Ecofeminism is a feminist philosophy and practice born of the closeness of women and nature. Also the conviction that our system “was formed, built and maintained by the subordination of women, the colonization of “foreigners” and nature (1).
This perspective is responsible for questioning the fundamental aspects by which our society is governed. Thus, ecofeminism believes that capitalism and patriarchy go hand in hand. Both oppress, on the one hand, women; and, on the other hand, nature.
- In other words.
- Ecofeminism aims to make visible that the subordination of women to men and the exploration of nature complement each other; that’s what patriarchal capitalism is responsible for.
“Patriarchal thought structures the world into a series of dualisms or pairs of opposites that separate and divide reality. Each pair of opposites, in which the relationship is hierarchical and the term normative requires universality, is called a dichotomy. Culture or nature, mind or body, reason or emotion, scientific knowledge or traditional knowledge, independence or dependence, man or woman. Understood as pairs of opposites of unequal value, do they organize our way of understanding the world?-Marta Pascual and Yayo Herrero, 2010-
The Western model, or much of it, was built on the idea of male domination over women, also of man over nature. This division is also something that was born before the stage of modernity, however, it is from this stage that it is installed.
Established dichotomies have a hierarchical character. Within each pair of opposites, one position is perceived as hierarchically superior to the other. Culture transcends nature, the mind is superior to the body and the reason is above emotions.
Finally, the term considered superior becomes universal and becomes the representation of the whole. The other term of the pair, the lowest, is marked by absence, becoming invisible.
Feminist thought warns about how these couples are associated, on the one hand we have man, to which values such as culture, spirit and reason are attributed, on the other hand, women, perceived as essentially related to nature and the body. also considered? Subject? To his own emotions (Amorus, 1991).
The theoretical link between Greenism and Feminism dates back to the 1970s, when the first term appears in the publication of the book Feminism or a Morte, by Francoise D’Eaubourne.
In the same decade, women demonstrated to defend life, one of the most emblematic was the Chipko movement, in this document a group of women kissed the trees of garhwal forests in the Indian Himalayas, so they could defend against the forestry practices of a private company.
A decade later, in Argentina, a group of 14 women whose children had disappeared, called Mothers of the Praca de Maio, met, representing a ritual of weekly resistance based on the role that patriarchal ideology had attributed to women.
The first ecofeminism was introduced in the middle of the last century, the first ecofeminists denounced the effects of technoscience on women’s health, they also faced militarism, nuclearization and environmental degeneration.
These facts have been interpreted as manifestations of a sexist culture. One of the figures depicted in this movement is Petra Kelly.
There are also other eco-feminisms that take into account the sexual division of labour and the distribution of power and property, which has subjected women and the natural environment of which we are all a part.
“Challenging today’s patriarchy is an act of loyalty to future generations and life, and to the planet itself. “”YES. King, 1983-
Ecofeminism is set up as a stream of thought and a social movement that explores the encounters and synergies between ecology and feminism.
According to Yayo Herrero, this discipline focuses on solving the problem of relationships between people and nature from very different angles, so we can talk about ecofeminisms.
Although numerous, all ecofeminisms seem to develop a critique of the social, economic and cultural model, each offering a different reality. The idea of ecofeminisms is to make visible elements, practices and subjects designated by hegemonic thinking as inferior.
For simplicity, we can talk about two currents of ecofeminism: spiritualist ecofeminisms and constructivist ecofeminisms.
Thus, ecofeminism clearly shows that cultural change is necessary, from this perspective, we have a responsibility to change the way of the world towards a socially and ecologically sustainable path.