From Envirowiki

Ecofeminism examines the relationship between the domination of women and the domination of nature. Within an ecological context, ecofeminism seeks to radically reform the hierarchical patriarchal structures of oppression. In other words, ecofeminism is a bridge connecting both environmental issues and feminist issues. These issues revolve around the major oppressive structure: Patriarchy.

Patriarchy has been present in western society for thousands of years, when systems of priestly and warrior-kings sought control over land, animals, and slaves as property. Now rooted in societal ideals, this objectification of people and nature was used to monopolize wealth, power, and knowledge. Like any hierarchal structure, patriarchy exercises control over “weaker” or “inferior” beings, namely women and low class citizens. Ecofeminism correlates the ingrained dominance of these people with the human dominance over the earth.

Many scholars have much to say on this relatively new topic, including Rosemary Radford Ruether, a well known eco-theologian and feminist scholar. Her ideas of ecofeminism aim at a liberation of oppressed peoples and an understanding of the enforcement of hierarchy. She looks at domination through a theological lens; she begins with the creation story of Adam and Eve. In her view, she believes the story has been misinterpreted to portray Adam as in the image of God and Eve as the imperfect, an actual belief held by Augustine. Ruether calls for a reconstruction of our previously held ideals and encourages reformation of current societal structures.

Ivone Gebara is also a great feminist theologian who has important insight on the necessity of ecofeminism. Her opinion is that the human impulse to dominate and exploit is to conquer want. She argues that this exploitation threatens to undo the processes that maintain the lifecycle of all earth beings in relation to one another, and that this system of domination is sin. In this dominion, humans are overlooking the finitude of the environment and abusing their home and only natural resource: The earth. Within this domination humans have explicitly carried over the “conquer of want” onto other living creatures and even other homo sapiens. Ruether suggests that rather than using our special gifts for thinking and organizing to control the majority of humans, we should use these capacities for thought to preserve our relationship with all living things.

From an ecological perspective, human domination has been the main destructor in the environmental crisis. From a feminist perspective, patriarchal domination has been the cause of a disproportionate balance of power and privilege. Understanding the interconnectivity of these two issues is imperative for any feasible solution to occur. We cannot look at ways to prevent domination of nature without realizing the necessity of halting further domination of socio-economic classes. In order to come to any understanding of nature, we must remember we are all connected and that any domination or unequal distribution of power corrupts our entire planet.

[edit] Sources

• Rosemary Radford Ruether. Ecofeminism: The Challenge to Theology.