of the environment. In an interview, ecofeminist Noel Sturgeon pointed out that what the anti-essentialists failed to recognise is a political strategy used to mobilize large and diverse groups of women, theorists and activists alike. Additionally,
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art.
Biography
Spretnak was born in Pittsbu ...
characterized ecofeminism as concerned with a wide agenda, including
reproductive technology
Reproductive technology encompasses all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including assisted reproductive technology (ART), contraception and others. It is also termed Assisted Reproductive Technology, whe ...
, equal pay and equal rights, toxic pollution,
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped
* Photographic development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
* Development hell, when a proje ...
, and more.
Norie Ross Singer emphasized that ecofeminism should be understood as advancing multiple axes of identity such as gender, race, and class as inter-meshed in human-nonhuman relationships. A. E. Kings identified this analysis as fundamentally '
intersectional
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
'. Vegetarian ecofeminists have contributed to intersectional analysis as well, by joining a political focus on
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
with activism for all oppressed life forms, including laboring men.
While the theologian
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether (; 2 November 1936 – 21 May 2022) was an American Catholic feminist theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped e ...
rejected
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
, she argued that spirituality and activism can combine effectively in ecofeminism. On the other hand, social ecologist
Janet Biehl
Janet Biehl (born September 4, 1953) is an American author, copyeditor, translator, and artist. She authored several books and articles associated with social ecology, the body of ideas developed and publicized by Murray Bookchin. Formerly an adv ...
criticized ecofeminism for what she saw as a
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
reading of women and nature with not enough attention to the actual conditions of women’s lives. Biehl judged ecofeminism an anti-progressive movement for women. In the 21st century, some ecofeminists aware of these criticisms began renaming their work under other labels - like 'queer ecologies', 'global feminist
environmental justice
Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...
', or '
gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
and the environment'.
Today the majority of ecofeminist thinkers and activists recognize both culturally constructed and embodied sex/gender differences. Moreover, socialist ecofeminists have always situated gender roles in a political economic framework, arguing for a radical materialist politics. Socialist feminists show clearly that women’s supposed intrinsic connection with nature is a socially constructed ideology. As Ariel Salleh has pointed out, the anxiety over essentialism was mostly found among North American liberal and postmodern feminist academics. In Europe and the global South, the interplay of class, race, gender and species dominations and exploitations is grounded in a materialist analysis of socio-economic relations.
Miscellaneous criticisms
Environmental justice and feminist care ethics have pushed for participation of all marginalized groups, working against
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
,
ageism
Ageism, also called agism in American English, is a type of discrimination based on one's age, generally used to refer to age-based discrimination against Old age, elderly people. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe this ...
,
ableism
Ableism (; also known as ablism, disablism (British English), anapirophobia, anapirism, and disability discrimination) is discrimination and social prejudice against physically or mentally disabled people. Ableism characterizes people as they a ...
. Andrew Charles points out that
people with disabilities
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...
still face issues of access and representation in policy making. He suggests that the nurturing aspect of ecofeminism might be patronizing to marginalized groups. Likewise, a radical white savior complex could disrupt the self-advocacy of racially marginalized peoples around the world.
Catia Faria
Catia Faria (born 1980) is a Portuguese moral philosopher and activist for animal rights and feminism. She is assistant professor in Applied Ethics at the Complutense University of Madrid, and is a board member of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethic ...
argues against the ecofeminist view that the main harm to non-human animals in the wild comes from patriarchal culture. It follows, she argues, that it is mistaken to argue that the conservation of nature is the best solution here. Instead, she contends, natural processes themselves are a source of immense suffering for wild animals and that we should work towards alleviating the harms they experience, as well as eliminating patriarchal sources of harm, such as
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
.
Theorists
*
Judi Bari
Judith Beatrice Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the pri ...
– Bari was a principal organizer of the
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmentalism, radical Environmental movement, environmental advocacy group that originated in the Southwestern United States. It was founded in 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron K ...
movement and experienced sexist hostility.
*
Françoise d'Eaubonne
Françoise d'Eaubonne (; 12 March 1920 – 3 August 2005) was a French author, labour rights activist, environmentalist, and feminist. Her 1974 book, ''Le Féminisme ou la Mort'', introduced the term ecofeminism. She co-founded the Front homos ...
