ABSTRACT
Mies’s and Shiva’s critique of development is in terms which parallel their view of science, namely ‘development’ is essentially a Western concept, and realized as a colonizing project within power relations dominated by the West.11 Like science it embodies patriarchal assumptions and its masculinist logic is seen as radically opposed to what Shiva calls ‘the feminine principle’ under which ‘nature’, indigenous peoples and the Third World’ are variously subsumed, along with a range of values and practices which are held to be in opposition to what Western/capitalist/ patriarchal development stands for. If Western development is inherently destructive, it is ultimately Mother Earth, women and other embodiments of the ‘feminine principle’ which receive the full force of that destruction. The feminist kernel of ecopolitics is provided by this identification of women with nature, an alliance which is both strategic and essential, since by defending nature against the patriarchal depredations of development, women are not only defending their livelihoods but womanhood itself.
