GS2231 - Group work part II

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Gender & Environment

Problem formulation: Our thoughts and ideas about climate change and the environment are
deeply entangled with, and affected by, gender dynamics. What are these, and how are ideas
of gender and environment interrelated?

Introduction
In this paper we analyse the relationship between gender and environment, beginning with an
overview of the traditional roles of women as “caretakers” of nature and men as polluters,
ending with a more recent approach towards these links. Buckingham and Masson underline
that “researchers and writers on gender and environmental issues, including climate change,
have been overwhelmingly women” (Buckingham & Masson, 2017: 4), focusing on how
men, on the other hand, have the role of dominators towards both nature and women.

Traditional gender roles & nature

As Mohai argues, the way men and women are traditionally socialised influences how society
expects them to behave towards nature. In the case of women, educated since childhood to be
caregivers and mothers, a protective attitude towards nature is expected. While men are
thought to be “breadwinners” which sets the basis for a more destructive behaviour towards
nature, for example pollution (Mohai, 1992: 2).

Ressurección (2017: 72) explains how early work concerning what would be called Women,
Environment & Development (WED) involved narratives that described poor rural or
indigenous women as the primary victims of changes in, and caretakers of, the environment.
One important figure who presented such a narrative is Vandana Shiva, a famous
environmental scholar-activist. She painted a picture of opposing forces, one being the
dominant science, development, colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism, which work to
destroy and threaten life, and the other being the knowledge and insight of the women who
work to sustain that life. Shiva’s view was of the rural indigenous women as the primary
sustainers and providers of life and therefore also the people with the right to care for nature
(Resurrección, 2017: 72). This view can be connected to the notion of the woman as the
caretaker and mother and expects women to extend this sense of motherhood beyond their
children to the environment around them.

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Looking at men and masculinity in relation to climate change and the environment, there
seem to be different patterns. As has been mentioned earlier in this text, some scholars
suggest that there are particular feminine patterns in the concern for the environment, for
example, Shiva (Resurrección, 2017: 72). While this may be true, there are indeed also men
who are engaged with climate change and environmental protection. Nagel (2018) has noted,
in her research on the subject, that there seem to be particularly masculine ways in which
men engage with these issues. In thinking about potential issues with climate change and the
environment from a masculine perspective, the main emphasis is put on finding technical
solutions, rather than acknowledging that this particular masculine way of thinking might be
the problem to begin with (Nagel, 2018). Indeed, the whole idea of conceptualising nature as
a problem to be controlled and solved (rather than changing human actions) is a part of the
problem and an integral part of a masculine way of understanding nature (Nagel, 2018). This
masculine way of understanding nature is also reproduced through education systems, which
are imbued with these masculine values. This ensures that these values live on and spread
through society (Buckingham & Masson, 2017: 5).

Are women actually protecting the environment?

Writers of WED found it important to highlight a materialist analysis of the things that linked
women and nature together, especially the aspects of women’s roles that brought them into
close everyday proximity to the surrounding environment. This does however highlight a
prominent problem among WED writers, which is that they see women as a detached
homogeneous group with a set of pre-defined and unchanging roles to adapt (Resurrecciòn,
2017: 73). Shiva’s idea of the woman as the caretaker of nature failed to understand the
complexity and diversity of women’s experiences, their material realities and how this plays a
part in their interactions with nature. Furthermore, Shiva did not take into account the
different categories that might create this diversity in experience, like “class, castes, race,
ecological zones, and so on” (Resurrecciòn, 2017: 74). While women might share a specific
set of experiences, intersectionality creates another level of complexity that makes women a
group that is in reality quite heterogeneous.

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Following along similar critical lines of reasoning, Moore (2018) takes on a particular
perspective in the approach to women and climate change. In situating the matter of
motherhood in the debate, she underlines the importance of motherhood in all feminist
analyses, particularly the one on climate concerns (Moore, 2018). A significant part of the
ecofeminist narrative has been centred around maternalism as the main source of women’s
concern for nature (Moore, 2018). However, relating to the works of Judith Butler and Donna
Haraway, Moore (2018) engages in a complex debate on the role of motherhood in
ecofeminism and how this idea can be reconceptualised. In particular, she investigates
different ways in which ecofeminist activism, through different arenas and methods, can
contribute to reform and/or reinforce femininity. Recognising that the idea of motherhood has
an important place within the traditional rationale of ecofeminism, but that there also are
opportunities to explore new and, indeed, extended versions of femininity beyond
motherhood within ecofeminism because of it being non-anthropocentric (Moore, 2018).
Essentially, Moore (2018) concludes that ecofeminism could present a particularly interesting
arena to reconceptualise femininity and motherhood.

Conclusion
Taking into consideration the traditional roles of women who were socialised as caretakers
and the effects of this towards the environment, we believe that it is fundamental to look at
this phenomenon as something that should not involve just one gender. It is pivotal to
problematize the expected responsibility of women as women, instead, we should engage in a
vision of nature as something that should be a concern for everyone. In fact, this
problematization is not just an environmental debate, but it is also embedded in a larger
feminist discussion of ways to nuance gender roles.

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References

Buckingham, Susan. & Masson, Virginie Le, 2017, “Introduction”, pp. 1–12 in Susan
Buckingham & Virgine Le Masson (eds.), Understanding Climate Change through Gender
Relations, 1st edition, Routledge: London. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315661605-1.

Mohal, Paul, 1992, “Men, women, and the environment: an examination of the gender gap
in environmental concern and activism”, Society & natural resources, 5(1): 1–19. Available
at: https://doi.org/10.1080/08941929209380772.

Moore, Niamh, 2018, “Refiguring Motherhood and Maternalism in Ecofeminism”, pp.

780-793 in Terry Marsden (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Nature: Three Volume Set, SAGE
Publications Ltd: Online. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473983007.

Nagel, Joane, 2018, “Men at Work: Scientific and Technical Solutions to the ‘Problem’ of
Nature”, pp. 761-779 in Terry Marsden (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Nature: Three Volume
Set, SAGE Publications Ltd: Online. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473983007.

Resurrección, Bernadette, 2017, “Gender and Environment in the Global South: From
‘women, environment, and development’ to feminist political ecology” pp. 71–85 in Sherilyn
MacGregor, Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment, 1st edition, Routledge:
London. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315886572-5.