Eco-feminism refers to the political, cultural and economic movements that seeks to establish greater rights and legal protection for women. On the other hand, environmental degradation is about the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. This essay explains eco-feminism and discusses why environmental degradation a feminist issue. This is done by firstly defining eco-feminism, and environmental degradation and lastly giving arguments why environmental degradation a feminist issue supported by relevant examples.
The term ecofeminism was said to be devised by Francoise D’Eaubonne in 1974. According to J Schmonsky (2012) the term was coined to demonstrate the potential for women to make significant
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It emerged in the mid-1970s alongside second-wave feminism and the green movement. Ecofeminism brings together elements of the feminist and green movements, while at the same time offering a challenge to both. It takes from the green movement a concern about the impact of human activities on the non-human world and from feminism the view of humanity as gendered in ways that subordinate, exploit and oppress women.
Women face social and economic disadvantages which are intensified during times of environmental crisis and disaster (Nicolini, 2015). For example, in regions where periods of drought are becoming longer and more thrilling, girls and women are forced to spend increasing amounts of time collecting water, traveling beyond as water sources become depleted (Nicolini, 2015). This leaves less and less time for girls and women to engage in educational or economic activities outside the home (Nicolini, 2015). Thus, cementing their economic dependence on men, and their confinement to the domestic sphere (Nicolini,
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In most African countries, women are involved in farming activities, and therefore when the soil that supports arable farming is exhausted, they suffer. When they don’t have good land that would support food crops, they can’t feed their families. In the context of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), where most families are female headed, such a scenario would have an enormous impact. Women are thus connected to Nature to get herbs to treat most ailments. This is a very common practice in most rural areas. Women are the ones that are involved in the health of the family; when the husband or the child is sick, women suffer too because they carry that burden on their
At most, they cry a little”. Living conditions for these girls are not what we think they are. In fact, girls are put into dormitories where twenty girls might have to live together. Working conditions are even worse . Women mostly work in one hundred degree weather, where textile dust is flowing in the air which can cause permanent lung cancer and eye damage.
In Wilson’s book, The Future of Life, he includes two passages with opposing thoughts and outlooks that pertains to environmentalism or the world we live in. One of which are the environmentalists, those who support or advocate the protection of the environment. The other being anti-environmentalists. They are the ones who oppose or “critique” environmental movements. With these two conflicting sides, Edward O. Wilson exposes the unproductive nature of both environmentalists’ and people-first critics’ dispute by using irony, similar structural parallelism, and lenient and direct diction in his satirical passages.
In the story Woman Hollering Creek by Sanda Cisneros, the theory of feminism is not just present but woven into the very fabric of the book, highlighting the complexities of gender, culture, and identity. In Sandra Cisneros' book she illustrates how the lives of women are restricted and challenged by using feminist criticism to demonstrate how they can fight against these challenges and break free. Using these techniques Sandra Cisneros manages to explore the numerous ways women suffer in modern society due to standards and other factors both physically and mentally. Through Cisneros’ excellent storytelling and observing both the book's characters and overall narrative, we can picture all of the struggles and expeditions that women must face
100 Years Later: Past Progress Changing Today’s Climate One hundred years have passed since the Progressive Era of 1900-1916 and although the world has seen remarkable “progress” for a variety causes since then, there are numerous issues that still have not been addressed. Change is not immediate and the Progressive Era’s successes were manifestations of problems first addressed years before gaining wide public attention. Similar to the dilemmas faced one hundred years ago, we now face a quandary that has been discussed for around two decades: climate change. By taking a closer look at the successes and failures, the methods and techniques, of the Progressive Era, and especially the rise of feminism, we can determine a better approach to managing
Industrialization, economic expansion, and globalization are processes that are the biggest culprits of environmental injustice. The most obvious act of injustice that links both environmental injustice and human rights abuse is the displacement of indigenous communities. A unique example of such displacement is the relocation of blacks to different segregated townships. This relocation of such a large group of people put a strain on the environment as the numbers were over and above the areas carrying capacity. These townships are heavily polluted, quality of life is extremely low and land degradation is rife.
