ECOFEMINISM

E.GOWSHIKA
17CER058
 PLAN

 Introduction
 Anti operations
 Gendering nature
 Environmental movement
 Major critiques
 Analysis of feminism
 Ecofeminism movements in India
 Modern science and ecofeminism
 Conclusion
Introduction:
The term Ecofeminism is used to describe a feminist approach to understanding
ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to theorize on the
relationship between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the
French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974).
Today, there are many intepretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to
social thought, including: ecofeminist art, ecofeminist theory, social justice and
political philosophy, religion, contemporary feminism and poetry. As there are
several different types of feminism and different beliefs held by feminists, there are
different versions of ecofeminism.

Antioperations:
According to Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort 1974,
Ecofeminism relates the oppression and domination of all subordinate groups to the
oppression and domination of nature. In the book, the author argues that oppression,
domination, exploitation, and colonization from the Western patriarchal society has
directly caused irreversible environmental damage. Françoise d'Eaubonne was an
activist and organizer, and her writing encouraged the eradication of all social
injustice, not just injustice against women and the environment.

Gendering nature:
Vandana Shiva says that women have a special connection to the environment
through their daily interactions and this connection has been ignored. She says that
women in subsistence ecofeminis who produce "wealth in partnership with nature,
have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature's
processes". She makes the point that "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 connection of
women's lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth” According to
Shiva, patriarchy has labeled women, nature, and other groups not growing the
economy as "unproductive".

Environmental movement:
Environmental movement addresses environmental issues. The term
environmental movement includes the conservation and green movements centered
on ecology, health, and human rights. As the environmental movement along with
environmental crises raised the consciousness of women to the decay of the earth,
they began to see a parallel between the devaluation earth and the devaluation of
women. Others outside ecofeminism also consider ecofeminism as a movement.

Major critiques:
Adherence to strict dichotomy between men and women: Some eco-feminist
critiques are that the dichotomy between women and men and nature and culture
creates a dualism that is too stringent and focused in the difference of women and
men. That eco-feminism too strongly correlates the social status of women with the
social status of nature, rather than the non-essentialist view that women along with
nature both have masculine and feminine qualities, and that just like feminine
qualities have often been seen as less worthy, nature is also seen as having lesser
value than culture, or the qualities involved in these concepts. Divergent view
regarding participation in oppressive structures: As opposed to radical and
liberation-based feminist movements, mainstream feminism which is most tightly
bound with hegemonic social status strives to promote equality within the existing
social and political structure, such as making it possible for women to occupy
positions of power in business, industry and politics, using direct involvement as the
main tactic for achieving pay equity and influence. In contrast, many ecofeminists
oppose active engagement in these areas, as these are the very structures that the
movement intends to dismantle.

Analysis of feminism:

In the 1980s and 1990s some began to see the advancing theories in
ecofeminism as essentialist. Through analysis done by post structural and third wave
feminists it was argued that ecofeminism equated women with nature. This
dichotomy is dangerous because it groups all women into one category and enforces
the very societal norms that feminism is trying to break. Out of this critique rose the
anti-essentialist argument. Ecofeminist and author Noel Sturgeon says in an
interview that what anti-essentialists are critiquing is a strategy used to mobilize
large and diverse groups of both theorists and activists. Social ecologist and feminist
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. She has also stated that rather than being a forward-moving theory,
ecofeminism is an anti-progressive movement for women.

Ecofeminism movements in India:

Langoti may be an odd name for a village, but such a village exists in the
Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. Just like any other backward village, this
village too has an unjust system of separation of upper castes and Dalits. The Dalit
part of the Langoti village had no access to water, making the lives of those
underprivileged people miserable especially for women, who like other women in
different parts of our country had to fetch water from long distances. The women not
only had courage but were also determined to solve this problem. So these Dalit
women went to the Langoti gram panchayat and asked them to build a well in the
nearby area. But the panchayat refused due to lack of funds. Undaunted, the women
picked up shovels and hammers and got down to digging a water well by themselves.
Within 40 days, the women could dig up a well 20 feet deep. After digging the well
up to 20ft they started facing some problems due to the hard rocks at the ground
level but with the help of hammers and other tools the water started flowing in the
well.

Piplantri village in Rajasthan stands as a contradiction in a country like ours

where female foeticide has been a common practise. The village’s former sarpanch
Shyam Sundar Paliwal was instrumental in starting an interesting eco-friendly
initiative in the memory of his daughter Kiran, who died very young. To confront
this unfortunate event Shyam Sundar Paliwal started a tradition in which 111 trees
are planted on the birth of every girl child. In his support all the villagers not only
plant saplings but also take care of them. It is also interesting to note that the villagers
plant Aloe Vera around these trees to save them from termites. Further, the forest
produce that they get from trees have become a source of income for many villagers,
especially Aloe Vera. The purpose of planting trees is to ensure that every girl child
is financially secure and for this the villagers contribute 21,000 collectively and take
10,000 from the parents to put it in a fixed deposit which gets matured when the girl
turns 20. Besides making the girl financially stable the villagers also make sure that
the girl receives proper education and is not married off before they attain adulthood.
Apart from conserving environment and empowering women the village has another
feather on its cap, it is reported that in the last 7-8 years there has been no police
case. The Piplantri village truly stands as an example of Ecofeminism that must be
emulated.
Modern science and Ecofeminism:
In Ecofeminism(1993) authors Vandhana Shiva, Maria Mies and Evan Bondi
Ponder modern science and its acceptance as a universal and value-free system.
Instead, they view the dominant stream of modern science as a projection of Western
men's values. The privilege of determining what is considered scientific knowledge
has been controlled by men, and for the most part of history restricted to men. Bondi
and Miles list examples including the medicalization of childbirth and the
industrialization of plant reproduction Bondi argues that the medicalization of
childbirth has marginalized midwife knowledge and changed the natural process of
childbirth into a procedure dependent on specialized technologies and appropriated
expertise.

Conclusion:

Modern ecofeminism, or feminist eco-criticism, eschews such essentialism and

instead focuses more on intersectional questions, such as how the nature-culture split
enables the oppression of female and nonhuman bodies. It is also an activist and
academic movement that sees critical connections between the exploitation of nature
and the domination over women both caused by men.