Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective on Green politics that calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group. Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism (or materialist ecofeminism). Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art, social justice and political philosophy, religion, contemporary feminism, and poetry.

French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne coined the term in a 1974 book

Ecofeminist analysis explores the connections between women and nature in culture, economy, religion, politics, literature and iconography, and addresses the culturally constructed parallels between the oppression of nature and the oppression of women. These parallels include, but are not limited to, seeing women and nature as property, seeing men as the curators of culture and women as the curators of nature, and how men dominate women and humans dominate nature. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected.

Though the scope of ecofeminist analysis is dynamic, American author and ecofeminist Charlene Spretnak has offered one way of categorizing ecofeminist work: 1) through the study of political theory as well as history; 2) through the belief and study of nature-based religions; 3) through environmentalism.

Early texts

While diverse ecofeminist perspectives have emerged from women activists and thinkers all over the world, academic studies of ecofeminism have been dominated by North American universities. Thus, in the 1993 essay entitled "Ecofeminism: Toward Global Justice and Planetary Health", authors Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen outline what they call the "ecofeminist framework". The essay provides a wealth of data and statistics in addition to outlining the theoretical aspects of the ecofeminist critique. The framework was intended to establish ways of viewing and understanding our current global situations so that we can better understand how we arrived at this point and what may be done to ameliorate the ills.

Building on the work of North American scholars Rosemary Ruether and Carolyn Merchant, Gaard and Gruen argue that there are four sides to this framework:

1. The rise of patriarchal religions and their establishment of gender hierarchies along with their denial of immanent divinity.
2. The mechanistic materialist model of the universe that resulted from the scientific revolution and the subsequent reduction of all things into mere resources to be optimized, dead inert matter to be used.
3. Traditional dualisms based on masculinity v femininity, self v other, humanity v nature, and the inherent power and domination ethic these entail.
4. Capitalism and its intrinsic need for the instrumental exploitation of animals, earth and people for the sole purpose of creating wealth.

These four factors have brought Western cultures to what ecofeminists see as a "separation between nature and culture" that is the root source of our planetary ills.

Some ecofeminism developed out of anarcha-feminist concern to abolishing all forms of domination, yet focusing on the oppressive nature of humanity's relationship to the natural world. According to d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort , ecofeminism relates the oppression and domination of all marginalized groups (women, people of color, children, the poor) to the oppression and domination of nature (animals, land, water, air, etc.). She argues that oppression, domination, exploitation, and colonization under Western patriarchal society has directly caused irreversible environmental damage. An activist and organizer, d'Eaubonne advocated the eradication of all social injustice, not just injustice against women and the environment.

Influential early texts included: Women and Nature (Susan Griffin 1978), The Death of Nature (Carolyn Merchant 1980) and Gyn/Ecology (Mary Daly 1978), which helped propel the association between domination by men of women and the domination of culture over nature. Feminist activism of the 1980s included grass-roots movements such as the National Toxics Campaign, Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), and Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE) led by women devoted to issues of human health and environmental justice. Writings in this circle discussed ecofeminism drawing from Green Party politics, peace movements, and direct action movements.

Gendering nature

Petra Kelly

Ecofeminist theory asserts that capitalism reflects only paternalistic and patriarchal values, such that the effects of capitalism have not benefited women. In the 1970s, many ecofeminists argued that the nature/culture split can be healed by women's holistic knowledge of nature's processes.

Other ecofeminist scholars emphasize that it is not because women are female or "feminine" that they are sensitive to nature, but because they experience oppression by the same masculinist forces. The marginalization is evident in the standard gendered language used to describe nature, such as "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature", and the animalized language used to describe women in derogatory terms. Other ecofeminists point to the value of women's learning from their traditional social role as caregiver.

The Indian ecofeminist and activist Vandana Shiva also writes that women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions and that this has been underestimated. According to Shiva, women in subsistence economies who produce "wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature's processes". She makes the point that "these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the reductionist capitalist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women's lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth (23)". Shiva attributes this failure to the Western patriarchal perceptions of development and progress. According to Shiva, patriarchy has labeled women, nature, and other groups not growing the economy as "unproductive". Similarly, Australian ecofeminist Ariel Salleh deepens this materialist ecofeminist approach in dialogue with green politics, ecosocialism, genetic engineering and climate policy.

