Ecofeminism also calls attention to the fact that women are disproportionately affected by environmental issues. According to one report from the United Nations, because women worldwide typically hold less monetary wealth and rely on the natural environment more, they are more likely to be displaced by climate change and have to travel farther for resources, like water, as dry seasons extend. Research shows women are also more greatly affected by radiation than men. One study has even suggested some men may have internalized aversions toward environmentalism, as it could be perceived as feminine. There are several sub-branches of this movement, including vegetarian ecofeminism, spiritual ecofeminism, and materialist ecofeminism. But at their root, they all assert that masculine dominance has led to a disconnect between nature and culture, which has adversely affected marginalized groups as well as nature itself. Over the years, many more have explored the sentiment behind ecofeminism—and begun advocating for it. Women such as Vandana Shiva, founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, and Carolyn Merchant, author of Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, are just two prominent names within this movement since its inception. Some other names of note include Val Blumwood, Greta Gaard, and Susan Griffin, just to name a few. It’s been nearly 50 years since ecofeminism was formally introduced. Nowadays, even where the word itself is not used, the principles of ecofeminism are interwoven into the modern-day climate change movement among those who actively advocate for equitable change for people and the environment. Ecofeminism advocates for overhauling this entire masculine system of domination and exploitation—and replacing it with an ethic of care, an approach to morality grounded in feminine characteristics of care and nurturing. This approach focuses on human benevolence and acting in a way that prioritizes care for others. “If you are a person, a community, a family, or even a country that’s already facing many threats, whether that’s around health, inequity, whatever the case may be, climate change layers on and makes all of those threats more intense,” Katharine Wilkinson, author and vice president of Project Drawdown, tells mbg. “In a patriarchal system, women and girls—particularly women and girls who are poor, women and girls of color, indigenous women and girls—are already on uneven footing. Layer on climate change, and those existing vulnerabilities become heightened.” Hutner adds, “With all environmental injustice, ultimately, POC suffer the most. Particularly women of color.” Nearly half of the heat-related deaths in New York from 2000 to 2012 were Black people, for example, and communities of color breathe 38% more polluted air than white folks1 on average. But those voices are often left out of the conversation and not considered with regard to policy, legislation, and environmental improvements. And yet, the environmental movement grows increasingly white. “Part of the reason we need intersectionality is because white environmentalism, like white feminism, just doesn’t work. It’s not effective. We need compassion, connection, creativity, collaboration,” Wilkinson says. Environmentalism can’t just be about protecting a white suburb from a new development, for example. It has to address clean water and air in Black communities, pipelines in Native lands, and so on. “If what we’re talking about is transformation of our economy and society, it’s going to take transformational leadership to get us there. And that looks like leadership that’s more characteristically feminine,” Wilkinson says. “When you are close to the problem, you’re necessarily close to the solutions.” “Val Plumwood writes about this idea of binary structures and talks about how they’re problematic—and part of this patriarchal structure that’s not working,” Hutner adds. “It’s the idea that we need to break down all these binaries: man/woman; black/white, etc.” Nowadays, as more people begin to assert that we each have our own combination of feminine and masculine qualities, whether we are male or female, this criticism has lost some of its steam. And of course, there are tons of things all of us can do in our everyday lives to live more consciously and compassionately, from what we eat to empowering the women in our lives.
