Last week we talked about what we thought ecofeminism meant to us and connected those thoughts to a few ecofeminist writers.
Today, I will be answering a few questions, one of which being, “In what ways are women in the Global South affected by environmental degradation?” Well for starters, women in the South have to take on the responsibilities of the household which includes cooking, cleaning and caring for the kids. Once environmental degradation came into play in the South, these women had more to worry about. As stated in the article Water and Gender, “without safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities at home and in places of work and education, it is disproportionately harder for women and girls to lead safe, productive, healthy lives. Across low-income countries, women and girls have primary responsibility for the management of household water supply, sanitation, and health”. In these areas, finding clean water is a huge issue that falls on the women to solve, and it is the women who are affected by this contaminated water the most.
In an interview between Scott London and Vandana Shiva, Dr. Shiva explains how she lead her life beginning as a female physicist and then transitioning to the ecofeminism world. She explains that after her experiences with physicists, she states, “The other issue was the disappearance of the Himalayan forest where I had grown up. There was a movement blossoming called the Chipko movement. Peasant women were coming out and embracing trees to prevent logging. My father had been a forester and I had grown up on those hills. I had seen forests and streams disappear”, this experience of watching her home be destroyed, she knew she had to take action. She later tells the interviewer Scott London that, “I jumped into this movement and started to work with the peasant women. I learned from them about what forests mean for a rural woman in India in terms of firewood and fodder and medicinal plants and rich knowledge”.
Last week we talked about two authors named Warren and Hobgood-Oster and their specific views on ecofeminism. As a recap, Hobgood-Oster believes that ecofeminism is a way of life that “acts in both and neither of these broad movements, simultaneously serving as an environmental critique of feminism and a feminist critique of environmentalism”. Warren believes that “the goal of ecofeminist environmental ethics is to develop theories and practices concerning humans and the natural environment that are not male-biased and provide a guide to action in the prefeminist present”. This week our spotlight author is Bina Agarwal and her article, The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India, and states, “The Green Revolution embodies a technological mix which gives primacy to laboratory-based research and manufactured inputs and treats agriculture as an isolated production system”. She talks about how the agriculture industry in the South has been industrialized and is more laboratory-based than what it used to be which is causing environmental impact.
Personally, I find the Southern ecofeminism point of view more intriguing because I would like to find out how these women ecofeminists plan to take on the issues of having clean water and also how they will battle gender inequality in their hometowns.
Hi Deanna,
I like how you addressed your previous blog post, not a lot of the blogs I’ve read so far have done so. This makes it seem like a more cohesive blog and also ties in what you talked about last week with your most recent post. I also liked that you mentioned the Chipko movement in your post. I found that to be very interesting and liked how you incorporated it into your post. The image you chose adds a nice touch. I also agree with you on the ecofeminist standpoint. I am also intrigued on how women of the global south will take on their issues without the resources the west has. We have a lot of resources and still have problems, I wonder what they have been doing in the mean time while fighting for their issues.
Hi Deanna!! Your post this week was awesome, it was very clear and an easy read while still being a critical conversation of ecofeminism. Although I would have loved to see a picture or two. Your first paragraph and the way you discussed third world women and their lack of access to water, reminded me of a mini project I had done last semester that focused on the fact that many countries don’t have water policies in place that give all individuals the right to water. I think this could easily be connected to the ecofeminism conversation. I’m pretty confident when I say that if it was the men who were primarily responsible for the household’s water that things would be much different. Maybe these countries would have policies in place to ensure everyone’s access to water is safe and manageable in a realistic way. You talk briefly about the differences between western and non-western ecofeminism perspectives but you never really explain why you think those differences exist. I’m just curious as to your thoughts on this as the rest of your blog is fairly developed with your own opinions, even if I have to read between the lines to find them. Lastly, I agree that non-western perspectives are much more interesting, probably because it’s not the norm for us and it’s always fun to learn about new cultures. Although our perspective isn’t as fun to learn and read about, I do think it includes a big concept about ecofeminism that the non-western perspective seems to lack or at least seems to not explain it as a priority. Our male dominated world is at the center of both our environmental and feminist issues that I believe wouldn’t be as widespread if we didn’t live in a patriarchal system. Regardless I really liked your blog and look forward to your thoughts in upcoming weeks.