Author: lmacdonald5

The landscape that informs who I am…are the woods and quiet ponds of Southeastern Massachusetts. Several others come to mind, such as rocky beaches, colorful marshes, and hilly apple groves, but my place, the one that carries my history…is between the trees with my baby sister, and in shallow ponds watching tiny tadpoles grow, silent feet on a carpet of pine needles, and sledding on fresh fallen snow. 

Elementary school field trips took place in a wilderness so close to home, you could have called it a collective backyard. Weekends were helping your dad clean up that pine needle carpet. Happiness was learning which sticks made the best kindling, and smelling the fire that you helped build, and mom telling you to wash those dirty hands before sitting down to eat, only to find that she made your favorite. Your biggest worry was which of the boys across the street had the best chance of beating you in the tricycle race down the big hill in your sleepy neighborhood.

Terry Tempest Williams introduced the bedrock of democracy: place + people = politics. All landscapes are threatened by people’s politics, including that of Southeastern, MA. The American West battles over something we do not own. There are notable areas of conservation throughout New England, but, as in most other places, not enough.

I live close enough to the coast to smell the sea air on the right wind, the beach is the summer gathering place for many around here. I can specifically recall the outrage and upset among many community members when marine wildlife conservation called for the protection of the at-risk-of endangerment piping plovers. People were upset that they had to slow down, or stop, while a volunteer stopped traffic in order to let mother and baby plovers cross the sandy roads. More area of beach was sectioned off to allow the successful mating and raising of plover offspring. I never understood how one could be annoyed by something that was hardly an inconvenience, and important to maintaining a balanced ecosystem.

Now, I understand. 

Place + People = Politics. 

William’s called this a simple equation, “the simplicity becomes complicated very quickly as abstractions of philosophy and rhetoric turn into ground scrimmages – whether it’s over cows grazing on public lands, water rights, nuclear waste dumps in the desert, the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, or the designation of wilderness” (Williams, 2001.)

I agree with Barbara Kingsolver. We NEED wilderness.

It’s a privilege to live any part of one’s life in proximity of nature. It is a privilege, apparently, even to know nature is out there at all. In the summer of 1996, human life on Earth made a subtle, uncelebrated passage from mostly rural to mostly urban. More than half of all humans now live in cities. The natural habitat of our species, then, officially, is steel, pavement, streetlights, architecture and enterprise – the hominid agenda.
– Kingsolver

I want my daughter to experience the same grounding of damp grass beneath her feet, sand between her toes, the freshest breath of air mingling with the scents of moss and pine. I want her to have a place that she can hold close to her heart as I do.

Wilderness humbles us, or it most definitely should. Nature is balance, and serves as a reminder of just how small we humans are. Nature is something to marvel at. Nature is not ours to determine which resources go where, and who can buy what place. We need nature, and our place builds us, long before we create our “place” in this world.

How are women in the Global South affected by environmental degradation? 

• Women in the global south are victims of environmental degradation. This victimization absolutely presents as gender specific in most cultures.
  
• In the rural areas especially, of the Global South, women are responsible for the production of crops to not only feed themselves and their own families, but to sell agricultural product via local markets in an effort to contribute to household income.
• A vast majority of women in the Global South depend on nature to ensure the overall wellbeing and survival of their families. Environmental degradation negatively affects this ability. More specifically, among the poorer populations, most depend on forests and the availability of natural resources in general to sustain their survival. According to Agarwal, 30 million or more people in India alone are dependent “wholly or substantially on such forest produce for a livelihood.”
• The majority of us in Western society take accessible, clean, running water for granted. Many women in the Global South contend with dangerous journeys to fetch water, multiple times a day, only to leave them vulnerable to attack, injury, and at a disadvantage in respect to education and income, (unwater.org.) Much of which is due to deforestation, the reduction of rivers and streams, (clean water supply.) Sanitation and hygiene in much of the Global South is seen as a luxury, as opposed to the fundamental human right that it is.

Based on the understanding that there is no one ecofeminist perspective, what are the central differences and commonalities between ecofeminism from a Western perspective, and a non-Western perspective?

Western feminist perspective is not universal, and ecofeminist activists like Dr. Laura Hobgood-Oster and Dr. Vandana Shiva both denote that “Ecofeminist trajectories are varied; there is no one accepted or orthodox ‘ecofeminism'” (Hobgood-Oster, 2008.)

