Hi again, two posts in one week!
In this post, I will be talking about an ecofeminist analysis of government, particularly government actions and policies.
Two authors, Kari Norgaard and Richard York wrote Gender Equality and State Environmentalism. They conducted a study to compare how successful a country was at creating gender equality, and a country’s ability to help the environment with women in power. They state, “Specifically, we perform a cross-national analysis examining the association between the percentage of national Parliament composed of women and national support for a selection of key international environmental treaties “. In the conclusion of their study, they found that “Our results clearly show that nation-states with a greater proportion of women in national Parliament, controlling for other factors, typically are more prone to environmental treaty ratification than other nations”, meaning that they found significant evidence to the correlation between gender equality and environmentalism with women in parliament. So, in order to achieve gender equality and progress to better the environment, we must put more women in power positions in the government who are ecofeminists.
Next, we were asked to find two examples of the connection between women in political power and state environmentalism. One example I found was from a website (linked below) that talks about the connection between women and the environment. One example they gave was of, “Aleksandra Koroleva worked both within government and as a community organizer with Ecodefense! where she coordinated acts of civil disobedience to raise awareness around pollution of water resources, nuclear waste and creating protected nature reserves”. Aleksandra also is part of an organization called, “The Barefoot College trains women in Tilonia, Rajasthan, in solar engineering in ways that ensure that this scientific knowledge remains, grows, and circulates within the community.” This one woman was able to accomplish so many wonderful things to help the other women in her community. This example connects to the Kari Norgaard and Richard York study directly because it shows that when women are put into positions of power, they can accomplish great things that benefit the environment and government as well as their community.
Another example I found was from, Greta Thunberg, a 17-year-old environmental activist. She spends her days fighting for climate change to be stopped. She protests and started school strikes all around the world in order to bring awareness to this issue. As stated in the article, “But as her fame has grown, she has called for governments around the world to do more to cut global emissions. She has spoken at international meetings, including the UN’s 2019 climate change gathering in New York, and this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. At the forum, she called for banks, firms, and governments to stop investing and subsidizing fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and gas.” This directly relates back to Norgaard and York’s study as well because this one girl has called to make changes in governments from multiple countries to benefit the environment, and she is acting as a female role model for women and kids all over the world.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49918719
Lastly, we were asked to find a statistic that illustrates Norgaard and York’s central thesis. I have found that The New Green Deal fits this criterion. What is the Green Deal? “The Green New Deal is a congressional resolution that lays out a grand plan for tackling climate change. Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, the proposal calls on the federal government to wean the United States from fossil fuels and curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. It also aims to guarantee new high-paying jobs in clean energy industries.” This Deal was introduced by women and will be settled by women in power in the government.
(The photo below has a link imbedded in it to the website I used, it will not allow me to paste the link).
Hi Deanna! Great job on getting two blog posts in one week done! I loved your thoughts on ecofeminist theories in regard to the government. When asked to come up with our own examples using Norgaard and York’s findings, I too thought of Greta Thunberg, how could you not? Although I didn’t end up using her as one of my examples. She has become such a big face in the fight against climate change and she’s so young. ‘She’ being the key word. You didn’t go into too much details to describe how Greta fits into Norgaard and York’s findings, but if you had I can imagine it’d go something like this. Although Greta is not in any technical role of power, I’d argue that she now holds a lot of power. As such a young girl who is clearly very educated and passionate about the fight against climate change, she has become very influential towards our younger generations. We are starting to see more younger people join the fight against climate change. I found this website https://feature.undp.org/fighting-for-a-stolen-future/ which discusses a range of young people, Greta included, passionate about climate change, because it’s the young people who are inheriting this dying world. Because Greta is so widely known, she holds that power that has created this spark in an entirely new generation of people to fight against climate change. Thus matching up with Norgaard and York’s findings that women in power leads to more action against climate change. Lastly, I just wanted to comment on your ‘statistic’ portion of the blog. You are right the New Green Deal was proposed by women which certainly aligns with everything we’ve discussed thus far, but I don’t find this to be a statistic, more like another example of Norgaard and York’s findings. I tried to go to the link within the picture but nothing was happening when I clicked it. You did a great job with this blog especially since you did two in one week, props on that. Keep up with the great work! And stay safe and healthy.
