Ecofeminism combines feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers use the idea of gender to study how people relate to the natural world. The term was created by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her 1974 book Le Féminisme ou la Mort. Ecofeminist theory adds a feminist viewpoint to environmental politics and encourages a fair and working together society where no group is more powerful than others.

Today, there are different types of ecofeminism, each with unique ideas and methods, such as liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism (or materialist ecofeminism). Ideas about ecofeminism and how it can be used in social thinking include ecofeminist art, social justice, political philosophy, religion, economics, modern feminism, and literature.

Ecofeminist studies look at how cultural beliefs connect the mistreatment of wildlife and the mistreatment of women. These connections include, but are not limited to, seeing women and nature as property, viewing men as leaders of culture and women as leaders of nature, and how men control women and humans control nature. Ecofeminism teaches that both women and nature must be treated with respect.

Worldwide activism

Professors of sociology, Maria Mies, Ariel Salleh, and Susan Mann believe that ecofeminism began with women from many different backgrounds, not just feminists. These women saw connections between gender, race, class, and environmental problems. The idea of intersectionality means that in activist and theory discussions, groups that are often overlooked must be included. However, in early North American environmentalism, race and class issues were sometimes treated separately.

Women have long worked to protect wildlife, food, air, and water. These efforts happened at the same time as new ideas in environmental theory from writers like Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. Similar work by women environmental ethicists includes Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring and Terry Tempest Williams’ book Refuge.

Ecofeminist Karen Warren says Aldo Leopold’s essay Land Ethic (1949) is important to her philosophy. Leopold was the first to write about treating all parts of the environment—such as animals, plants, land, air, and water—as equal to humans. This idea helped start the modern movement to protect nature by showing how environmental issues can be seen through a caring framework.

In India, in the state of Uttarakhand in 1973, women took part in the Chipko movement to stop deforestation. At that time, many men left rural areas to find work in cities, and women who stayed relied on forests for survival. As recorded by Vandana Shiva, women used peaceful protest tactics, such as hugging trees, to stop loggers from cutting them down.

In Kenya in 1977, Professor Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement. It is a program led by women that plants trees to stop desertification. The program created a "green belt" of at least 1,000 trees around villages and helped women take charge in their communities. Later, the movement taught people about environmental and civic issues and held leaders accountable. The Green Belt Movement continues today.

In 1978 in New York, Lois Gibbs, a mother and environmentalist, led her community to protest after learning that their neighborhood, Love Canal, was built on a toxic waste site. Toxins in the ground caused health problems in children, reproductive issues in women, and birth defects in babies born to women exposed to the toxins. The movement led to the relocation of nearly 800 families by the government.

In 1980 and 1981, ecofeminist Ynestra King organized a peaceful protest at the Pentagon. Women held hands and asked for equal rights, including social, economic, and reproductive rights, and an end to government actions that harmed people and the environment. This movement is called the Women’s Pentagon Actions.

In 1985, Katsi Cook started the Akwesasne Mother’s Milk Project. This study, funded by the government, found that Mohawk babies were exposed to 200% more toxins in breast milk than babies not on the reservation. Toxins in water affect people worldwide, but environmental racism causes some groups to face higher risks.

The Greening of Harlem Coalition is another example of an ecofeminist movement. In 1989, Bernadette Cozart started the coalition, which created community gardens in Harlem. Cozart’s goal was to turn empty lots into gardens, helping urban communities connect with nature and each other. Most people involved in the project were women, and the gardens gave them leadership roles. Similar efforts, like the Gardening Angels in Detroit, have happened in other places.

By the end of the decade, ecofeminism had spread across the United States and showed how women and the environment are connected through issues like class and race. The movement challenged unfair treatment of poor communities and fought against harmful practices like toxic waste dumping.

Ariel Salleh’s book Ecofeminism as Politics (last printed in 2017) describes ecofeminist actions by women in Japan, the Pacific, and Scandinavia.

Early texts

Ecofeminist ideas are diverse and have developed from women activists and thinkers around the world. However, most academic studies on ecofeminism have been led by universities in North America. Charlene Spretnak explained that ecofeminist work has grown in three main ways: 1) by studying political theory and history; 2) by exploring beliefs and practices in nature-based religions; and 3) through environmentalism. In a 1993 essay titled "Ecofeminism: Toward Global Justice and Planetary Health," Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen described an "ecofeminist framework." This essay includes data, statistics, and explains the theoretical ideas behind ecofeminism. The framework aims to help people understand the causes of today's global problems and how to address them.