He states that it “The environmental justice movements illustrate not just a concern with recognition, participation, and capabilities in addition to equity issues, but that this movement also shows us the possibility of employing a variety of notions of justice simultaneously in a comprehensive political project” (Schlosberg 46). Environmental injustice, in this case, is the lack of the equality and participation that is presented in communities. More likely than not, there is not a sense of environmental justice throughout communities. There is a wide variety of reasons for this disparity. This disparity could be caused by race, time periods, or where the location of the community.
The article was written in 1993 as a follow up to the Environmental Justice Movement. The purpose is to show how racism still plays a role in environmental policy-making
2.4 Economical barriers: Women are expected to commit and dedicate all of their time and money to their children, which leads to them to have little or no money or time for themselves for their own well-being. This links up with the socio-cultural factor which manifests these historical beliefs and expectation. These social practices are transmitted by the vast majority and not only by men, but also by women who share the same perception of what are normal and acceptable to society (Cailliau, 2013). Due to this, women experience a lack of time, lack of appropriate, safe and accessible infrastructure and a lack of clothing to participate freely in sport or any form of physical activity (Cailliau, 2013). This has a snowball effect where women
Introduction The Color Purple is a novel written by an American author Alice Walker and was published in 1982. It won numerous awards in literature and film as it had many musical, film and radio adaptations, particularly the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It primarily involves the subject of feminism and addresses issues in sexism and racism in the early 20th century in the United States. The story is all about a girl named Celie, a black woman who lives in the Southern part of US.
Environmental ethics refers to the relationship that humans share with the natural world (Buzzle, 2011), it involves people extending ethics to the natural environment through the exercise of self-discipline (Nash, 1989). Herein the essay will give examples of anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism as forms of environmental ethics, criticizing anthropocentrism in contrast with a defence of non- anthropocentrism precedents. Anthropocentrism also referred to as human-centeredness, is an individualistic approach, a concept stating that humans are more valuable, and the environment is only useful for sustaining the lives of human beings (MacKinnon, 2007). The practise of human-centeredness is associated with egocentrism (Goodpaster, 1979), by contrast non-anthropocentrism is a holistic approach
The first wave of feminism has been a revolutionary social movement in terms of that it could lead to an overcoming of the previous social order (Newman, 2012 p. 487) through its social agents and create, through this, a new social ordering of time and space. Moreover, through reaching their previously described aims, the first wave of feminism has been able to literally “overthrow the entire system itself, (…) in order to replace it with another one.” (Skocpol, 1979, as cited in Newman 2012, p. 487). Thereby, one can even state that a new ordering of time and space by which routines and routinised behaviour has been challenged as well as changed took place. The interactions influenced the way how societies work today.
Therefore, we need to think about tomorrow with respect to every action that we take in the environment and in this case we can say that sustainable development requires slower population growth. With this in mind, we need to be educated through our cultures about the impact we caused to the environment as we continue to reproduce. The challenge of environmental ethics has led to the attempt to apply traditional ethical theories, including consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, to support contemporary environmental concerns; the preservation of biodiversity as an ethical goal; the broader concerns of some thinkers with wilderness, the built environment and the politics of poverty; the ethics of sustainability and climate change, and some directions for possible future developments of the discipline [ CITATION And15 \l 1033 ]. With this multi-dimensional approach one can see that it is more of a cultural issue to think of it from its origin.
There has been progress, today, more girls and women are literate than ever before, and in a third of developing countries, there are more girls in school than boys. Women now make up over 40 percent of the global labour force. In some areas, however, progress toward gender equality has been limited—even in developed countries. Girls and women who are poor, live in remote areas, are disabled, or belong to minority groups continue to lag behind. Too many girls and women are still dying in childhood and in the reproductive ages.
Introduction: Our earth is the most precious gift of the universe. It is the sustenance of ‘nature’ that is the key to the development of the future of mankind. It is the duty and responsibility of each one of us to protect nature. It is here that the understanding of the ‘environment’ comes into the picture. The degradation of our environment is linked with the development process and the ignorance of people about retaining the ecological balance.
. Women are currently at a disadvantaged with respect to rights, compared with men such as respect and such conditions According to dictionary.com Feminism can be defined as a doctrine or movement that advocates equal rights for women. Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and targets the end of sexism in all forms. However, there are many different kinds of feminism such as radical feminism, socialist feminism, cultural feminism, and liberal feminism.