Hi Deanna!
Hope you’re doing well with all that is going on. We’re so closed to being done. For your blog this week, I believed you summed up the study analysis conducted by Norgaard and York perfectly. I wanted to mention more on the statistics mentioned by Norgaard and York. In their study they included a graph which showed statistical numbers connecting equality amongst genders in nations to state environmentalism. What was shown was that in nations with equality towards women, more state environmental policies existed. Norgaard and York mentioned in their analysis different studies that show that women and girls when compared to men and boys are more likely to show environmental awareness and compassion towards the environment. This supports the statistical evidence shown in the chart in the study. When more women are placed in politics and show interest in saving the environment, more state environmental policies and implemented. While I don’t know how successful some of these policies are, its still a great start for saving the planet. Speaking of saving the planet, I thought using Greta Thunberg as one of your examples supporting the thesis provided by Norgaard and York was so fitting. Greta Thunberg is a young girl looking to spread awareness for climate change. She has opened the eyes of so many young people as well as older people on why we should be protecting the environment. Greta has really shown that when women, whether they be young or old, when put in politics change can occur or movements for change can occur. I believe that mentioning the Green Deal was a great idea as well. I think it served as a good example supporting the thesis of Norgaard and York once again. I think it would serve better as that than a statistic presented by Norgaard and York. However, with your example you could include the statistics showing equality towards women and then the state environmentalism connection that comes with the equality and use the Green Deal as support to show Women creating effective environmental policies. I enjoyed reading your blog this week! Great work!
“In an unequal society, the impacts of environmental degradation fall disproportionately on the least powerful. Gendered divisions of labor, land and other resources have meant that women have been unequally and disproportionately affected by ecological destruction (Wangari,
Thomas-Slayter, and Rocheleau 1996).” Mentioned quote is from Norgaard and York’s article, which clearly states that women are the one who are most affected by any changes in environment. It’s a fact that we don’t need to prove that women are the nurturers, caregivers and a primary teacher. Nurturer because she provides food for the babies that is milking. Caregivers because they take care of everyone in the family. And primary teacher because she teaches her children the difference between right and wrong. I have written primary because secondary teachers are the one who teaches us in schools, colleges and universities.
I have mentioned in one of my blogs about how in cotton cultivation women are assigned the task of plucking cotton.
The picture I wanted to paste has the link bellow I couldn’t paste it here but it shows women plucking cotton. But you can also see that regardless these spiky branches can wound these women, they are still completing their task. It is only because plucking cotton requires patience which unfortunately men aren’t blessed with.
Such argument on women’s susceptibility is made by César Chelala who talks about how environmental degradation affect women and children the most. She mostly talked about pregnant women and how the burden of agriculture and domestic work can be a threat to both pregnant mother and the child. She states that “Over the past several decades, demand for resources and industrial processes have been responsible for increasing level of pollution and the degradation of air water and land… women and children have been primarily affected.”
The example that you chose of Greta is wonderful. That child has done such an amazing job and it shows the contribution of a girl who started this protest for protecting Earth which is speechless. Sometimes I feel like being 24 I should be ashamed as of what we elder should be doing is done by a 17-year-old. This should be a motivation for all of us especially now when we are studying ecofeminism do contribute for environmental protection.
Reference
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/20/environmental-degradation-takes-heavy-toll-women-and-childrens-health
https://www.technoserve.org/blog/cultivating-change-in-cotton/
Deanna,
I appreciate how you brought up the Green New Deal, I also mentioned it in my blog! The Green New Deal should be super precious to us as women and as ecofeminists for several reasons! (I hope it’s alright I consider you an eco-fem). I don’t know if you are aware, but did you know that our current members of Congress hold our first female Muslim member, first Native American woman member, and our youngest woman member? Not to mention the most women to hold seats in Congress ever! It’s all very exciting, to witness such progression. Many of these same women support the Green New Deal and have linked its benefits to increase in employment and decrease in homelessness. The research that York and Norgaard’s research does not fall short here and thankfully not. Thank you for your post and stay safe.
Info source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/03/these-are-the-women-making-history-as-the-116th-congress-is-sworn-in.html