LIMITS OF WOMEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT

WOMEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT

PARISMITA GOSWAMI

Human interference with the non-human world is gross. Several theories prove that human beings dominate each other and nature like the multicultural, postcolonial, global feminist, eco-feminist, etc.

The eco-feminist talks about the dualism that exists in our society, i.e.; men/culture and women/nature. Indeed, women have been naturalized, and nature has been feminized.

This social construction justifies this insignificant idea of subordination. The patriarchal mindset, hierarchical oppression, and dualist thinking have harmed both women and nature over the years. Nature is feminized when raped, penetrated, mined, subdued by men for material and political gains.

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In contrast, women are naturalized with words such as bitch, bird-brain, pussycat, chicks, etc. The environment has been destroyed with the disposition of toxic waste and wars starting from the 19th century. Considering that only women and nature can reproduce, both are connatural and intrinsic.

Through the lens of spiritualism, the world is interconnected. And so is life. 

WOMEN LEADING ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS

A woman’s contribution to nature has no limits. From ancient to modern times, from being disdained, excluded, jailed, and murdered but still fighting. Here are a few revolutionary women in the field of the environmental movement;

• Rosalie Edge became aware of the gender-based injustice within the National Audubon Society, Edge sued the organization and made a point of exposing the persistent corruption.

• Sylvia Earle, inspired a generation of people to value our oceans. Also known as “Her Deepness,” or “The Sturgeon General,” Earle started her journey by obtaining a Ph.D. in phycology (the study of algae) in 1966.

• Wangari Maathai won the Nobel laureate and was a leading environmentalist political activist from Kenya. She promoted intersectional environmentalism and advocated that “more than planting trees, it’s planting ideas. Maathai founded the Greenbelt Movement, which implemented and guarded women’s sustainable land-use practices.

•  Lois Gibbs Fearing launched an Activism concerning the health of her son and all of the kids who belonged to the Love Canal. The movement began with knocking on doors, creating petitions, and eventually, it formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association. After years of active participation and protest, confrontations with the New York State Department of Health, and national attention. Nearly one thousand families were evacuated from the Love Canal after the movement.

•  Vandana Shiva is a leader in championing agricultural biodiversity and local sovereignty. Her contribution in this field has been a national movement that started in 1991 called Navdanya. It aimed to “protect diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trading”.

• Greta Thunberg is a Swedish student environmental activist fighting for a humanitarian, existential crisis, and climate change. She sets an example for the younger generations of the planet. One of her slogans says, “We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.”

CONCLUSION

“He says that woman speaks with nature. That she hears voices from under the earth. That wind blows in her ears and trees whisper to her. That the dead sing through her mouth and the cries of infants are clear to her. But for him this dialogue is over. He says he is not part of this world and was set on this world as a stranger, and he sets himself apart from woman and nature …”

                                            Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her

In “Mind over matter,” Rene Descartes explains the dichotomization of nature and culture that gave men the license to mastery over the natural world. We can recall many other movements led by Women like the Chipko Andolan, where women came forward to stop the trees from cutting down by hugging them, and Medha Patkar, who is also actively involved in the Narmada Bachao Andolan in India.

To end the pain of an ongoing crisis, we need to overcome the psychological stigmas. Women, nature, and non-humans are similarly devalued in many ways.

The world today has become a land of exploitation. The pan-cultural assumption that women and nature are lower than men is vague. Men and women must equally participate in projects of transcendence creativity. The institutional and educational base of society must change to undergo a cultural revolution.

The debate on climate change lingers, water levels are rising, and climate change is causing destruction worldwide. Women and girls are the worst affected, and they walk miles to gather water, fish, or farmland affected by flooding. About 2.5 billion people, two-thirds of whom live in Asia and a quarter in sub-Saharan Africa, still, use unimproved sanitation facilities, and 748 million people are without clean water.

Women’s voices are often the last to be heard in environmental planning and management. Even though women and nature are akin, they still fight for their rights and resources.

( Pic with headline is Vanessa Nakate, Ugandan climate activist)

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