Gaard and Gruen built on the work of Rosemary Ruether and Carolyn Merchant. They identified four main factors that shape the ecofeminist political framework:

• The rise of patriarchal religions, which created systems that rank genders and ignore the spiritual presence in nature.
• A scientific way of thinking that began with the scientific revolution, which viewed everything as resources to be used for profit, treating the world as lifeless matter.
• Traditional cultural beliefs that divide ideas, such as man vs. woman, self vs. other, and humans vs. nature, which support domination and control.
• Capitalism, which uses animals, Earth, and people as tools to create wealth.

These four factors have led Western cultures to a "separation between nature and culture," which ecofeminists believe is the main cause of environmental harm.

Some ecofeminist ideas come from anarcha-feminist movements that aim to end all forms of domination, including the harm humans cause to the natural world. In her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort, d'Eaubonne connected the suffering of marginalized groups (like women, people of color, children, and the poor) to the harm done to nature (such as animals, land, water, and air). She argued that domination, exploitation, and colonization under Western patriarchal societies have caused lasting environmental damage. As an activist, d'Eaubonne worked to end all social injustices, not just those against women and the environment.

Important early books that influenced ecofeminism include Women and Nature (Susan Griffin, 1978), The Death of Nature (Carolyn Merchant, 1980), and Gyn/Ecology (Mary Daly, 1978). These works helped show the link between men's control over women and the control of nature by human culture. In the 1980s, feminist activism included grassroots efforts like the National Toxics Campaign, Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), and Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE), led by women focused on health and environmental justice. Writers from these movements discussed ecofeminism in relation to Green Party politics, peace efforts, and direct action. A key leader during this time was Petra Kelly, who co-founded the German Green Party.

Gendering nature

A common idea in ecofeminist writing is that systems that favor men use opposite pairs to explain their power. These pairs include examples like heaven/earth, mind/body, male/female, human/animal, spirit/matter, culture/nature, white/non-white, and abled/disabled. These opposites are used to decide what is valuable or not, which supports unfair treatment. Ecofeminist theory explains that capitalism depends on values that favor men, meaning the effects of capitalism often harm women.

Ecofeminist scholars say that women are not more connected to nature because they are female or "feminine," but because they face unfair treatment from the same systems that favor men. This unfair treatment is seen in the language used to describe nature, such as "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature," and in the way women are sometimes described with words that compare them to animals in a disrespectful way. Some ecofeminists focus instead on the skills women have developed from their traditional role as caregivers.

Vandana Shiva, an Indian ecofeminist and activist, wrote that women farmers have a strong connection to the environment because of their daily experiences, but this connection has been ignored. In her book Staying Alive (1989), Shiva explains that women in subsistence economies who create "wealth in partnership with nature" have deep knowledge of natural processes. She argues that these ways of understanding the world, which focus on social needs and sustainability, are not recognized by capitalism because it ignores how nature and human lives are connected. Shiva says this failure is due to the influence of Western ideas about development and progress. She also explains that patriarchy has excluded women, nature, and other groups from the economy, calling them "unproductive." Ariel Salleh expands on this idea by connecting it to discussions about green politics and ecosocialism.

Conceptual approaches

In the book Ecofeminism (1993), Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies question modern science and its claim to be a universal, value-free system. They argue that science is not truly objective but reflects Western patriarchal ideas that prioritize control and use. Historically, men have mostly decided what is considered scientific knowledge and how it is used. Examples include treating childbirth as a medical process instead of a natural one and using industrial methods to grow plants instead of traditional farming.

Key thinkers who developed materialist ecofeminism include Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen in Germany, Vandana Shiva in India, Ariel Salleh in Australia, Mary Mellor in the UK, and Ana Isla in Peru. Materialist ecofeminism is not widely known in North America, except through the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism. This approach examines how economic systems like labor, power, and property control women and nature. It contrasts the value placed on production (making goods) with the lack of value given to reproduction (nurturing life). This type of ecofeminism is also called "social feminism," "socialist ecofeminism," or "Marxist ecofeminism." Carolyn Merchant explains that social ecofeminism seeks to free women by challenging systems that turn all aspects of life into a market-driven society, even affecting areas like childbirth.

Vegetarian ecofeminism focuses on including the suffering of non-human animals in ecofeminist discussions. Scholars argue that ignoring animal oppression contradicts feminism’s goal of ending all forms of injustice. This idea began in the 1960s and 1970s with movements that cared about animals and nature. Carol Adams says, "We cannot fight for justice without understanding that eating animals is a major way humans interact with nature." Greta Gaard argues that eating meat is a form of violence that supports male dominance over both animals and women.

