Introduction

Ecofeminism operates with the idea that the injustices directed at marginal social groups share similar ideologies with those that legitimate the exploitation and degradation of the environment. Combating gender violence, as well as other interlocking oppressions, requires structural and ideological changes in our oppressive relationship with nature. Challenging those power arrangements which inform gender violence also means challenging power relations with the biosphere. Gender violence and our relationship to “nature” are interrelated social phenomena and are informed by similar ideologies and structural arrangements. This chapter considers what ecofeminism is, explores the scope of gender violence and then clarifies the use of the vexing term “nature”. This chapter then extends the environmental feminisms literature to illuminate the problem of gender violence.