Feminist Environmentalism

Feminist environmentalisms operate theoretically and politically at the nexus of the feminist and environmental social movements. What unites the multiple branches of feminist environmentalism today is a belief in the fundamental connection between the oppression/domination of women/minorities and the oppression/domination of nonhuman nature. In essence, feminist environmentalists argue that one cannot eliminate human domination of other humans (e.g., [Page 1091]sexism) without working to dismantle all forms of domination, including human domination of the natural world. This entry outlines the major avenues for connecting feminist and environmental analyses.

In a Western context, the connections between the treatment of women and nonhuman nature have been around since the earliest days of the suffrage and abolitionist movements in England and the United States. Many of the women who took ...