by Cynthia Wall

Created on: February 02, 2009   Last Updated: July 06, 2011

Women – caretakers of the earth and its animals.  Men – rapists of the soil, dominators of women, children, and animals.  Eco-feminism is the social movement that links the oppression of women and abuse of nature as being connected.  Man is seen as the one who has caused harm to the planet while woman has nurtured all life – both animals and plants – who share our planet. The examples are many.  Men plundering natural resources; women toiling in gardens while guarding the precious soil that feeds their families. Men wielding power over all those who are weaker (women, children, animals).  Women giving birth, caring for the home and garden, loving and protecting animals. 

Ecofeminism sees the oppression of women and nature as interconnected.  More recently, eco-feminist theorists have extended their analyses to consider the interconnections between sexism, the domination of nature (including animals), and also racism and social inequalities. Consequently it is now better understood as a movement working against the interconnected oppressions of gender, race, class and nature. 

Once regarded as chattels, owned by men, women have had a long road coming into their own – gaining the right to vote, the right to be heard, the right to break through the “glass ceiling.”  In many ways, women have been treated the way that animals have been treated - as owned pieces of property that do the bidding of men. Ecofeminists believe that it is male ownership of land that has led to both the exploitation of the earth and people. Men are the ones who instituted slavery, who participated in genocides, who raped the land of its natural resources, and whose greed is far more compelling than stewardship of the earth. 

Ecofeminism is a social and political movement that underlines the common ground between environmentalism and feminism.  Women, the caretakers of both the family and Mother Earth, are the ones whose beliefs and ways are most likely to lead to the continuation of the planet. 

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, a famous Ecofeminist and the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004) is associated with the Green Belt Movement which preserves our valuable green areas in communities. Serving on the National Council of Women, Maathai developed the idea in Africa of planting trees to preserve the environment. She helped women plant more than 30 million trees in

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