– Called upon women to lead an ecological revolution in order to save the planet. This entailed revolutionizing gender relations and human relations with the natural world.
*
Greta Gaard
Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her ...
– Gaard is an American ecofeminist scholar and activist. Her major contributions to the field connect ideas of
queer theory
Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term "queer theory" is broadly associated with the study a ...
, vegetarianism, and animal liberation. Her major theories include
ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...
which works to include
literary criticism
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
and composition to inform ecofeminism and other feminist theories to address a wider range of social issues within ecofeminism. She is an ecological activist and leader in the U.S. Green Party, and the Green Movement.
*
Susan Griffin
Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works.
Life
Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 26, 1943, and h ...
- A radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works. A Californian, she taught as an adjunct professor at
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
as well as at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
and
California Institute of Integral Studies
The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private graduate school (with limited undergraduate offerings) in San Francisco. Founded in 1968 as the California Institute of ''Asian'' Studies, the name was changed in 1980. CIIS has b ...
.
* Ana Isla – Sociologist from Peru, member of Capitalism Nature Socialism ecofeminist editorial collective.
* Vanessa Lemgruber – Lemgruber is a Brazilian lawyer, writer, activist, and ecofeminist. She defends the Doce river in Brazil and advocates for
water quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
and
zero waste
Zero waste, or ''waste minimization'', is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed (i.e. "up-cycled") and/or reused. The goal of the movement is to avoid ...
movements.
*
Sallie McFague
Sallie McFague (May 25, 1933 – November 15, 2019) was an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how Christians may speak about God. She applied this approach, in particular, to ...
– A prominent ecofeminist
theologian
Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
, McFague uses the metaphor of God's body to represent the universe at large. This metaphor values inclusive, mutualistic and interdependent relations amongst all things.
*
Carolyn Merchant
Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936 in Rochester, New York) is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory (and book of the same title) on '' The Death of Nature'', whereby she identifies the Scien ...
– Historian of science who taught at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
for many years. Her book ''The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution'' is a classic ecofeminist text.
*
Mary Mellor
Mary Mellor (born 1946) is a British academic and activist, who is Emeritus Professor in Social science, Social Science at Northumbria University, where she was the founding chair of the Sustainable Cities Research Institute. She has published wi ...
– UK sociologist who moved to ecofeminist ideas from an interest in
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
s. Her books ''Breaking the Boundaries'' and her later book ''Feminism and Ecology'' are grounded in a materialist analysis.
*
Maria Mies
Maria Mies (; 6 February 1931 – 15 May 2023) was a German professor of sociology, a Marxist feminist, an activist for women's rights, and an author. She came from a rural background in the Volcanic Eifel, and initially trained to be a teach ...
– Mies is a German
social critic
Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general.
Social criticism of the Enlightenment
The origin of modern ...
who has been involved in feminist work throughout
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. She works particularly on the intersections of patriarchy,
poverty
Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
, and the environment on a local and global scale.
*
Adrian Parr
Adrian Elisheva Parr Zaretsky (born 1967) is an Australian-born philosopher and cultural critic, and dean of the College of Design at the University of Oregon, United States. She specializes in cultural theory and eco-criticism. In addition, ...
– A cultural and environmental theorist. She has published eight books and numerous articles on
environmental activism
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...
, feminist new materialism, and imagination. Most notable is her trilogy ''Hijacking Sustainability''. See also: ''The Wrath of Capital'', and ''Birth of a New Earth''.
*
Val Plumwood
Val Plumwood (11 August 1939 – 29 February 2008) was an Australian philosopher and ecofeminist known for her work on anthropocentrism. From the 1970s, she played a central role in the development of radical ecosophy. Working mostly as an inde ...
– Val Plumwood, formerly Val Routley, was an Australian ecofeminist intellectual and activist, who was prominent in the development of radical
ecosophy
Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French post-structuralist philosopher Félix Guattari and the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, ...
from the early 1970s through the remainder of the 20th century. In her work ''Feminism and the Mastery of Nature'' she describes the relationship of mankind and the environment relating to an eco-feminist ideology.
