Maria Mies 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 teacher. After working for several years as a primary school teacher and qualifying as a high school instructor,she applied to the Goethe Institute,hoping to work in Africa or Asia. Assigned to a school in Pune,India,she discovered that while her male students took German courses to further their education,women for the most part took her classes to avoid marriage. Returning to study at the University of Cologne,she prepared her dissertation about contradictions of social expectations for women in India in 1971,earning her PhD the following year.
Carolyn Merchant is an American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science most famous for her theory on The Death of Nature,whereby she identifies the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century as the period when science began to atomize,objectify,and dissect nature,foretelling its eventual conception as composed of inert atomic particles. Her works are important in the development of environmental history and the history of science. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Environmental History,Philosophy,and Ethics at UC Berkeley.
This is an index of articles related to the issue of feminism,women's liberation,the women's movement,and women's rights.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical,fictional,or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles,experiences,interests,chores,and feminist politics in a variety of fields,such as anthropology and sociology,communication,media studies,psychoanalysis,political theory,home economics,literature,education,and philosophy.
Charlene Spretnak is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history,social criticism,religion and spirituality,and art.
“Feminist political ecology”examines how power,gender,class,race,and ethnicity intersect with environmental ‘crises’,environmental change and human-environmental relations. Feminist political ecology emerged in the 1990s,drawing on theories from ecofeminism,feminist environmentalism,feminist critiques of development,postcolonial feminism,and post-structural critiques of political ecology. Specific areas in which feminist political ecology is focused are development,landscape,resource use,agrarian reconstruction,rural-urban transformation,intersectionality,subjectivities,embodiment,emotions,communication,situated knowledge,posthumanism,deconstructing theory-practice dichotomies,ethics of care and decolonial feminist political ecology. Feminist political ecologists suggest gender is a crucial variable –in relation to class,race and other relevant dimensions of political ecological life –in constituting access to,control over,and knowledge of natural resources.
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 the connection between the environment and gender issues. Changes regarding natural resource and environmental management were made with the specific role of women in mind. According to the World Bank in 1991,"Women play an essential role in the management of natural resources,including soil,water,forests and energy...and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them". Whereas women were previously neglected or ignored,there was increasing attention to the impact of women on the natural environment and,in return,the effects the environment has on the health and well-being of women. The gender-environment relations have ramifications in regard to the understanding of nature between men and women,the management and distribution of resources and responsibilities,and the day-to-day life and well-being of people.
Ariel Salleh is an Australian sociologist who writes on humanity-nature relations,political ecology,social change movements,and ecofeminism.
Degrowth is an academic and social movement critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development. The idea of degrowth is based on ideas and research from economic anthropology,ecological economics,environmental sciences,and development studies. It argues that modern capitalism's unitary focus on growth causes widespread ecological damage and is unnecessary for the further increase of human living standards. Degrowth theory has been met with both academic acclaim and considerable criticism.
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 theoretical work extending ecofeminist thought into queer theory,queer ecology,vegetarianism,and animal liberation has been influential within women's studies. A cofounder of the Minnesota Green Party,Gaard documented the transition of the U.S. Green movement into the Green Party of the United States in her book,Ecological Politics. She is currently a professor of English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in Women's Studies at Metropolitan State University,Twin Cities.
Marti Kheel was a vegan ecofeminist activist scholar credited with founding Feminists for Animal Rights (FAR) in California in 1982. She authored several books in deep ecology and ecofeminism,including Nature Ethics:An Ecofeminist Perspective and several widely cited articles in college courses and related scholarship,such as "The Liberation of Nature:A Circular Affair","From Heroic to Holistic Ethics:The Ecofeminist Challenge",and "From Healing Herbs to Deadly Drugs:Western Medicine's War Against the Natural World". She was a long-time vegan in diet,lifestyle,and philosophical commitments,working out her understanding of its implications in every area of our human relationships with nature and its constituents,and she found a wide audience for those deep reflections. Reportedly,she had pursued a raw vegan diet later in her life. Her pioneering scholarship in ecofeminist ethics is foundational for continuing work in these fields.
