Did you know that the nickname “treehugger” started because thirty mothers sought to provide clean water for their families?
When I first stumbled upon the term “ecofeminism,” I was confused about what the two ideas had to do with one another. I assumed that I was an ecofeminist—I mean, I’m a feminist and an eco-geek—but it’s more complicated than that. After a little digging, I realized that the issue had far more at stake than inspiring a feminist to recycle.
“Ecofeminism is based on the theory that the oppression of women and the oppression of nature are fundamentally linked. In ecofeminist literature, ecofeminism is often described as the belief that environmentalism and feminism are intrinsically connected. Another definition suggests that discrimination and oppression based on gender, race and class are directly related to the exploitation and destruction of the environment.” -Winifred Fordham Metz, “How Ecofeminism Works”
Ecofeminism appeared in the early 1970’s, but it didn’t develop through the growth of feminist activists that were gaining headway. Instead, ecofeminism found its roots in the green movement, a place in which women could find leadership roles and gain agency that other areas of politics and political activism had barred them from. Think back to 1970’s America…it’s not the worst place to be a woman, but it certainly isn’t the best place either. Logically, a grassroots movement would find weight with women looking to prove their abilities as strong-minded, intelligent, and capable participators in a shared cause with others who understand their experiences and ideas.
Then, in 1974, thirty Himalayan women in Northern India came together to save over 10,000 square miles of forest watershed. The effects of deforestation in the Himalayas cause life-threatening flooding, landslides, and significant soil erosion. As a result, the women of the community would have been forced to trek farther up the mountainside each day to retrieve fuel and other necessities for their families and fellow villagers.
This later became known as the “Chipko” Movement, roughly translating in Hindi to “to hug/to cling,” and found its name from the protesters who threw their arms around the trees marked for chopping. The practice gained fame and was popularized in other areas of the world as what we fondly call “tree-hugging.”
(Image: Dr. Vandana Shiva, one of the leading activists and theorists of Ecofeminism.)
Throughout most of our history, the involvement and the achievements of women has existed behind closed, locked, and barricaded doors. Regardless of political or environmental opinions, renegade females leading a movement that men of the time refused to is an empowering image that should be celebrated. This is what got me most interested in ecofeminism. The ability the movement has to garner respect in the history books for women, addressing the issues that most affect women.
The stereotype of a woman who stays home all day to feed her children, cook, and tend a garden pushes against many of our ideas, but in most developing countries (and historically in most cultures) women are more than cooks, housewives, and gardeners. They are water gathers, house builders, animal caretakers, and most importantly, farmers of entire communities’ food supplies. Part of the reason many cultures have for centuries thought that women and the environment are intrinsically linked is because women have historically been responsible for agriculture. It was, and still is in many places, women taking care of fields, tending animals, and finding fresh water.
When we look at a global scale, these responsibilities and this lifestyle is pervasive. Women everywhere still fulfill these responsibilities; therefore, they are most affected by soil depletion, water contamination, deforestation, lack of biodiversity, loss of native flora and fauna, pollution, and desertification.
That’s a whole lot of responsibility, and regardless of the Western ideas many of us possess about liberating women from domestic roles, this is the reality of millions of women. As an American feminist, I complain about the gender gap, but the gap that exists in developing countries where women are still confined to the domestic sphere is unimaginable for me. The only way to combat these strict gender roles and gender inequalities in developing countries is by strengthening education and equitable economic development. By raising the health and standards of an environment, we also raise farming conditions, thus allowing for more equitable and stable economic development in local agriculture and trace. Additionally, this has the potential to lessen the need for young girls to assist with farming and daily tasks, thus providing the time and extra funds necessary for an education that will help improve the status of women in their communities.
(Image: In a Piplantri Village in India, 111 trees are planted for every baby girl born in an effort to prove to men the value of women, their roles, and the environment that current modern business practices are destroying.)
While this might sound like a rough draft of a goal, it also sounds like the exact thing social activists have been telling us for years: investing in the women of developing countries is the fastest route to improving quality of life.
Microfinance, aka small business loans (usually between $25-$100), gained extreme popularity within the last decade. The website KIVA is nearly a household name and one of the world’s most successful nonprofit organizations. In just 2012, 80.46% of Kiva’s loans went to female entrepreneurs, and their current numbers report steady increases of female entrepreneur annually. Kiva emphasizes support for women because they have the most to gain from the fields of microcredit and finance. Strict divisions of labor, lack of education, and allocation of resources to male family members prevent women from closing the gender gap, achieving both equality and independence.
So the next time someone says “my small contribution won’t matter” when combating recycling or reducing their carbon footprint, remind them that it does. Environmental pressures might not seem like a real danger or a personal issue because we live in a first world country, but others all over the world feel them. Women all over the world feel the effects of our pollution and lifestyle choices. Maybe recycling doesn’t matter to someone here in Gambier, but what about an entire forest in rural India? What about a forest that protects a village’s fields from flooding or harsh winds that cause topsoil loss and loss of nutrient-rich soil for crops? What about the women to depend on those crops and clean water to feed families?
Many people say they don’t have time to think about the environment, but I can’t imagine a single woman who doesn’t have the time to think about global gender equality.
Image Credit: Duane Toops, Callie Garp, Lost Ate Minor, Seal of Excellence