Nature, care and gender

The Geographical Journal, 2004

Human beings have long been thought of as masters of the natural world with a drive to dominate and control. This drive to dominate and control typically seen as a mark of manhood is viewed as having dangerous consequences for nature, women, children, and other living things. Historically, activities of the early days, which gave rise to our present modern industrial society, were very much a masculine enterprise right from the start, filled with clear images of the all-powerful male mind conquering a female Nature. This victory of male dominance over the female nature has extended into dominance, manipulation and oppression of nature and its environment as well. Just as women are viewed as being there to serve men's needs, nature is seen as existing for " man " to exploit at will. Within this reasoning, men often use and abuse women, children, peasant and tribal peoples, nature and the environment itself, for their own short-term selfish interest and advancement. This has led to the devastation of the natural environment and the further oppression of those who live most closely with it. Due to the fact that this situation of violence and exploitation is becoming a threat to life on earth, various studies, thoughts and movements have emerged to find the root of the problem and accurate diagnosis of their causes with a view to proffering theories to deal with them. This paper seeks to examine and analyze one or more of these studies or schools of thought known as feminism, ecology and ecofeminism in other to determine if they indeed do have adequate diagnosis of the world earth and environmental problems of degradation in relation to the activities of men and women, and solutions that may seem appropriate.

The Geographical Journal, 2004

he Eastern Ghats, ENVIS, Newsletter, Environment protection Training And Research Institute, Vol.9, No.1, pp.7-8., 2003

Review article of Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern by Ariel Salleh. London: Zed Books, 1997. Pp.xv + 196; index. £39.95 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 400 4 Women, Population and Global Crisis: A Political-Economic Analysis by Asoka Bandarage. London: Zed Books, 1997. Pp.xiii + 344; index, appendices. £42.50 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 428 4 Feminism and Ecology by Mary Mellor. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. Pp.v + 220; index. £45 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0745614175

2009

Combining feminist and ecological approaches, ecofeminism opposes the domination of the white male over women, over the poor and over the natural world. Virginie Maris surveys epistemological, moral and social forms of the ecofeminist critique, drawing conclusions about the association between reductionist science and paternalist capitalism.

International Journal of Environmental Pollution and Environmental Modelling, 2020

The scriptures and the early Church all pronounced upon women in almost exclusively masculine voice. Aristotelian philosophy deemed a woman to be 'inferior man' and this was corroborated by the interpretation of the creation of Eve as 'posterior et inferior' (last and lesser). Even in Medieval Europe there was a debate in which male writes attacked and defended women; the humanist writers of the Renaissance also showed the same trend. Ecofeminism is a twin concept encompassing both ecology and feminism. It is justified by saying that ecology or environment is closely associated with the female. The primary belief of ecofeminism is that the supremacy over women parallels the suppression of nature and that this mutual domination has led to environmental destruction by the controlling patriarchal society. This philosophy is based on the principle that there is a vital connection between the oppression of nature and women. Hence understanding these connections is necessary to understanding the two veins of oppression. Feminist theory must include an ecological perspective, and ecological problems must include a feminist perspective. Eco-feminists further argue that an environmental philosophy that fails to attend to these important links will be theoretically and practically deficient. The objective of the research is to explicate and examine with critically the objective of Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is a twin concept of both ecology and feminine and as such being a forceful approach in environmental deserves considerable attention to modern environmentalists.

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2013

After the cultural turn, it has become necessary to reconsider society’s relations to nature. This article provides a theoretically sound basis for feminist interventions in global environmental policies drawing on feminist economics and queer ecologies to theorize material(ist) perspectives on gender and nature. This is the starting point for rethinking social and gender relations to nature from the resource politics approach. Beyond the feminization of environmental responsibility this approach aims at an understanding of human life embedded in material and discursive processes – without putting the potential (re)productivity of the female body on the ideological pedestal of heterosexual maternity.

Speaking from the margins, ecofeminist analysis exposes many of the assumptions of neoclassical economics as gender biased and as anti-ecological. It identifies the abstract individual of neoclassical economics as a privileged male individual whose apparent 'autonomy' is predicated on the oppression of women, marginal people and nature. Thus ecofeminists tell a different story about economic man --from the grounds of others' experience up. Ecofeminism points to the limits of models of sustainability built on extending market rationality to non-market spheres of life. Ecofeminist economics contains a creative tension between a commitment to social justice and a determination not to colonize the wild.

NWSA Journal, 2000