Spiritual ecofeminism is popular among North American authors like Starhawk, Riane Eisler, Carol Christ, and Carol Adams. Starhawk promotes an earth-based spirituality that sees the Earth as alive and interconnected with all life. Spiritual ecofeminism is not tied to any religion but values caring, compassion, and non-violence. It often draws from ancient traditions, such as the worship of Gaia, the Earth goddess, and is influenced by Wicca and Paganism, which emphasize respect for nature and feminine values.

In Radical Ecology, Carolyn Merchant refers to spiritual ecofeminism as "cultural ecofeminism." She describes it as celebrating the bond between women and nature through rituals honoring goddesses, the moon, animals, and the female body. Cultural ecofeminism uses intuition and care as ways to connect with nature.

Latin American ecofeminism became a separate part of the ecofeminist movement. Early ecofeminist ideas were mostly developed in the Global North, but Vandana Shiva’s book Staying Alive (1980s) changed this. It introduced postcolonial ecofeminism, which inspired discussions in the Global South, including Latin America.

Latin America had early ecofeminist ideas, but they were not widely shared in global feminist theory. Scholars say more work is needed to build a Latin American ecofeminism that focuses on rural women’s struggles for food sustainability, family livelihoods, community solidarity, and protecting life.

From a Feminist Political Ecology perspective, new ideas from posthumanism, postcolonialism, and decolonialism are influencing ecofeminism. These ideas help include Latin American and Global South perspectives in ecofeminist discussions.

Rural areas often face serious harm to women, erasing their knowledge and stories about caring for nature and sustaining life. The concept of "Cuerpo-Territorio" (Body-Territory) is central to Latin American ecofeminism. It comes from indigenous women in Guatemala who fight against patriarchy, colonialism, and resource exploitation. This idea connects women’s bodies to the Earth as something to protect and respects the rights of nature.

Colonialism historically involved conquering lands and exploiting people, including women. During Spanish colonization, women were harmed through rape, forced labor, and other violence. This linked the control of land to the control of women’s bodies.

The "Cuerpo-Territorio" concept is important because indigenous communities are often targeted by mining and other harmful activities. Women in these communities use their bodies to resist these harms. This idea challenges the idea that bodies and nature are separate, instead seeing them as connected.

Lorena Cabnal of the Indigenous Women’s Association of Santa María Xalapán explains that "Cuerpo-Territorio" is a way to fight for land, resist mining, and protect against sexual violence. It is a key idea in indigenous community feminism, showing how the body and land are part of the same living network.

Common misconceptions

In the 1980s and 1990s, critics argued that ecofeminism was "essentialist," meaning it assumed all women shared the same traits. Some believed ecofeminists reinforced harmful ideas that women and nature were less valuable than men and human culture. Poststructuralist and Third Wave feminists, in particular, saw essentialism as grouping all women into one category, which went against the goals of feminism to challenge unfair societal norms. This was a problem because, traditionally, qualities seen as "feminine" and the natural world were often considered less important than what male-dominated cultures defined as "humanity."

At the same time, ecofeminists disagreed with liberal or "equality" feminism, which focused on equal rights, because they believed mainstream political systems were shaped by male ideas and harmed both women and the environment. In an interview, ecofeminist Noel Sturgeon explained that anti-essentialists overlooked the strategy of uniting diverse groups of women, including activists and theorists, to create change. Charlene Spretnak described ecofeminism as addressing many issues, such as reproductive technology, equal pay, toxic pollution, and development in the Global South.

Norie Ross Singer said ecofeminism should consider how identity factors like gender, race, and class are connected in relationships between humans and non-humans. A. E. Kings called this approach "intersectional." Vegetarian ecofeminists also contributed by linking animal rights activism with efforts to help all oppressed life forms, including men in labor.

The theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether believed spirituality and activism could work well together in ecofeminism. However, social ecologist Janet Biehl criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on mystical ideas about women and nature, without addressing real challenges women face. She argued ecofeminism was not helpful for women's progress. In the 21st century, some ecofeminists changed their labels to terms like "queer ecologies" or "global feminist environmental justice" to respond to these criticisms.