Both western and non-western ecofeminist perspectives are concerned with how oppression is intertwined. Both understand that environmental degradation is connected to socioeconomic status, race, gender inequality, ability, and other social justice issues. In societies structured around patriarchy, both perspectives aim to illuminate the connection between the dominance and oppression of women and human domination over nature. It is safe to say that western and non-western ecofeminist perspectives share an intersectional lens. 

Western ecofeminism is still found to rely on technology, scientific evidence and data, rationality, and logistics in order to present the case for environmental protection and the implementation of programs for sustainability.

Alternatively, indigenous knowledge systems and spiritually grounded approaches to preservation and environmental research are at the forefront of both grassroots and established movements that are rooted in a non-Western ecofeminist perspective.

“The growing literature of ecofeminism in the west, and especially in the United States, conceptualizes the link between gender and the environment primarily in ideological terms. An intensifying struggle for survival in the developing world, however, highlights the material basis for this link and sets the background for an alternative formulation of ecofeminism” (Agarwal, 119.)

Vandana Shiva divulges the commonalities and differences of ecofeminist in just a few passionate sentences during the interview, In the Footsteps of Gandhi: An Interview with Vandana Shiva:

London: You’ve said that the most critical issue confronting the world today is a dual one: the need for ecological sustainability, on the one hand, and social justice on the other. Many people, especially here in the United States, see these issues as separate and unrelated. But for you they are inextricably linked.

Shiva: Yes, for me the two are very closely linked, in part because my view of ecology comes from the margins of Indian society, from the agricultural producers who make up 70 percent of India — people who are dependent on natural resources, on biodiversity, on the land, the forests, the water. Nature is their means of production. So, for them ecological destruction is a form of injustice. When the forest is destroyed, when the river is dammed, when the biodiversity is stolen, when fields are waterlogged or turned saline because of economic activities, it is a question of survival for these people. So, our environmental movements have been justice movements.

Common goals, different perspectives.

 

Reference: Agarwal, B. (1992). The gender and environment debate: Lessons from India. Feminist Studies, 18(1), 119-158. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178217

Hobgood-Oster, L. (2002, August 18). Ecofeminism: Historic and international evolution. Southwestern University.

London, S. (2016, February 3). In the footsteps of Gandhi: An interview with Vandana Shiva. Global Research. Retrieved February 11, 2025, from https://www.globalresearch.ca/in-the-footsteps-of-gandhi-an-interview-with-vandana-shiva/5505135

United Nations (Ed.). (n.d.). Water and gender. UN Water. Retrieved February 10, 2025, from https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-gender

 

Food Insecurity: Disparity in Gender from an Ecofeminist Perspective

According to unwomen.org, in nearly two thirds of countries, women and other marginalized genders are more likely to experience food insecurity than men. Why is there such a drastic disparity, and how can applying an ecofeminist lens help to better illuminate the issue?

Ecofeminism is neither feminism nor environmentalism, but a combination of both philosophies that allow researchers and academics the ability to approach environmental challenges from a feminist perspective, and feminist issues from an ecological perspective. Ecofeminists believe that the two intertwine; the main connector being the oppression of nature by human domination, and the simultaneous patriarchal domination of women.

Women are more often associated with nature, as nature is seen as feminine. This socially constructed view of women and nature has led to the degradation and domination of both. What does this look like, and how does it apply to the issue of food security?

• Approximately 343 million people globally are hungry right now.
• 60% of those people are women and girls.
• In nearly two thirds of countries, women are more likely than men to report food insecurity.
• 1:3 = the proportion of women with nutrition-related anemia.
  – World Food Program USA (wfpusa.org) 

According to the Food Research and Action Center, there are over 10 million households with children in the US that are headed by a single female. 26.6% of these families live below the federal poverty line. 14.9% of households with children headed by a single male are living below the federal poverty line.

According to USDA’s most recent report, single-parent, female-headed households are also significantly more likely to be food-insecure than single-parent, male-headed households (31.6 to 21.7 percent). 

Current figures for a year’s worth of wage disparities equal approximately 78 weeks of food lost for a woman’s family.