*
Alicia Puleo
Alicia Helda Puleo García (born 30 November 1952) is an Argentine-born feminist philosopher based in Spain. She is known for the development of ecofeminist thinking. Among her main publications is ''Ecofeminismo para otro mundo posible'' (Ecofemi ...
– The author of several books and articles on ecofeminism and gender inequality, Alicia Puleo has been characterized as "arguably Spain's most prominent explicator-philosopher of the worldwide movement or theoretical orientation known as ecofeminism."
*
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether (; 2 November 1936 – 21 May 2022) was an American Catholic feminist theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped e ...
– Has written 36 books and over 600 articles exploring the intersections of feminism, theology, and creation care. Ruether was the first person to connect the domination of the earth with the oppression of women.
*
Ariel Salleh
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations, political ecology, social change movements, and ecofeminism.
Background
Salleh is a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong; Vi ...
– Australian ecofeminist with a global perspective; a founding editor of the journal '' Capitalism Nature Socialism''; author of four books and some 300 articles examining ecofeminist links with
deep
Deep or The Deep may refer to:
Places United States
* Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia
* Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah
* Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania
* Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary ...
and
social ecology Social ecology may refer to:
* Social ecology (academic field), the study of relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions
* Social ecological model, frameworks for depicting ...
, green politics and
eco-socialism
Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism, socialist ecology, ecological materialism, or revolutionary ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. E ...
, digitalisation and
decoloniality
Decoloniality () is a school of thought that aims to Delinking, delink from Eurocentrism, Eurocentric Episteme, knowledge hierarchies and Being, ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the p ...
.
*
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Ga ...
– Shiva is a scientist by training, prolific author and Indian ecofeminist activist. She was a participant in the
Chipko movement
The Chipko movement () is a forest conservation movement in India. Opposed to commercial logging and the government's policies on deforestation, protesters in the 1970s engaged in tree hugging, wrapping their arms around trees so that they coul ...
of the 1970s, which used non-violent activism to protest and prevent
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
in the
Garhwal
Garhwal may refer to the following topics associated with Uttarakhand, India:
Places
*Garhwal Himalaya, a sub-range of the Himalayas
*Garhwal Kingdom, a former kingdom
*Garhwal District (British Garhwal), a former district of British India
* Ga ...
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
of
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
, India, then in
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...
DDT
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...
and
Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich (née Pattee; born June 22, 1960) is an American paralegal, consumer advocate, and environmental activist who was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination ...
against
hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium (chromium(VI), Cr(VI), chromium 6) is any chemical compound that contains the element chromium in the +6 oxidation state (thus hexavalent). It has been identified as carcinogenic, which is of concern since approximately of ...
) has been described as an example of ecofeminist position.
*
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art.
Biography
Spretnak was born in Pittsbu ...
– Spretnak is an American writer largely known for her writing on ecology, politics and spirituality. Through these writings Spretnak has become a prominent ecofeminist. She has written many books which discuss ecological issues in terms of effects with social criticisms, including feminism. Spretnak's works had a major influence in the development of the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
. She has also won awards based on her visions on ecology and social issues as well as feminist thinking.Charlene Spretnak, "The Early Years of the Green Movement in the United States", in Zelko and Brinkmann, eds., ''Green Parties'', p. 48.
*
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and writer. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
– An American writer and activist, Starhawk is known for her work in spiritualism and ecofeminism. She advocates for
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
in issues surrounding nature and spirit. These social justice issues fall under the scope of feminism and ecofeminism. She believes in fighting oppression through intersectionality and the importance of spirituality, eco consciousness and sexual and gender liberation.see
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and writer. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
*
Douglas Vakoch
Douglas A. Vakoch ( ; born June 16, 1961) is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to ...
– An American ecocritic whose edited volumes include ''Ecofeminism and Rhetoric: Critical Perspectives on Sex, Technology, and Discourse'' (2011), ''Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature'' (2012), ''Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction'' (2021), ''Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature'' (2021), ''The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature'' (2023), (with Nicole Anae) ''Indian Feminist Ecocriticism'' (2022), and (with Sam Mickey) ''Ecofeminism in Dialogue'' (2018), ''Literature and Ecofeminism: Intersectional and International Voices'' (2018), and ''Women and Nature?: Beyond Dualism in Gender, Body, and Environment'' (2018).
