ABSTRACT

The internal and international diversities of the twenty-first century climate justice movement make it difficult to imagine that the intersectionalities among gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, species and environment that have coalesced into a global movement are still being discovered by scholars and activists alike. Women comprise an estimated 60-80 per cent of members in environmental organizations worldwide, and an estimated 90 per cent of members in US environmental justice organizations. The feminist health care movement grew out of early twentieth century women's social work, settlement houses, and the battles for urban sanitation and reproductive rights. Feminist approaches to health and wellbeing affirmed a belief in women's authority, and the view that women themselves can become their own health experts and serve as catalysts for social change. Childhood asthma also became a feminist health concern when mothers initiated asthma activism.