Concepts

Modern science and ecofeminism

In Ecofeminism (1993) authors Vandana Shiva together with Maria Mies from Germany interrogate modern science and its acceptance as a universal and value-free system. They view the dominant stream of science not as objective rather as a projection of Western patriarchal values. The determination of what is considered scientific knowledge and its usage has been largely restricted to men. Examples include the medicalization of childbirth and the industrialization of plant reproduction.

A common claim within ecofeminist literature is that Western patriarchal structures justify their dominance through binary oppositions, these include but are not limited to: heaven/earth, mind/body, male/female, human/animal, spirit/matter, culture/nature and white/non-white. Oppression is reinforced by applying these binaries in social judgements of value/non-value.

Vegetarian ecofeminism

Main article: Vegetarian ecofeminism

A version of established vegetarian ecofeminism asserts that "omitting the oppression of animals from feminist and ecofeminist analyses … is inconsistent with the activist and philosophical foundations of both feminism (as a "movement to end all forms of oppression") and ecofeminism." This puts into practice "the personal is political", as many ecofeminists believe that "meat-eating is a form of patriarchal domination…that suggests a link between male violence and a meat-based diet." During a 1995 interview with On the Issues, Carol J. Adams stated, "Manhood is constructed in our culture in part by access to meat-eating and control of other bodies, whether it's women or animals". According to Adams, "We cannot work for justice and challenge the oppression of nature without understanding that the most frequent way we interact with nature is by eating animals". Vegetarian ecofeminism refines a system of ethics and action.

Materialist ecofeminism

The key activist-scholars developing a materialist ecofeminism are Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen in Germany; Vandana Shiva in India; Ariel Salleh in Australia; Mary Mellor in the UK; and Ana Isla in Peru. Materialist ecofeminism is not widely known in North America aside from the journal collective at Capitalism Nature Socialism. A materialist view integrates economic institutions such as labor, power, and property as the source of domination over women and nature. Connections made between these subjects because of the contrast between masculinist values of production versus the reproduction of living relations. This ecofeminism may also be referred to as "social feminism", "socialist ecofeminism", or "Marxist ecofeminism". According to Carolyn Merchant, "Social ecofeminism advocates the liberation of women through overturning economic and social hierarchies that turn all aspects of life into a market society that today even invades the womb". Ecofeminism in this sense seeks to eliminate social hierarchies which favor the production of commodities (dominated by men) over biological and social reproduction traditionally seen as the sphere of women's work - see also Salleh.

Spiritual and cultural ecofeminism

Spiritual ecofeminism is another approach to ecofeminism, and it is popular among North American authors such as Starhawk, Riane Eisler, and Carol J. Adams. Starhawk calls this an earth-based spirituality, which recognizes that the Earth is alive, and that we are an interconnected community. Spiritual ecofeminism is not linked to one specific religion, but is centered around values of caring, compassion, and non-violence. Often, ecofeminists refer to more ancient traditions, such as the worship of Gaia, the Goddess of nature and spirituality (also known as Mother Earth). Wicca and Paganism are particularly influential to spiritual ecofeminism. Most Wicca covens demonstrate a deep respect for nature, a feminine outlook, and an aim to establish strong community values.

In her book Radical Ecology, Carolyn Merchant refers to spiritual ecofeminism as "cultural ecofeminism". According to Merchant, cultural ecofeminism, "celebrates the relationship between women and nature through the revival of ancient rituals centered on goddess worship, the moon, animals, and the female reproductive system." In this sense, cultural ecofeminists tend to value intuition and an ethic of care in human-nature interrelationships.

Environmental movements

Like the materialist ecofeminists Mies, Shiva, and Salleh, Susan A. Mann, an ecofeminist and professor of sociological and feminist theory, considers the roles women played in these activisms to be the starter for ecofeminism in later centuries. Mann associates the beginning of ecofeminism not with feminists but with women of many different backgrounds who made perceived connections between gender, race, class, and environmental issues. This ideal is upheld through the notion that in activist and theory circles marginalized groups must be included in the discussion. In early North American movements, issues of race and class were often separated.

Beginning in the late 20th century, women worked in efforts to protect wildlife, food, air and water. These efforts coincided with new developments in the environmental movement among influential writers, such as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. Parallel examples from women environmental ethicists were the books Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams.

