ABSTRACT
Ecofeminism A range of positions and forms of activism which link the o ppr e s sio n of women with the domination and destruction of the natural world. The term was first used by Francoise d’Eaubonne in the early 1970s to protest against the ecology movement’s failure to address relations between the sexes. She argued that pollution, overpopulation and planetary degradation result from a male culture which downgrades the needs of women, including the right to choose (d’Eaubonne, 1994). Women’s protests against local environmental pollution have been hailed as ecofeminist, for example Swiss women’s 1976 protest against the Seveso poisoning, and Namibian women’s 1984 campaign against corporate dumping of out-of-date medicines. In such cases women, as m o t h e r s trying to protect their children and as the traditional guardians of community health, find themselves in opposition to militarism and the corpo rate drive for profit. According to Mies and Shiva, women become
Ecofeminism can involve the following claims. 1. Women are culturally identified with nature. Both are objectified and
2. Women really do have a special affinity with nature, and a special role to play, politically and spiritually, in reclaiming the interconnectedness of all things.