Gender wage gaps, unequal opportunity, lack of access to reproductive healthcare, unpaid caregiving labor, environmental changes, and so much more contribute to the food insecurity disparity among genders.

A quote by Rosemary Radford Ruether from New Woman/New Earth found in the Hobgood-Oster Introduction, says that “Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women’s movement with those of the ecological movement to envision radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this modern industrial society.”

This is as much a feminist issue as it is ecological, and one that would be better analyzed and acted upon using an ecofeminist perspective.

Sources Cited:

Doughten, L. (2023, July 13). Women and girls eat the least and last. Center for Disaster Philanthropy. Retrieved February 5, 2025, from https://disasterphilanthropy.org/blog/women-and-girls-eat-the-least-and-last/

Hobgood-Oster, L. (2002, August 18). Ecofeminism: Historic and international evolution. Southwestern University.

UN Women. (n.d.). SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. UNWomen.org. Retrieved February 5, 2025, from https://eca.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs

 

Hey!

My name is Lauren, and I am so excited to be on this educational journey with all of you. I am a WGS major here at UMassD, so I can’t wait to dive into ecofeminism!

I am a 30-year-old mother of one feisty 3-year-old toddler. Quite frankly, there should be an entire course for adults literally just dedicated to teaching us how to not be bullied by a toddler. (I am sure they have those, but most of us are just out here winging this whole parent thing.) In reality though, that little girl is most of the reason I am here typing this now. She is pure light, and unfiltered happiness, and has shown me how to see the good in all corners of our little space in this world. I live in a Suburb of Boston in a small house with my ever-so-patient and supportive hubby, our little one, and our goofy boxer/pit mix, Nova Binx. (Pics below because I am obsessed with this dog on an almost unhealthy level…)

         

I currently help manage a small private psychiatry and holistic healthcare clinic, love it, it’s my full-time job. On the weekends, I work for a community behavioral health center as a certified peer mentor and recovery specialist. I am part of the youth mobile crisis unit, so we are out in the field, sometimes all day. I also love it, though. Mental healthcare is my passion, it’s another part of the reason I am here trucking right along toward that BA, because my ultimate career goal is to become a licensed clinical mental health counselor. Of course, I need to make it to this graduation, then through graduate school, that graduation, land a MA-level job, complete supervised clinical hours, apply for licensure, take the licensure exam, hopefully pass that, and viola! (Typing all of that out just now was scary.)

When I can find some spare time, I still attend some general NAMI membership meetings, I volunteer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), as well as the Crisis Text Line (988) or (741-741.) I adore reading fantasy, painting, knitting, and yoga! I am also a die-hard Eagles fan, so I am trying to make it to the SuperBowl in one piece…

     Saquan Barkley, 26, is currently one of my heroes.

While I was taking a look through some of the different blogs in this module, I fell in love with More To Hate by Kate Manne pretty much right away. Kate seems like a cheeky author, and I am a big fan of sarcasm and dry humor. As I was reading through some of her blog posts, another blog caught my eye titled “liberating motherhood” by Zawn Villines. I clicked on it, because yes please, I love to complain about motherhood while I am in the thick of it, and love my tiny human at the same exact time. Strange feeling, really. I immediately felt a strong sense of comradery as I started to sift through Zawn’s posts. They raise some important points in regard to day-to-day challenges that mom’s and caregivers face, as well as relationship issues, where to find support, ect. Liberating motherhood has a podcast too, and I think I might subscribe, to be honest. I think that Zawn’s style and liberating motherhood could be a model for my own work, because sometimes when things are as bad as they are, (current feminist issues, the environment, the current political climate…) satire becomes a coping mechanism. On the flip side, it can’t be a model for my work when I need to buckle down and convince the more academic side of me to do some work.

I am a vegetarian, so that means I am pretty much always concerned about greenhouse gas emissions. Even though my fam and I do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint, I know it’s not enough. Instrumentalism makes me sad, why are humans the way that we are? I can’t stand the “that won’t happen in my lifetime” sentiment, because 1. we are getting dangerously close to “that happening” in this lifetime, and 2. there are several generations to come that will be directly related ancestors that we leave behind, what about them? I am excited to be taking this course and gaining knowledge on how to address some super scary issues from a feminist perspective!