Ecofeminist author Karen Warren lists Aldo Leopold's essay "Land Ethic" (1949) as fundamental to her own ecofeminist conception, as Leopold was the first to pen an ethic for the land which understands all non-human parts of that community (animals, plants, land, air, water) as equal to and in a relationship with humans. This inclusive understanding of the environment helped launch the modern preservation movement and illustrated how environmental issues can be viewed through a framework of caring.

Women have long participated in environmental movements, specifically preservation and conservation beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth century.

Worldwide movements of the 1970s and 80s

In India, in the state of Uttarakhand in 1973, women took part in the Chipko movement to protect forests from deforestation. Many men during this time were moving to cities in search of work, and women that stayed in the rural parts of India were reliant on the forests for subsistence. As documented by Vandana Shiva, Non-violent protest tactics were used to occupy trees so that loggers could not cut them down.

Wangari Maathai

In Kenya in 1977, the Green Belt Movement was initiated by environmental and political activist Professor Wangari Maathai. It is a rural tree planting program led by women, which Maathai designed to help prevent desertification in the area. The program created a 'green belt' of at least 1,000 trees around villages, and gave participants the ability to take charge in their communities. In later years, the Green Belt Movement was an advocate for informing and empowering citizens through seminars for civic and environmental education, as well as holding national leaders accountable for their actions and instilling agency in citizens. The work of the Green Belt Movement continues today.

In 1978 in New York, mother and environmentalist Lois Gibbs led her community in protest after discovering that their entire neighborhood, Love Canal, was built on top of a toxic dump site. The toxins in the ground were causing illness among children and reproductive issues among women, as well as birth defects in babies born to pregnant women exposed to the toxins. The Love Canal movement eventually led to the evacuation and relocation of nearly 800 families by the federal government.

In 1980 and 1981, women like ecofeminist Ynestra King organized a peaceful protest at the Pentagon. Women stood, hand in hand, demanding equal rights (including social, economic, and reproductive rights) as well as an end to militaristic actions taken by the government and exploitation of the community (people and the environment). This movement is known as the Women's Pentagon Actions.

In 1985, the Akwesasne Mother's Milk Project was launched by Katsi Cook. This study was funded by the government, and investigated how the higher level of contaminants in water near the Mohawk reservation impacted babies. It revealed that through breast milk, Mohawk children were being exposed to 200% more toxins than children not on the reservation. Toxins contaminate water all over the world, but due to environmental racism, certain marginalized groups are exposed to a much higher amount.

The Greening of Harlem Coalition is another example of an ecofeminist movement. In 1989, Bernadette Cozart founded the coalition, which is responsible for many urban gardens around Harlem. Cozart's goal is to turn vacant lots into community gardens. This is economically beneficial, and also provides a way for very urban communities to be in touch with nature and each other. The majority of people interested in this project (as noted in 1990) were women. Through these gardens, they were able to participate in and become leaders of their communities. Urban greening exists in other places as well. Beginning in 1994, a group of African-American women in Detroit have developed city gardens, and call themselves the Gardening Angels. Similar garden movements have occurred globally.

The development of vegetarian ecofeminism can be traced to the mid-80s and 90s, where it first appeared in writing. However, the roots of a vegetarian ecofeminist view can be traced back further by looking at sympathy for non-humans and counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s. At the culmination of the decade, ecofeminism had spread to both USA coasts and articulated an intersectional analysis of women and the environment. Eventually, challenging ideas of environmental classism and racism, resisting toxic dumping and other threats to the impoverished.

Vandana Shiva

Critiques

Essentialism debate

In the 1980s and 1990s ecofeminism began to be heavily critiqued as 'essentialism'. The critics wrongly believed ecofeminism to be reinforcing patriarchal dominance and norms, misconstruing the ideological challenge involved. Post structural and third wave feminists argued that ecofeminism itself equated women with nature and this grouped all women into one category enforcing the very societal norms that feminism is trying to break.