* Karen J. Warren – Warren received her B.A. in philosophy from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
(1970) and her Ph.D. from the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a co ...
in 1978. Before her long tenure at Macalester College, which began in 1985, Warren was Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College in the early 1980s. Warren was the Ecofeminist-Scholar-in-Residence at Murdoch University in Australia. In 2003, she served as an University of Oxford, Oxford University Round Table Scholar and as Women's Chair in Humanistic Studies at Marquette University in 2004. She has spoken widely on environmental issues, feminism, critical thinking and Peace and conflict studies, peace studies in many international locations including Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Manitoba, Melbourne, Moscow, Perth, the Earth Summit, U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), and San Jose, California, San Jose.
See also
* Climate change and gender
* Cottagecore
* Critical animal studies
* Cultural feminism
* Deep ecology
* Deep Green Resistance
* Ecofeminist art
* Green syndicalism
* List of ecofeminist authors
* Queer ecology
* Romanticism
* Sexecology
* Social ecology (Bookchin), Social ecology
* Women and the environment through history
* Posthumanism
References
Further reading
Key works
* ''Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh'', by Helena Norberg-Hodge
* ''The Body of God'' by
Sallie McFague
Sallie McFague (May 25, 1933 – November 15, 2019) was an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how Christians may speak about God. She applied this approach, in particular, to ...
* ''The Chalice and the Blade, The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future'', by
Riane Eisler
Riane Tennenhaus Eisler (born July 22, 1931) is an Austrian-born American systems scientist, futurist, attorney, and author who writes about the effect of gender and family politics historically on societies, and vice versa. She is best known ...
* ''The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution'' by
Carolyn Merchant
Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936 in Rochester, New York) is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory (and book of the same title) on '' The Death of Nature'', whereby she identifies the Scien ...
* ''Ecofeminism'' by
Maria Mies
Maria Mies (; 6 February 1931 – 15 May 2023) was a German professor of sociology, a Marxist feminist, an activist for women's rights, and an author. She came from a rural background in the Volcanic Eifel, and initially trained to be a teach ...
and
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Ga ...
* ''Ecofeminism in Latin America'' by Mary Judith Ross
* ''Ecofeminist Philosophy'' by Karen J. Warren
* ''Environmental Culture'' by
Val Plumwood
Val Plumwood (11 August 1939 – 29 February 2008) was an Australian philosopher and ecofeminist known for her work on anthropocentrism. From the 1970s, she played a central role in the development of radical ecosophy. Working mostly as an inde ...
* ''Feminism and the Mastery of Nature'' by Val Plumwood
* ''Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing'' by
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether (; 2 November 1936 – 21 May 2022) was an American Catholic feminist theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped e ...
* ''Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions'' by Rosemary Radford Ruether
* ''Neither Man nor Beast, Neither Man Nor Beast'' by Carol J. Adams
* ''Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place'' by
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams (born September 8, 1955) is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of Utah. Her work foc ...
* ''The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World'' by
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art.
Biography
Spretnak was born in Pittsbu ...
* ''Sacred Longings: Ecofeminist theology and Globalization'' by Mary Grey (theologian), Mary Grey
* ''The Sexual Politics of Meat'' by Carol J. Adams
* ''
Silent Spring
''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during World War II. Carson acc ...
'' by
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) are credited with advancing mari ...
* ''The Spiral Dance'' by
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and writer. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
* ''Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development'' by
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Ga ...
* ''Thinking Green! Essays on Environmentalism, Feminism, and Nonviolence'' by
Petra Kelly
Petra Karin Kelly (29 November 1947 – 1 October 1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence both nationally in Germany and w ...
* ''Tomorrow's Biodiversity'' by
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Ga ...
* ''Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her'' by
Susan Griffin
Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works.
Life
Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 26, 1943, and h ...
* ''Breaking the Boundaries'' by
Mary Mellor
Mary Mellor (born 1946) is a British academic and activist, who is Emeritus Professor in Social science, Social Science at Northumbria University, where she was the founding chair of the Sustainable Cities Research Institute. She has published wi ...
