ABSTRACT
Ecofeminists focus on human beings' domination of the nonhuman world, or nature. Because women are culturally tied to nature, ecofeminists argue there are conceptual, symbolic, and linguistic connections between feminist and ecological issues. Ecofeminism is a relatively new variant of ecological ethics. In fact, the term ecofeminism first appeared in 1974 in Francoise d'Eaubonne's Le Feminisme ou la Mort. In this work d'Eaubonne expressed the view that there exists a direct link between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. Although ecofeminists agree that the association of women with nature is the root cause of both sexism and naturism, they disagree about whether women's connections to nature are primarily biological and psychological or primarily social and cultural. The chapter discusses the critiques of nature ecofeminism, spiritual ecofeminism, transformative ecofeminism, global ecofeminism and vegetarian ecofeminism. The differences that exist between social-constructionist and nature ecofeminists or between socialist and spiritual ecofeminists all ecofeminists believe humans are connected to non-human world.
