Women in the Global South experience greater effects of environmental degradation compared to men, or Western women. In China, women are responsible for 90% of the rice cultivation. In Ghana 70% of crops are produced and harvested by women. These women are susceptible to financial harm by the effects of global warming on crops. (Klusener). In parts of India and Africa, women are raped while relieving themselves. Many women and girls go in groups to protect each other from men in neighboring villages. Excessive logging and deforestation in the Himalayas threaten indigenous women’s cultures and practices. In many countries women are the ones responsible for obtaining the water for their families or villages. Women are more susceptible to illness caused by contaminated water during pregnancy and lactation. These illnesses can lead to malnourishment and underweight infants, which can lead to higher levels of infant mortality.
Agarwal explains ecofeminism in a similar way that Shiva does. By bringing awareness to women of the Global South they bring into focus intersectionality. It’s important that we understand how environmental degradation affects women in poor and rural areas in comparison to how Western women might be affected. In last weeks reading, Karen Warren made a symbolic connection to women and the environment. In western feminism, we link nature to women symbolically. We take a look at Ecofeminism under the scope of patriarchy and the domination of men against women and nature. The Western perspective is that because men have always viewed women and nature as something in need of conquering, the connection to women and nature is made. Western feminists feel climate change of course, but not to the same degree that the women of the Global South might feel it.
Agarwal makes the comparison of ecofeminism of the west and of the global South in the following excerpt from her essay. “The ecofeminist argument is problematic on several counts. First it posits “women” as a unitary category and fails to differentiate among women by class, race ethnicity and so on. It ignores forms of domination other than gender”. (Agarwal p.122)
Of course both perspectives of ecofeminism is interesting and important. In the west we are continuously trying to fight against misogyny in all aspects of western life. In the Global South, they are concerned with health issues as it relates to globalization, capitalism, and an abuse of resources. Deforestation creates an end to cultural ways of life in areas of the Global South. We as western women can’t truly grasp what it might mean to survive as a woman in India or Africa. Having to first go fetch water without being raped or attacked. Second carry heavy jugs of possibly contaminated water. Third having to treat or boil the contaminated water before being able to use it.
Meanwhile women in the west are angry that we make .81 to a man’s $1.00. This is a first world problem that is leaps and bounds different than third world problems. I do believe that we need to continue to fight for equality. For equal rights and treatment in the United States. However, being woke on issues that affect the health, wellbeing and livelihood of women in the Global South make their issues seem far more urgent than the wage gap. I’d have to say that I am more drawn to the issue of Women in the Global South as an issue that the world needs to be more aware of.
In closing, It important that we keep in mind that ecofeminism, regardless from what perspective you are looking at it, at its simplest level, it is a fight against male domination. Women in the global South are not given political power to make changes on the governmental level. They are forced to deal with their issues through small grassroots movements. Which takes time and resources many do not have access to. Some scholars state “there can be no climate justice without gender justice. Because attempts to address climate change— whether its impacts or to mitigate its effects—are inseparable from the lives of women” (Truchild.org).
Agarwal, Bina. “The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India.” Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 119–158. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3178217. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.
“Climate Justice and Gender Justice” https://www.truechild.org/climate-justice
Klusener, Edgar. “Are women in the global south ‘victims’ or ‘saviours’ in the face of environmental challenges”? April 18,2019 https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/global-social-challenges/2018/04/19/923/
London, Scott. “In the Footsteps of Gandhi: An Interview with Vandana Shiva”https://www.globalresearch.ca/in-the-footsteps-of-gandhi-an-interview-with-vandana-shiva/5505135
“Water and Gender”https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/gender/
Hello Tonya,
I really liked your post. In the part where you said that the issues of the global south seem far more urgent than the wage gap in the United States, I agree, but at the same time I think it proves what Agarwal said about looking at ecofeminism in terms of race, class, castes, and gender. In third world countries, women face other types of issues that women in the United States don’t face, but that only explains what Agarwal is explaining in the reading that ecofeminism is not only about gender issues, but about all the other issues that we fight against. What I am trying to say is that all women are different, therefore we all have different experiences depending on where we come from. Here in the USA, the wage gap is one of our biggest issues, and even if the issues of the global south seem more urgent, it doesn’t make our issue any less important. Like you said, we are all trying to fight male domination, so we need to do that by fighting against what our specific issue is. For them, it would be fighting for better health and wellbeing, but for us it would be fighting for better pay. However, being aware of other women’s struggle is a good thing because we can help them fight.
Hi Natalia,
Thank you for your comment. You’re absolutely right. That was kind of my point to use the comparison in a way to show we in the west have first world problems that of course are very real. On the other hand women of the global south have third world problems which are also very real. If given the choice between the two and knowing my own issues as I do, as a western woman, I’d choose wage gap, and a patriarchal society over having to fetch unclean water from a watering hole. It’s all relative of course. Becoming more aware of how other women’s lives are affected and lived is certainly helpful to
Not only make us realize that we have it pretty good in comparison, but also that women in other parts of the world struggle too and in very different ways.
Tonya,
I think that it is really important that you mention that both sides are important. This is very true, while ecofeminism looks different in the Global South than it does here in the United States, both are important to the lives we live. Ecofeminism must acknowledge both. Feminism has a way of being white washed, of looking past the differences of class and race and grouping women’s issues as “this” and “that” rather than acknowledging that different issues are important to different people. I read a great deal about women of color fighting forced sterilization and unsafe birth control methods. As a poor white woman I have a hard time equating that struggle to the struggle to keep birth control affordable and accessible for all. To me, birth control means the freedom to live my life as I see fit, rather than being forced into an early marriage, an early divorce and countless children I can’t provide for without the assistance of welfare.
As human beings we are all different and we all find different movements to be near and dear to our hearts, but I think what we need to keep focused on is that just because we see something one way, such as how Warren and Hobgood-Oster view ecofeminism, that doesn’t discount someone else’s view of another side of that issue.
I read a thesis written by Neelam Jabeen that focuses on viewing ecofeminism from the perspective of those in the Global South. What she posits is that western ecofeminism “does not suffice for all the women of the world” (Jabeen 10) and introduces the idea of Postcolonialism Ecofeminism to combat the destruction of what is facing the Global South as global destruction wears away at these communities more and more every day.
Ecofeminism is at it’s core focused on many different issues, but as feminist activist women, we must keep in mind that our view of the world living in the Global North is far from a full view of the world.
https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/25914/Women%20and%20the%20Environment%20of%20the%20Global%20South%20Toward%20a%20Postcolonial%20Ecofeminism.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
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