The ascribed essentialism actually reversed the political radicalism of ecofeminism by claiming that:

• Ecofeminism demonstrates an adherence to the strict dichotomy, among others, between men and women. Some critiques of ecofeminism note that the dichotomy between women and men and nature and culture creates a dualism that is too stringent and focused on the differences of women and men. In this sense, ecofeminism too strongly correlates the social status of women with the social status of nature, rather than the non-essentialist view that women along with nature have both feminine and masculine qualities, and that just as feminine qualities have often been seen as less worthy, nature is also seen as having lesser value than culture.
• Ecofeminism asserts a divergent view regarding participation in existing social structures. As opposed to radical and liberation-based feminist movements, mainstream feminism is tightly bound with hegemonic social status and strives to promote equality within the existing social and political structure, such as making it possible for women to occupy positions of power in business, industry and politics, using direct involvement as the main tactic for achieving pay equity and influence. In fact ecofeminists oppose uncritical engagement in mainstream institutions, as these are the environmentally destructive agencies that the movement intends to dismantle.

Ecofeminist Noel Sturgeon says in an interview that what anti-essentialists fail to recognise is a strategy used to mobilize large and diverse groups of both theorists and activists. Additionally, according to Charlene Spretnak, modern ecofeminism is concerned about a wide variety of issues, including reproductive technology, equal pay and equal rights, toxic pollution, Third World development, and more.

Norie Ross Singer and A. E. Kings emphasize that ecofeminism must be read from an intersectionality perspective, advancing an anti-essentialist critical ecofeminism of difference accounting for how multiple axes of identity such as gender, race, and class variously intermesh in human-nonhuman relationships. Kings argues that the analysis is fundamentally intersectional given that it is built upon the idea that patriarchal violence against women is connected to domination of nature.

Feminist thought surrounding ecofeminism grew in some areas as it was criticized; vegetarian ecofeminism contributed to intersectional analysis; and ecofeminisms that analyzed animal rights, labor rights and activisms focused on oppressed groups. However to some critics, the inclusion of non-human animals came to be viewed as essentialist.

In the 21st century, ecofeminists became aware of the criticisms, and in response some among them began doing research and renaming the topic, i.e. queer ecologies, global feminist environmental justice, and gender and the environment. The essentialism concern as Ariel Salleh pointed out in Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmoden was mostly found among North American academics influenced by post-structuralist theory. In Europe and the global South, class, race, gender and species dominations were framed by more grounded materialist understandings.

Mysticism

While Rosemary Radford Ruether critiqued any mysticism in work that focused on helping women, she argued that spirituality and activism can be combined effectively in ecofeminism.

Social ecologist and feminist Janet Biehl criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on a mystical connection between women and nature and not enough on the actual conditions of women. She also stated that rather than being a forward-moving theory, ecofeminism is an anti-progressive movement for women. Conversely socialist ecofeminists situate gender roles in a poltical-economic framework, arguing for a materialist analysis that is deeply radical. The socialist feminist may oppose the ecofeminist by arguing that women do not have an intrinsic connection with nature; rather, that is a socially constructed narrative.

Miscellaneous criticisms

Although environmental justice and feminist care ethics have pushed for participation of marginalized groups, Andrew Charles points out that people with disabilities still face issues of access and representation in policy making. It is also suggested that the nurturing aspect of ecofeminism is potentially patronizing to marginalized groups. Likewise, a radical white savior complex can disrupt the self-advocacy of racially marginalized peoples. Such criticisms rest on a failure to recognise the political intersectionality of ecofeminist critiques of global domination.

Catia Faria argues that the view held by ecofeminists that the largest source of harm to non-human animals in the wild is patriarchal culture and that the conservation of nature and natural processes is the best way to help these individuals is mistaken. She instead contends that natural processes are a source of immense suffering for these animals and that we should work towards alleviating the harms they experience, as well as eliminating patriarchal sources of harm, such as hunting. However, a position like this has been used by the genetic engineering industry to rationalise the commercial remaking of evolutionary relations. Over the years, various political interests have offered various response to ecofeminism.