* ''Feminism and Ecology'' by Mary Mellor
* ''Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx, and the Postmodern'' by
Ariel Salleh
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations, political ecology, social change movements, and ecofeminism.
Background
Salleh is a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong; Vi ...
* ''DeColonize EcoModernism!'' by
Ariel Salleh
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations, political ecology, social change movements, and ecofeminism.
Background
Salleh is a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong; Vi ...
* ''The Greening of Costa Rica'' by Ana Isla
Anthologies
* ''Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations'', edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan
* ''Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction'', edited by Douglas Vakoch, Douglas A. Vakoch
*''Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature'', edited by
Greta Gaard
Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her ...
* ''Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature'', edited by Karen J. Warren with editorial assistance from Nisvan Erkal
* ''EcoFeminism & Globalization: exploring culture, context and religion'', edited by Heather Eaton & Lois Ann Lorentzen
* ''Ecofeminism and Rhetoric: Critical Perspectives on Sex, Technology, and Discourse'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
* ''Ecofeminism and the Sacred'', edited by Carol J. Adams
* ''Ecofeminism in Dialogue'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
* ''Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
* ''Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice: Women write Political Ecology'', edited by
Ariel Salleh
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations, political ecology, social change movements, and ecofeminism.
Background
Salleh is a Founding Member of the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong; Vi ...
*''Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
*''Indian Feminist Ecocriticism'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Nicole Anae
* ''Literature and Ecofeminism: Intersectional and International Voices'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
* ''The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement'', edited by
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art.
Biography
Spretnak was born in Pittsbu ...
* ''Readings in Ecology and Feminist Theology'', edited by Mary Heather MacKinnon and Moni McIntyre
* ''Reclaim the Earth'', edited by Leonie Caldecott & Stephanie Leland
* ''Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism'', edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein
* ''The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
* ''Women and Nature?: Beyond Dualism in Gender, Body, and Environment'', edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
* ''Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion'', edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether
* '' GUIA ECOFEMINISTA: mulheres, direito, ecologia, written by Vanessa Lemgruber edited by Ape'Ku''
Journal articles
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Mann, Susan A. 2011. Pioneers of U.S. Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice, ''Feminist Formations,'' 23(2): 1-25.
*
* Salleh, Ariel (1984) 'From Feminism to Ecology', Social Alternatives ', Vol. 4, No. 3, 8–12.
* Salleh, Ariel (2019) Ecofeminist Sociology as a New Class Analysis in Klaus Dorre and Brigitte Aulenbacher (eds.), ''Global Dialogue'', International Sociological Association Newsletter: Vol. 9, No. 1.
* Salleh, Ariel (1991) 'Essentialism and Ecofeminism', ''Arena'' No. 94:167-173.
* David Pellow (2018), 'Review of EcoFeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern', Journal of World-Systems Research, doi:10.5195/JWSR.2018.864.
Fiction
* ''A Door into Ocean, A Door Into Ocean'' by Joan Slonczewski
* ''Always Coming Home'' by Ursula K. Le Guin
* ''Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight'' by Ursula K. Le Guin
* ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'' by
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and writer. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
* ''The Gate to Women's Country'' by Sheri S. Tepper
* ''The Holdfast Chronicles'' by Suzy McKee Charnas
* ''The Madonna Secret'' by Sophie Strand
* ''Native Tongue (Elgin novel), Native Tongue'' by Suzette Haden Elgin
* ''Parable of the Sower (novel), Parable of the Sower'' by Octavia Butler
* ''Prodigal Summer'' by Barbara Kingsolver
* ''Surfacing (novel), Surfacing'' by Margaret Atwood
* ''The Wanderground'' by Sally Miller Gearhart
* ''Woman on the Edge of Time'' by Marge Piercy
* ''The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You'' by Dorothy Bryant
* ''Bear (novel), Bear'' by Marian Engel
* ''The Temple of My Familiar'' by Alice Walker
* ''Sultana's Dream'' by Begum Rokeya, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Poetry
*''The Sea of Affliction'' (1987, reprinted 2010) by Rosemarie Rowley