(Re)thinking ecofeminism

SCHWEIZ: ECOFEMINISM

2020

Patricia PURTSCHERT, «What can we learn from ecofeminists?», Gendercampus, June 2020.

In fall 2019, Patricia Purtschert held a seminar at the University of Bern about «ecofeminism». In this contribution, she shares some of the material and insights as a possible entrance to ecofeminism.

She begins by giving a historical view and a definition of the concept of ecofeminism, starting by the origin of the word, coined in 1974 by the French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne.
She then presents Val Plumwood's «critical ecofeminism» and the perspective of Greta Gaard, who points out, in her article «Toward a Queer Ecofeminism», how sexuality and gender identity are used as tools of domination in patriarchal and colonial societies and how nature is not only degraded within these systems of oppression but also used as a source of legitimation.
She then points at two crucial critics to ecofeminism. The first one based on «Women of Color, environmental justice, and ecofeminism» (1997) by Dorceta E. Taylor who puts forward a feminist of color critique of ecofeminism. The second one being the critique of ecofeminism's Eurocentrism by Bina Agarwal in her text «The gender and environment debate: Lessons from India».
Finally, Patricia Purtschert offers a few other readings to (re)think the ecofeminism such as the works of Gloria Anzaldua, Silvia Federici or Donna Haraway.

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