Theorists

• Judi Bari – Bari was a principal organizer of the Earth First! movement and experienced sexist hostility.
• Françoise d'Eaubonne – Called upon women to lead an ecological revolution in order to save the planet. This entailed revolutionizing gender relations and human relations with the natural world.
• Greta Gaard – Greta Gaard is an American ecofeminist scholar and activist. Her major contributions to the field connect ideas of queer theory, vegetarianism, and animal liberation. Her major theories include ecocriticism which works to include literary criticism and composition to inform ecofeminism and other feminist theories to address a wider range of social issues within ecofeminism. She is an ecological activist and leader in the U.S. Green Party, and the Green Movement.
• Susan Griffin - A radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works. A Californian, she taught as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley as well as at Stanford University and California Institute of Integral Studies.
• Sallie McFague – A prominent ecofeminist theologian, McFague uses the metaphor of God's body to represent the universe at large. This metaphor values inclusive, mutualistic and interdependent relations amongst all things.
• Carolyn Merchant – Historian of science who taught at University of California, Berkeley for many years. Her book The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution is a classic ecofeminist text.
• Mary Mellor – UK sociologist who moved to ecofeminist ideas from an interest in cooperatives. Her books Breaking the Boundaries and Feminism and Ecology are grounded in a materialist analysis.
• Maria Mies – Mies is a German social critic who has been involved in feminist work throughout Europe and India. She works particularly on the intersections of patriarchy, poverty, and the environment on a local and global scale.
• Adrian Parr – A cultural and environmental theorist. She has published eight books and numerous articles on environmental activism, feminist new materialism, and imagination. Most notable is her trilogy – Hijacking Sustainability, The Wrath of Capital, and Birth of a New Earth.
• Val Plumwood – Val Plumwood, formerly Val Routley, was an Australian ecofeminist intellectual and activist, who was prominent in the development of radical ecosophy from the early 1970s through the remainder of the 20th century. In her work Feminism and the Mastery of Nature she describes the relationship of mankind and the environment relating to an eco-feminist ideology.
• Alicia Puleo – The author of several books and articles on ecofeminism and gender inequality, Alicia Puleo has been characterized as "arguably Spain's most prominent explicator-philosopher of the worldwide movement or theoretical orientation known as ecofeminism."
• Rosemary Radford Ruether – Has written 36 books and over 600 articles exploring the intersections of feminism, theology, and creation care. Ruether was the first person to connect the domination of the earth with the oppression of women.
• Ariel Salleh – Australian ecofeminist with a global perspective; a founding editor of the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism; author of four books and some 300 articles examining ecofeminist links with deep and social ecology, green politics, eco-socialism, digitalisation and decoloniality.
• Vandana Shiva – Shiva is a scientist by training, prolific author and Indian ecofeminist activist. She was a participant in the Chipko movement of the 1970s, which used non-violent activism to protest and prevent deforestation in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand, India, then in Uttar Pradesh. Her fight against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (together with the fights led by Rachel Carson against DDT and Erin Brockovich against hexavalent chromium) has been described as an example of ecofeminist position.
• Charlene Spretnak – Spretnak is an American writer largely known for her writing on ecology, politics and spirituality. Through these writings Spretnak has become a prominent ecofeminist. She has written many books which discuss ecological issues in terms of effects with social criticisms, including feminism. Spretnak's works had a major influence in the development of the Green Party. She has also won awards based on her visions on ecology and social issues as well as feminist thinking.
• Starhawk – An American writer and activist, Starhawk is known for her work in spiritualism and ecofeminism. She advocates for social justice in issues surrounding nature and spirit. These social justice issues fall under the scope of feminism and ecofeminism. She believes in fighting oppression through intersectionality and the importance of spirituality, eco consciousness and sexual and gender liberation.
• Vanessa Lemgruber – Lemgruber is a Brazilian lawyer, writer, activist, and ecofeminist. She defends the Doce river in Brazil and advocates for water quality and zero waste movements.
• Douglas Vakoch – An American ecocritic whose edited volumes include Ecofeminism and Rhetoric: Critical Perspectives on Sex, Technology, and Discourse (2011), Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature (2012), Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction (2021), Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature (2021), The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature (2023), (with Nicole Anae) Indian Feminist Ecocriticism (2022), and (with Sam Mickey) Ecofeminism in Dialogue (2018), Literature and Ecofeminism: Intersectional and International Voices (2018), and Women and Nature?: Beyond Dualism in Gender, Body, and Environment (2018).
• Karen J. Warren – Warren received her B.A. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota (1970) and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1978. Before her long tenure at Macalester College, which began in 1985, Warren was Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College in the early 1980s. Warren was the Ecofeminist-Scholar-in-Residence at Murdoch University in Australia. In 2003, she served as an Oxford University Round Table Scholar and as Women's Chair in Humanistic Studies at Marquette University in 2004. She has spoken widely on environmental issues, feminism, critical thinking skills and peace studies in many international locations including Buenos Aires, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Manitoba, Melbourne, Moscow, Perth, the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), and San Jose.
• Laura Wright — Wright proposed Vegan studies as an academic discipline.

