What is Ecofeminism?

Many times when we look at environmental problems, minorities are often the most affected. We see a trend that in poorer areas of our society, there is a high concentration of people of color. In these areas of low income there can be many toxic waste facilities, lack of water and air quality, land degradation and more. Many people of color often are forced to live in these conditions with little to no other option. Other than people of color, women and environmental problems go hand and hand as well. This is something many people tend to not associate, although, women are dominated by men within society, similar to how the ecosystem is dominated by humans. Both women and the environment face discrimination of domination which I want to delve deeper into.

People who believe that gender and environmental inequality are related, are often labeled as “Ecofeminists”, which is an ideology many people connect with. In “Communicating Nature” by Julia B Corbett, she first begins with the idea of feminism before relating it to nature. Feminists believe that disrimination against women should be eliminated in the realms of representation and social rights. To them, valuing the femininity within the world is extremely important to eliminate gender inequality. They believe that this world is dominated by men and the hierarchy should be removed so that we are living harmoniously and equally. Essentially, they address that there is a hierarchical system which is driven by the need for power and control. Similarly, the nonhuman world is dominated and controlled by a hierarchy, which women have the ability to relate to.

An ecofeminism ideology is similar in the sense that these people want the hierarchy and control of both women and the natural world to come to an end. It is a feminist approach on talking about ethics in the environment. Corbett puts Ecofeminism as believing that “a society is gendered in ways that subordinate, exploit, and oppress women and the natural world”(Corbett 46). To address social change in the environment we must acknowledge the the systems of power and domination and what hierarchical powers dominate our world. Although women and nature are not the same thing, they are both dominated within this world. Not just women are dominated, many minorities fall under this idea of being dominated although, ecofeminism mainly just focuses on the power that men have over them and how it relates to control over the nonhuman world. One statement in Corbett’s book that personally stood out to me was that ecofeminists believe that, “there is not a single path of enlightenment and not centralized rule for transcendence” (Corbett 48). I think we need to reconstruct social norms and the hierarchy within our society, but there is no one single way to go about the issue. Any act of physical change towards ending social domination is a step towards progress.

Corbett, Julia B. Communicating Nature: How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages. Island Press, 2006.

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