Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is a strand of feminist thought (see feminisms) that relates patriarchy and environmental exploitation, seeing common threads between the oppression of women and the destruction and abuse of the natural world and animals. The term was coined by Françoise d'Eaubonne (1920-2005), who created the term in 1974 ("écologie-féminisme, éco-féminisme, écoféminisme), and was also a SF writer.

Drawing from deep ecology analyses and philosophy, ecofeminist thought seeks to draw connections between humans and their natural environment, and thus connections between oppression within humanity (such as and most particularly patriarchy) and human oppression of other animals and destruction of the environment. One strand of ecofeminism draws from essentialist roots, tying women and nature, goddess-based spirituality/paganism/mysticism together. Another strand of ecofeminism draws more from materialist analyses, including ecological economics, class-based analyses from Marxism and anarchism, and so on. However, ecofeminists who stress the connections between women and nature may not necessarily be essentialists; they may simply be pointing out the genderized aspect of humanity's domination of nature.

The various strands of environmentalism (bioregionalism, primitivism, anti-capitalism, etc.) are all also found within ecofeminism.

Critiques of capitalism, militarism, and violence are also commonly seen in ecofeminist thought; ecofeminism is also tied into the animal rights movement; the women's peace movement; and the modern women's health movement.

Significant activists, thinkers & works

• Judi Bari (anarchist; founder, EarthFirst!; daughter of Ruth Aaronson Bari (mathematician) and sister to Gina Kolata (science writer))
• Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (1991)
• Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology (1978)
• Françoise d'Eaubonne (created term in 1974)
• Greta Gaard, Ecofeminism: Animals, Women and Nature
• Elizabeth Dodson Gray, Green Paradise Lost (1979)
• Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (1978)
• Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (1980)
• Judith Plant, Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism (1989)
• Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature
• Rosemary R. Ruether, New Woman, New Earth (1975)
• Rosemary R. Ruether, Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing
• Vandana Shiva, Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health, and Development (1994)
• Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (1997)
• Vandana Shiva & Maria Mies, Ecofeminism (1993)
• Starhawk, see especially The Spiral Dance

• Carol Adams, editor, Ecofeminism adn the Sacred
• Karen J. Warren & Nisvan Erkal, editor, Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature (1997)
• Irene Diamond & Gloria Orenstein, editors, Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (1990 anthology)

ecofeminist SFnal art & literature criticism

• Stacy Alaimo, Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space (2000) (cultural studies of representations of women and nature)
• Carol Bigwood, Earth Muse: Feminism, Nature and Art (1993)
• Jane Caputi, Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth (ecofeminist cultural studies)
• Greta Gaard & Patrick Murphy, Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy (1998)
• Patrick Murphy, Literature, Nature, and Other: Ecofeminist Critiques (1995)

Ecofeminist SF

• Sally Miller Gearhart's Wanderground
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
• The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
• Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy, especially The Wild Shore
• Sheri S. Tepper's work is frequently cited as an example of ecofeminist thought in SF; Beauty and The Companions in particular, linked human destructiveness of the natural world with government, capitalism, and sexism.