A Guiding Light in the Search for a Better Tomorrow: WHAT IS ECOFEMINISM?
Two edits:
I am now free to introduce, with their permission, the two teen girls who are the authors of the wonderful ‘Tips on Media Literacy’ program that I included in my “Girl Power” Post:
They are Natalie Forlenza and Rachel Chang who just graduated from their high school on Wednesday!
These two girls were Montessori educated together from the age of three through eighth grade, and then they were students together through their four high school years. Now they are off to different universities. We wish them well! Brava Natalie and Rachel! Thank you!
Apologies for the Thomas Berry website link that was broken in the last post. Here is the corrected link: thomasberry.org
So…Let’s begin:
What is ecofeminism and why are we calling it a guiding light?
Ecofeminism is a theory and a movement that puts together the ecological/environmentalist movement and the women’s feminist movement. Ecofeminism understands that the two movements are wholeheartedly connected.
What ecofeminism does is that it brings to the environmentalist movement the light of feminist ideology and theory. Ecofeminism is a specific way of looking at the plight of our environment, our Earth—actually, ourselves—with a feminist perspective.
And what is that perspective? I would focus the perspective on one word—one theory, one viewpoint—and that is the concept of patriarchy, the ancient hierarchical rule of domination and control.
The ecofeminist perspective, at its heart, means looking at environmental issues as they have been impacted by the patriarchal order in the same way that women’s issues have been impacted by the patriarchal order.
The coining of the term ecofeminism is credited to French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne (1920-2005) who used it in her1974 book Le féminisme ou la mort (Feminism or Death), in which she speaks of a special connection that women share with nature and encourages women's environmental activism. [1]
However, there have developed a myriad number of approaches in ecofeminist theory as indicated by the chart below:
While these approaches share the core belief that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature are interconnected, they differ in their analyses and solutions.
I personally value, and will use for my discussion, the four-fold insight of Karen J. Warren on the foundations of ecofeminism as her theory is explained in Eleanor Rae’s book Women, the Earth, the Divine, page 24. [2] [3].
Karen J. Warren (1947-2020)
Karen Warren's ecofeminism is best characterized as ecofeminist philosophy, encompassing both racial and cultural dimensions.
Her work emphasizes the interconnectedness of sexism, racism, and environmental oppression.
She argues that the historical domination of women and nature itself are linked, and that—here is her crucial theory—“understanding one requires understanding the other.”
Eleanor Rae lays provides Karen Warren’s analysis in these four ways:
That the oppression of women and the oppression of nature are deeply connected issues
That an adequate understanding of these twin oppressions calls for an understanding of the nature of these connections
That feminist theory and practice call for an ecological perspective
That ecological problems can be solved only if they include a feminist perspective.
Basically, Warren is saying that the environmentalist movement and the feminist movement need each other!
Ecofeminism accomplish that when it pairs the study and the activism of both movements.
The way I see it, following Warren, the basic and significant insight of ecofeminism is this.
Ecofeminism holds that the connection between the oppression of women and the degradation of the Earth is based on the following premise:
Under the patriarchal system, both women and the Earth are viewed as instruments, particularly as instruments of production. Neither is considered as a subject in its own right, to be valued because it exists.
Also, women and Nature are each viewed as “Other” —as separate and distinct from the ruling male culture. Viewed as “Other”, they unconnected to the dominant culture.
In the patriarchal view, both the Earth and women exist to be used for the benefit of and to fulfill the needs of the dominant male power culture.
Any resulting damages are ignored or denied. Both women and Nature are considered expendable and easily discarded when no longer useful.
The patriarchal system’s basic values are domination and control, values predominantly found in male culture.
And those patriarchal values, when applied to Earth and women, detrimentally —even dangerously—affect both.
Because women and the Earth are viewed as “Other”, any damage to them would not seem hurtful to the dominant male culture, which, in turn, does not empathize with what is not within its own culture.
Disclaimer: the above assessment is a generality. Patriarchal values of dominance and control are not restricted solely to males.
There are women today who espouse—and others who have historically supported—the values of domination and control.
Fortunately, there are plenty of gentle men who do not.
Following are examples of patriarchal domination and control of NATURE and of WOMEN—and how the powerful have used them as instruments of production for profit.
In the examples, treating NATURE as object in use for profit are the logging and natural oil drilling images.
To demonstrate the treatment of women as object for profit is the story of the “Radium Girls.”
NATURE
The Earth’s resources are used for production without regard for their own existence or for the forms of life they support.
WOMEN
Radium Girls, Waterbury, Connecticut Clock Company, 1920s
Young women in their twenties in the early part of the 20th century were hired to paint watch dials with radium-laced paint in order to give them a “glow-in-the dark” feature to enhance the sale of watches to the military.
Employers instructed the women to point their brush tips for precision by swirling the brushes in their lips. As a result of that practice, deformity and death awaited the young women (sometimes years later) from the effects of the radio-active radium.
Company executives knew of the dangers of radium. They did not care, as the profit motive was stronger than their concern for the women whom they considered as mere tools of production.
Following are two photographs of final-project dioramas that my high school religion students gifted me a few years ago at the end of our study of the “Radium Girls,” which is how the women were eventually termed.
Notice the image of the blatantly jovial executives in the lower right corner of the second work.
By including that image, the student had not only demonstrated that she had fully grasped the patriarchal nature of the tragedy, but she also persuasively contextualized the exploitation of the women.
Bringing the environmentalist movement and the feminist movement together as ecofeminism dies, exposes the destructive root of patriarchy and raises awareness of the connections.
Below we see how the young “get it,” as do more and more people..
We at C:WED, and others like us, see ecofeminism as a hopeful way toward a solution to save the Earth—and its women.
…To be continued
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Previous Post. Ecofeminism: First Stop: What really is the Earth? by Anne Andersson 5/25/2025
—Just to let you know I appreciate all your time and effort that you put into this. You have done a lot of research on this and it is obvious when the reader completes the article. Thanks again. —Barbara
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Resources:
(1) Françoise le Bonne, Le féminisme ou la mort, 1974, CLANDESTIN. English version: Feminism or Death: How the Women’s Movement Can Save the Planet, 2022, Verso Publishers.
2) Eleanor Rae, Women, the Earth, the Divine, 1994, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
3) Karen J. Warren, “Feminism and Ecology: Making Connections,” Environmental Ethics, 9, no, 1 (1991): 180-81.
See Karen Warren’s other works here.
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We have planned this series to explore two movements—the Women’s Movement and the Environmental Movement as they exist and are linked in a patriarchal word—and as shown through the lens of ecofeminism.
We have adjusted our publishing schedule, still one post each week, for the next few weeks —to the completion of this series.
