Janet Biehl
is one of the premier authors on
Social Ecology
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism links ecology with feminism.
Ecofeminists see the domination of women as stemming from the same ideologies that bring about the domination of the environment.
Patriarchal systems, where men own and control the land, are seen as responsible for the oppression of women and destruction of the natural environment.
Since the men in power control the land, they are able to exploit it for their own profit and success. In this same situation, women are exploited by men in power for their own profit, success, and pleasure. Women and the environment are both exploited as passive pawns in the race to domination.
Those people in power are able to take advantage of them distinctly because they are seen as passive and rather helpless.
Ecofeminism connects the exploitation and domination of women with that of the environment. As a way of repairing social and ecological injustices, ecofeminists feel that women must work towards creating a healthy environment and ending the destruction of the lands that most women rely on to provide for their families.
Ecofeminism argues that there is a connection between women and nature that comes from their shared history of oppression by a patriarchal Western society.
Vandana Shiva explains how women's special connection to the environment through their daily interactions with it have been ignored. She says that "women in subsistence economies, producing
and reproducing wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic
and ecological knowledge of nature’s processes.
But these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the [capitalist] reductionist 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.”
Ecofeminism also criticizes Western lifestyle choices, such as consuming food that has traveled thousands of miles and playing sports (such as golf and bobsledding) which inherently require ecological destruction.
However, feminist and social ecologist Janet Biehl has criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on a mystical connection between women and nature and not enough on the actual conditions of women.
See also: Environmentalism
