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Ecofeminism:
An Overview
Lois Ann Lorentzen
University
of San Francisco
and
Heather
Eaton
Saint Paul University
Ecofeminism is
an activist and academic movement that sees critical
connections between the domination of nature and the
exploitation of women. The term ecofeminism, first
used by French feminist Francoise d’Eaubonne1 in
1974,
was hailed as the third wave of feminism. Ecofeminism,
as Karen Warren notes,2 is
an umbrella term for a wide variety of approaches.
One may be
a socialist ecofeminist, cultural ecofeminist, radical
ecofeminist, ecowomanist, etc. Although the categorization
of ecofeminism is a contested point, what holds these
disparate positions together is the claim that, as
Karen Warren writes, “there are important connections
between the domination of women and the domination
of nature.”3
Ecofeminist activism grew during the 1980s and 1990s
among women from the anti-nuclear, environmental, and
lesbian-feminist movements. The “Women
and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the Eighties” conference
held at Amherst (1980) was the first
in a series of ecofeminist conferences, inspiring the
growth of ecofeminist organizations and actions. The
politics behind these ecofeminist organizations, conferences,
and actions were based on an assessment of critical
links that were thought to exist between militarism,
sexism, classism, racism, and environmental destruction.
The
publication of Woman and
Nature: The Roaring Inside Her,4 Gyn/Ecology:
The Metaethics of Radical Feminism,5 New
Woman/New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation,6
and The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the
Scientific Revolution,7 in
the 1970s and early 1980s, were precursors to a burgeoning
of ecofeminist scholarship, especially in the fields
of philosophy, theology, and religious studies. These
and other books,
such as The Politics of Women’s
Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power
Within the Feminist Movement,8 Dreaming
the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics,9 and
essays by Ynestra King,10
were important texts
for
women
trying to integrate and interconnect their personal,
ecological, and political concerns.
The
University of Southern California hosted the “Ecofeminist
Perspectives: Culture, Nature, Theory” conference
(1987). This conference was followed by
similar conferences that inspired
the publication
of important anthologies that articulated ecofeminist
perspectives (e.g., Reweaving the World:
The Emergence of Ecofeminism,11 Reclaim the Earth: Women Speak Out for Life on Earth;12 and Healing
the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism13).
Anthologies and conferences also reflected the growing
involvement of ecofeminists
in the international arena, including an ecofeminist
presence at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro
(1992).
Although a range of woman/nature interconnections
are being explored within ecofeminist thought and
action,
three connections seem central to ecofeminist theory—the
empirical, the conceptual and/or cultural/symbolic,
and the epistemological. The empirical claim is that
in most parts of the world environmental problems generally
disproportionately affect women. The increased burdens
women face result not from environmental deterioration
per se, but from a sexual division of labor found in
most societies that considers family sustenance to
be women’s work. It is increasingly difficult
for women in such societies to provide food, fuel,
or water. Empirical data supports this claim.14
A second
claim is that women and nature are connected conceptually
and/or culturally/symbolically. These
connections are articulated in several ways. Many agree
with Ruether that Western cultures present ideas about
the world in a hierarchical and dualistic manner that
is lived out in the way the world is organized. The
claim is that dualist conceptual structures identify
women with femininity, the body, Earth, sexuality,
and flesh; and men with masculinity, spirit, mind,
and power. Dualisms such as reason/emotion, mind/body,
culture/nature, heaven/Earth, and man/woman converge.
This implies that men have innate power over both women
and nature. This dualistic structure was championed
in the Greek world, perpetuated by Christianity, and
reinforced later during the scientific revolution.
In this cultural context,
the twin dominations of women and nature seem justified
and appear “natural,” primarily because
they are reinforced by religion, philosophy, and other
cultural symbols, networks, and constructions.
The ecofeminist
epistemological claim follows from the connections
noted between women and nature. The fact
that women are most adversely affected by environmental
problems makes them better qualified as experts
on such conditions and therefore places them in a position
of epistemological priviledge; that is, women have
more knowledge about earth systems than men. This means
that these women are in a privileged position to aid
in creating new practical and intellectual
ecological paradigms. This kind of understanding is
advocated by Indian ecofeminist Vandana Shiva.
Various responses to the woman-nature
link exist. Although both a historical and cross-cultural
connection, some
claim the link should be deconstructed and contested.
It has not served either women or the Earth. Others
say it should be celebrated and honored. Still others
consider it to be part
of past rather than present history. Ecofeminist responses
to these contested points vary given the preclinations
of the particular theorist (e.g., ecofeminists may
be Marxists, socialists, cultural ecofeminists, radical
ecofeminists, postcolonialists, postmodernists, ecowomanists,
goddess-worshipers, deep ecologists, social ecologists,
etc., or from a variety of religious backgrounds or
none at all).
Some of the earliest ecofeminist tesxts in theology
and religion examined the historical origins
of patriarchy via the philosophical and theological
traditions of Europe and the Mediterranean and found
that patriarchal religion justified the domination
of both women and nature. In historical reconstructions
by Gerda Lerner, Marija Gimbutas, Carol Christ, and
others, it is alleged that goddess-centered cultures
that valued women and nature predated the patriarchal
and militaristic systems that overthrew them. As patriarchal
gods replaced Earth goddesses, both women and nature
were degraded. According to these reconstructions,
male domination and hierarchy became the religious
symbols and social norms.