Chris Cuomo is the Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Georgia. She is also an affiliate faculty member of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program,the Institute for African-American Studies,and the Institute for Native American Studies. Before moving to the University of Georgia,Cuomo was the Obed J. Wilson Professor of Ethics at the University of Cincinnati.
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective on Green politics that calls for an egalitarian,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. Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art,social justice and political philosophy,religion,contemporary feminism,and poetry.
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 writers emphasized the significance of relationships of cultural dominance and ethics expressed as sexism (Haraway),spirituality (Starhawk),speciesism,capitalist values that privilege objectification and the importance of vegetarianism in these contexts (Gaard). The main issues Ecofeminism aims to address revolve around the effects of a "Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal culture built on the domination of nature,and the domination of woman 'as nature'. The writer Luke Martell in the Ecology and Society journal writes that 'women' and 'nature' are both victims of patriarchal abuse and "ideological products of the Enlightenment culture of control." Ecofeminism argues that we must become a part of nature,living with and among it. We must recognize that nature is alive and breathing and work against the passivity surrounding it that is synonymous with the passive roles enforced upon women by patriarchal culture,politics,and capitalism. Ecofeminist art is an art form that showcases the intersectionality that is present among gender,environmentalism,and social justice. It grabs ideas and concepts from the original term "ecofeminism" which was created to highlight the parallels between the historic oppression and exploitation of both women and the environment. This style of art can be presented in many different mediums including performance art,original literature pieces,and visual art displays. In simpler terms,ecofeminist artwork is environmental art that has been created by a woman who values gender equality and stronger representation of nature.
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 as intersectionality,it is recognized that sexism,racism,classism,and other forms of inter human discrimination are all connected. Vegetarian ecofeminism aims to include the domination of not only the environment but also of nonhuman animals to the list. Vegetarian ecofeminism is part of the academic and philosophical field of ecofeminism,which states that the ways in which the privileged dominates the oppressed should include the way humans dominate nature. A major theme within ecofeminism is the belief that there is a strong connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature,and that both must be eradicated in order to end oppression.
Catriona Sandilands is a Canadian writer and scholar in the environmental humanities. She is most well known for her conception of queer ecology. She is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She was a Canada Research Chair in Sustainability and Culture between 2004 and 2014. She was a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2016. Sandilands served as president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in 2015. She is also a past President of the Association for Literature,Environment,and Culture in Canada (ALECC) and the American Society for Literature and the Environment (ASLE).
Queer ecology/ Queer ecologies is an endeavor to understand nature,biology,and sexuality in the light of queer theory,rejecting the presumptions that heterosexuality and cisgenderedness constitute any objective standard. It draws from science studies,ecofeminism,environmental justice,and queer geography. These perspectives break apart various "dualisms" that exist within human understandings of nature and culture.
Alicia Helda Puleo García 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.
Feminism or death is a book of essays about ecofeminism by Françoise d´Eaubonne. In it,d'Eaubonne first coined the term ecofeminism (l'eco-féminisme),which conceptualizes the apparent linkage between the treatment of women and the environment.
Ecofeminism generally is based on the understanding that gender as a concept is the basis of the human-environment relationships. Studies suggest that there is a difference between men and women when it comes to how they treat nature,for instance,women are known to be more involved with environmentally friendly behaviors. Socially there is an important claim in the ecofeminism theoretical framework that the patriarchy is linked to discrimination against women and the degradation of the environment. In Canada the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics in 2020 shows that ineffective environmental management and mismanagement of hazardous waste is affecting different age groups,genders,and socioeconomic status in different ways,while three years before that,Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017 submitted another report,warning the government about how the exposure to environmental hazards is a different experience for minorities in Canada. There have been ecofeminist movements for decades all over Canada such as Mother's Milk Project,protests against Uranium mining in Nova Scotia,and the Clayoquot Sound Peace Camp. Ecofeminism has also appeared as a concept in the media,such as books,publications,movies,and documentaries such as the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood and Fury for the Sound:the women at Clayoquot by Shelley Wine. Ecofeminism in the Canadian context has been subject to criticism,especially by the Indigenous communities as they call it cultural appropriation,non-inclusive,and inherent in colonial worldviews and structures.
