Abstract
The term écofeminisme is said to have been first coined in 1974 by radical French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne. Identifying the underlying cause for the twin crises of overpopulation and overproduction—somewhat reductively—in the age-old patriarchal domination of women, d’Eaubonne called upon feminists to wed their cause to that of the environment and lead the way into a postpatriarchal, genuinely ‘humanist’, and ecologically sustainable future (d’Eaubonne, Le Féminisme ou la mort, Pierre Horay, 1974: 213–252). Since the publication of Le Feminisme ou Le Mort the connections between the position of women and the fate of the earth have been explored in a number of theoretical directions and arenas of action. As the three books under discussion here amply demonstrate (Merchant, Earthcare: Women and the Environment, Routledge, 1996; Mellor, Feminism and Ecology, Polity Press, 1997; Salleh, Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern, Zed Books, 1997), by the mid-1990s, ecofeminism had truly come of age, both as a theoretically sophisticated form of critique and as a global movement of resistance and renovation, linking struggles against environmental degradation with the endeavour to overcome social domination, above all on the basis of sex/gender, but also increasingly in terms of ‘race’ and class.
Originally published as: Rigby, Kate. 1998. Women and Nature Revisited: Ecofeminist Reconfigurations of an Old Association, Arena Journal 12: 143–169.
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Notes
- 1.
For a translation, see d’Eaubonne 1994.
- 2.
Salleh, for example, refers to three specifically lesbian-identified anti-nuclear groups: Lesbians United in Non-Nuclear Action (against the Seabrook reactor), Dykes Opposed to Nuclear Energy, who ‘organized a New York conference on the energy crisis as a malegenerated pseudo-problem’, and Dykes Against Nukes Concerned with Energy (against the United Energy) (Salleh 1997: 19–20).
- 3.
Salleh herself has been an energetic activist on a number of fronts: in the Movement Against Uranium Mining, the Franklin Dam Blockade, the Australian Greens, the Society for Social Responsibility in Engineering, the Women in Science Enquiry Network, and the Women’s Environmental Education Centre in Sydney, as well as in some other more localized campaigns.
- 4.
For example, outside the Smithfield air force base in South Australia, the Lucas Heights Atomic Energy Establishment in NSW, and, together with Aboriginal men and women and other peace activists, at the US reconnaissance station at Pine Gap (Salleh 1997: 18–22).
- 5.
In 1978, alarmed by the high incidence of miscarriage, birth defects, and unusual and potentially life-threatening health problems affecting women and children in their neighbourhood, the women of Love Canal, led by Lois Gibbs, initiated investigations which revealed that the State of New York had given approval for the development of their residential area near a site that the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Association had used as a toxic waste dump between 1942 and 1953. Tragically, the elementary school had been built right over the dump itself (See Merchant 1996: 11–12, 155–157; Mellor 1997: 20–22).
- 6.
WARN was founded in South Dakota in 1977 to protest against involuntary sterilization, the erosion of the family on reservation lands, and the shrinkage of reservation lands (see Merchant 1996: 155).
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Salleh is even more damning of the final document, commenting that ‘the Rio meeting provided a template for the neo-feudal order and its key stratifications’ (1997: 135).
- 11.
There is a discrepancy between Merchant’s Table 2 on p. 6, which distinguishes Marxist and socialist ecofeminism , and her subsequent discussion, in which Marxist ecofeminism is apparently subsumed by socialist ecofeminism, which is now distinguished from social ecofeminism .
- 12.
See also Green 1995.
- 13.
- 14.
With reference to Irigaray 1985. Cixous is not included in Mellor’s bibliography, but she is probably referring to her influential essay ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ (1976). It should be pointed out that Irigaray has become more explicitly ecofeminist in her more recent work, and is apparently an active environmentalist. See Irigaray 1993.
- 15.
- 16.
See, for example, Gimbutas 1982.
- 17.
Bookchin has developed his theory of social ecology through a number or publications from Toward an Ecological Society (1980) to Re-Enchanting Humanity (1995). Janet Biehl broke with ecofeminism in her book Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ecofeminist (1991). Ynestra King began in the social ecology movement, giving lectures at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vermont, founded by Murray Bookchin, but has since distanced herself from his approach. As well as being a prominent activist, she has published a number of highly significant articles since the early 1980s. See, for example King 1989 and 1990.
- 18.
For her excellent discussion of social ecology and ecofeminism, see pp. 150–161.
- 19.
See Merchant 1995.
- 20.
Having realized that the acronym of her key terms—Holism, Uncertainty, Responsibility, Reciprocity, Awareness, and Humility—spelt HURRAH!
- 21.
Merchant is less explicit about this, but agrees that practices orientated towards facilitating change at the level of consciousness are no less important than those of a more conventional political nature.
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Rigby, K. (2018). Women and Nature Revisited: Ecofeminist Reconfigurations of an Old Association. In: Stevens, L., Tait, P., Varney, D. (eds) Feminist Ecologies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64385-4_4
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