Cultural ecofeminists embrace
goddess-oriented ecofeminism. Drawing from nature-based
religions, paganism, goddess worship, Native American
traditions, and the Wiccan tradition, some ecofeminists
construct feminist spiritualities that they view as
being more
friendly to nature and women than the patriarchial
religious traditions.
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Anne Primavesi, Sallie McFague,
and
other Christian ecofeminist theologians
do not explicitly promote worship of pre-historic goddesses
but they do question the historical accuracy
of the claims. They argue that the possible existence
of pre-historic goddesses may serve as a “liberation
from the ultimacy of the biblical/Christian image of
the patriarchal god,” 15 but
they claim that a historically uncertain past will
not liberate the present. McFague and Merchant examine
the
connections
between religion, culture, and scientific worldviews,
claiming that the mechanistic models of Western science
led to a rupture between the material world and the
sacred that has harmed both women and nature. McFague,
Primavesi, Merchant, Ivone Gebara and others look
to the science of ecology to articulate a “common
creation story” as
part of an ecofeminist/natural sciences dialogue.
Although
this essay has focused on the growth of ecofeminism
in the North America, a variety of regional, ethnic,
and cultural ecofeminisms exist. Vandana Shiva frequently
invokes Hindu concepts and goddesses in her ecofeminist
thought. Ecofeminism and the Sacred16
included essays from Buddhist, Native American, Hindu,
womanist, Christian, and Jewish writers. Ruether's
text,
Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology,
Feminism,17 includes
essays from contributors living in Latin America, Asia,
and
Africa. Gebara,
a Brazilian theologian, articulates an
ecofeminist liberation theology connecting social justice
to ecological health.18
Ecofeminist critics,
some of whom are ecofeminists
themselves, warn of essentialist positions latent
in some forms of
ecofeminist thought. Others doubt that the woman/nature
link holds cross-culturally. The borrowing of symbols
from other
traditions by some ecofeminists is often
harshly
criticized, especially by Native Americans such as
Andy Smith. Others criticize the dominance
of white well-educated and privileged North American
ecofeminists. There is also much debate over the
place of ecofeminism within
other ecological paradigms, such as with social ecology
or deep ecology. Finally, for
many the historicity of the
matriarchal to patriarchal shift remains suspect. The
central premise
of ecofeminism remains; the dominations
of women and nature are linked in various ways (e.g.,
historically, materially, culturally, or conceptually).
1 Francoise d'Eaubonne, "Le Feminisme ou la mort." In
New French Feminisms: An Anthology, eds. Elaine Marks
and Isabelle de Courtivron (Amherst, Mass.: University
of Massachusetts Press, 1980).
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2 Karen Warren, ed., Ecological
Feminist Philosophies (Bloomington, Ind.: University of Indiana Press,
1996) x.
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3 Ibid.
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4 Susan Griffin, Woman and
Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (New York: Harper & Row,
1978).
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5 Mary Daly, Gyn-Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical
Feminism (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1978).
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6 Rosemary Radford Ruether, New Woman, New Earth:
Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation (New York: Seabury
Press, 1975).
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7 Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women,
Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (New York: Harper & Row,
1980).
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8 Charlene Spretnak, The Politics of Women’s
Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power
within the Feminist Movement (Garden City, N.Y. :
Anchor Books, 1982).
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9 Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and
Politics (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1982).
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10 Ynestra King, "Feminism and Ecology," in Toxic
Struggles, ed. Richard Hofrichter (Philadelphia,
Pa.: New Society Publishers, 1993), 76–84; Ynestra King,
"Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture
Dualism," in Reweaving the World: The Emergence of
Ecofeminism, eds. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein
(San Francisco, Calif.: Sierra Club Books, 1990), 106–21;
Ynestra King, "The Ecofeminist Imperative," in Reclaim
the Earth: Women Speak Out for Life on Earth, eds.
Leonie Caldecott and Stephanie Leland (London:
Women's Press, 1983), 9–14; Ynestra King, "Feminism and
the Revolt of Nature" Heresies 13 (fall 1981): 12–16.
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11 Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, eds. Reweaving
the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (San Francisco, Calif.:
Sierra Club Books, 1990).
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12 Léonie Caldecott and Stephanie Leland,
eds.,
Reclaim the Earth: Women Speak Out for Life on Earth (London:
Women’s
Press, 1983).
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13 Judith Plant, ed., Healing the Wounds:
The Promise of Ecofeminism (Philadelphia, Pa.: New Society Publishers,
1989).
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14 Rosi Bradiotti, et al., Women, the Environment,
and Sustainable Development: Towards a Theoretical
Synthesis (London:
Zed Books, 1994); Irene Dankelman and
Joan Davidson, Women and Environment in the Third
World (London: Earthscan Publications, 1988); Joni
Seager, Earth
Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms with the Global
Environmental Crisis (New
York: Routledge, 1993); Vandana Shiva, Staying
Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (London:
Zed Books, 1989).
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15 Rosemary Radford Ruether, ed. Women Healing
Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and
Religion (Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996) 4.
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16 Carol Adams, ed., Ecofeminism and the
Sacred (New
York: Continuum, 1993).
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17 Rosemary Radford Ruether,
ed. Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on
Ecology, Feminism, and Religion (Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996).
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18 Ivone Gebara, Longing
for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation (Minneapolis, Minn.:
Fortress Press, 1999).
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Copyright © 2002 Lois
Ann Lorentzen and Heather Eaton.
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