Today, most ecofeminist thinkers and activists accept that differences between men and women are shaped by culture and society, not biology. Socialist ecofeminists have always linked gender roles to economic and political systems, advocating for a focus on material conditions. Socialist feminists argue that the idea that women are naturally connected to nature is a social belief, not a fact. Ariel Salleh noted that concerns about essentialism were mainly raised by North American liberal and postmodern feminist scholars. In Europe and the Global South, ecofeminism often connects issues of class, race, gender, and species exploitation through economic analysis.

Environmental justice and feminist care ethics have encouraged the inclusion of all marginalized groups, fighting against racism, ageism, and discrimination based on ability. Andrew Charles pointed out that people with disabilities still face barriers in policy-making and suggested that the caring focus of ecofeminism might unintentionally overlook their needs. He also warned that a "white savior" mindset could prevent racially marginalized people from leading their own efforts.

Catia Faria disagreed with the ecofeminist belief that patriarchal culture is the main cause of harm to wild animals. She argued that natural processes, not just human actions, cause suffering for wild animals. She said conservation efforts alone are not enough and that solutions should address both natural harms and human actions like hunting.

Theorists

• Carol J. Adams – Adams is an American scholar and activist who works for vegetarianism and environmental protection.
• Judi Bari – Bari was a key leader in the Earth First! movement and faced challenges due to gender-based discrimination.
• Françoise d'Eaubonne – She encouraged women to lead an ecological movement to protect the planet. This included changing how people view gender and their relationship with nature.
• Greta Gaard – Gaard is an American scholar and activist. Her work connects ideas like queer theory, vegetarian ecofeminism, and animal rights. She also helps expand ecofeminism and other feminist theories to address more social issues. She is active in the U.S. Green Party and the Green Movement.
• Susan Griffin – A feminist philosopher, writer, and playwright from California. She taught at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies.
• Ana Isla – A sociologist from Peru who is part of the Capitalism Nature Socialism ecofeminist editorial group.
• Vanessa Lemgruber – A Brazilian lawyer, writer, and activist who protects the Doce River and supports water quality and zero-waste efforts.
• Sallie McFague – An ecofeminist theologian who uses the idea of God’s body as a symbol for the universe. This symbol represents the importance of connections between all living things.
• Carolyn Merchant – A science historian who taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution is a key ecofeminist text.
• Mary Mellor – A UK sociologist who studied cooperatives before focusing on ecofeminism. Her books Breaking the Boundaries and Feminism and Ecology use a materialist approach to analyze issues.
• Maria Mies – A German social critic who works on the links between patriarchy, poverty, and the environment in both local and global contexts.
• Adrian Parr – A cultural and environmental theorist who has written eight books and many articles on environmental activism, feminist new materialism, and imagination. Her most famous work is the trilogy Hijacking Sustainability.
• Val Plumwood – An Australian ecofeminist intellectual and activist who helped develop radical ecosophy from the 1970s until the end of the 20th century. In her book Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, she explored how humans and the environment relate through ecofeminist ideas.
• Alicia Puleo – An author who has written extensively on ecofeminism and gender inequality. She is considered one of Spain’s most important thinkers in the global ecofeminist movement.
• Rosemary Radford Ruether – An author of 36 books and over 600 articles who connects feminism, theology, and environmental care. She was the first to link the domination of nature with the oppression of women.
• Ariel Salleh – An Australian ecofeminist who co-founded the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism. She has written four books and over 300 articles on ecofeminism, deep ecology, green politics, and eco-socialism.
• Vandana Shiva – A scientist and Indian ecofeminist activist who participated in the Chipko movement, which used non-violent protests to stop deforestation. She also opposes genetically modified organisms (GMOs), similar to Rachel Carson’s work against DDT and Erin Brockovich’s fight against hexavalent chromium.
• Charlene Spretnak – An American writer known for her work on ecology, politics, and spirituality. Her books explore ecological issues and their connections to social and feminist ideas. She influenced the development of the Green Party and has received awards for her work.
• Starhawk – An American writer and activist who focuses on spiritualism and ecofeminism. She supports social justice related to nature and spirituality, emphasizing intersectionality, eco-consciousness, and gender liberation.
• Douglas Vakoch – An American ecocritic who has edited several books on ecofeminism, including Ecofeminism and Rhetoric (2011), Feminist Ecocriticism (2012), and The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature (2023).
• Karen J. Warren – She earned a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She taught at St. Olaf College and Macalester College and held positions at Murdoch University, Oxford University, and Marquette University. She has spoken internationally on environmental issues, feminism, and peace studies.