Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is the study of women's connections to nature and how they inspire particular forms of environmental activism, stewardship, and spiritual attachments to Earth. This entry explores the evolution and key debates within ecofeminist thought, identifying some influential thinkers and suggesting avenues for further exploration. The three main themes within ecofeminism addressed here are (1) patriarchy and the domination of Earth, (2) Earth-centered spirituality, and (3) historical materialism and women's knowledge.

The term ecofeminism often conjures up images of women chaining themselves to logging equipment, yet ecofeminism is far more than an activist and spiritual movement. Ecofeminism emerged as a field of study in the mid to late 1970s, heralded by the publication of a seminal paper by Sherry Ortner and a book by Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her, both of which examined the associations of women with nature. These texts marked the beginning of more than three decades of feminist and other scholarship challenging the Enlightenment binaries through which modern Western culture has developed. While ecofeminism diversified and evolved, and alternative ecological feminisms and feminist political ecology emerged, the argument that the oppression of women and environmental degradation are connected remained an important contribution to knowledge. Ecofeminists assert that the association of women with nature and men with culture is not an innocent by-product of modernity but rather is integrally linked to a host of other binaries, including rational/emotional, nurturing/competitive, and nature/society.

Key to understanding the themes of ecofeminism is understanding what is meant by essentialism and the critiques of it. Essentialism refers to the idea that a particular group of people contain essential characteristics that give them privileged knowledge or physical attributes. Common examples of essentialist thinking are the assumptions that all women are inherently nurturing and that a particular race of people are inherently good athletes. Many ecofeminists embraced the idea that women are closer to nature and used it to insist that women are inherently better environmental protectors. Griffin's work employed evocative and poetic literary devices to equate the violence done to the land with violence done to women. The phrase “roaring inside her” suggested that women, like nature, could fight back and were doing so, using their “nature”; here, it is assumed that patriarchy and women's inherent nature lead to their understanding of and “rage” over environmental exploitation. But other ecofeminists have rejected this kind of essentialism and insist that it is women's material existence or their experience that gives them an understanding of nature. They therefore postulate a nonessential association with nature. The tension between essentialist and nonessentialist renderings of the women-nature connection has in many respects been a defining feature of schisms within ecofeminist debates. This is elaborated as follows.

A core premise of ecofeminist thinking is that patriarchy and the domination of women [Page 818]underlie other problematic social inequalities such as racism, heterosexism, and environmental exploitation. Ecofeminists have diverged over the implications of this association and the best way to overcome such binaries. Some have remained committed to the idea that women are closer to nature than are men and seek to celebrate that closeness and the privileged knowledge they believe it gives women. These so-called essentialist feminists have been widely criticized, although to suggest that their point of view has been rejected entirely is inaccurate. The second main focus of ecofeminist scholarship is that of spirituality. Spiritual ecofeminists seek to recover a metaphysical understanding of the world that worships Earth as a nurturing, living, female being to foster more sustainable environmental practices. Yet both an understanding of women as inherently closer to nature, and the notion of a female-centered spirituality, rely on essentialist notions of what it means to be a “woman.” Critiques of essentialist thinking from within ecofeminism have emphasized that any privileged knowledge women have of nature arises from the material conditions of their lives. As women work in forests or fields or fulfill other (usually household-related) duties, they gain a deeper knowledge of environmental change and a better sense of environmental stewardship. It is their experience that makes them “closer to nature,” not their biology or inherent characteristics. Ecological feminisms and feminist political ecology have emerged from these critiques, although within ecofeminist thinking itself, a strong anti-essentialist focus continues to counterbalance essentialist thinking.

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