See also

• Chipko movement
• Climate change and gender
• Cottagecore
• Critical animal studies
• Cultural feminism
• Deep ecology
• Deep Green Resistance
• Ecofeminist art
• Green syndicalism
• Intersectionality
• List of ecofeminist authors
• Queer ecology
• Romanticism
• Sexecology
• Social ecology
• Vegan studies
• Vegetarian ecofeminism
• Women and the environment through history

Further reading

Key works

• Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge
• The Body of God by Sallie McFague
• The Chalice & The Blade: Our History, Our Future, by Riane Eisler
• The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution by Carolyn Merchant
• Ecofeminism by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva
• Ecofeminism in Latin America by Mary Judith Ross
• Ecofeminist Philosophy by Karen J. Warren
• Environmental Culture by Val Plumwood
• Feminism and the Mastery of Nature by Val Plumwood
• Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing by Rosemary Radford Ruether
• Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions by Rosemary Radford Ruether
• Neither Man Nor Beast by Carol J. Adams
• Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams
• The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World by Charlene Spretnak
• Sacred Longings: Ecofeminist theology and Globalization by Mary Grey
• The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
• Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development by Vandana Shiva
• Thinking Green! Essays on Environmentalism, Feminism, and Nonviolence by Petra Kelly
• Tomorrow's Biodiversity by Vandana Shiva
• Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
• Breaking the Boundaries by Mary Mellor
• Feminism and Ecology by Mary Mellor
• Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx, and the Postmodern by Ariel Salleh
• DeColonize EcoModernism! by Ariel Salleh
• The Greening of Costa Rica by Ana Isla

Anthologies

• Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations, edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan
• Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
• Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, edited by Greta Gaard
• Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature, edited by Karen J. Warren with editorial assistance from Nisvan Erkal
• EcoFeminism & Globalization: exploring culture, context and religion, edited by Heather Eaton & Lois Ann Lorentzen
• Ecofeminism and Rhetoric: Critical Perspectives on Sex, Technology, and Discourse, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
• Ecofeminism and the Sacred, edited by Carol J. Adams
• Ecofeminism in Dialogue, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
• Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
• Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice: Women write Political Ecology, edited by Ariel Salleh
• Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
• Indian Feminist Ecocriticism, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Nicole Anae
• Literature and Ecofeminism: Intersectional and International Voices, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
• The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement, edited by Charlene Spretnak
• Readings in Ecology and Feminist Theology, edited by Mary Heather MacKinnon and Moni McIntyre
• Reclaim the Earth, edited by Leonie Caldecott & Stephanie Leland
• Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein
• The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch
• Women and Nature?: Beyond Dualism in Gender, Body, and Environment, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Sam Mickey
• Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether
• GUIA ECOFEMINISTA - mulheres, direito, ecologia, written by Vanessa Lemgruber edited by Ape'Ku

Journal articles

• Buckingham, Susan (2015). "Ecofeminism". International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition): 845–850. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.91020-1.
• Gaard, Greta Claire (2011). "Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism". Feminist Formations. 23 (2): 26–53. doi:10.1353/ff.2011.0017. S2CID 145195744.
• Huggan, Graham (2004). ""Greening" Postcolonialism: Ecocritical Perspectives". MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 50 (3): 701–733. doi:10.1353/mfs.2004.0067. S2CID 143900488.
• Mack-Canty, Colleen (2004). "Third-Wave Feminism and the Need to Reweave the Nature/ Culture Duality". NWSA Journal. 16 (3): 154–179. doi:10.1353/nwsa.2004.0077.
• MacGregor, Sherilyn (2004). "From care to citizenship: Calling ecofeminism back to politics". Ethics & the Environment. 9 (1): 56–84. doi:10.1353/een.2004.0007. S2CID 144880391.
• Mallory, Chaone (2013). "Locating Ecofeminism in Encounters with Food and Place". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 26 (1): 171–189. doi:10.1007/s10806-011-9373-8. S2CID 144880945.
• Mann, Susan A. 2011. Pioneers of U.S. Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice, "Feminist Formations" 23(2): 1-25.
• Wildy, Jade (2012). "The Artistic Progressions of Ecofeminism: The Changing Focus of Women in Environmental Art". International Journal of the Arts in Society. 6 (1): 53–65. doi:10.18848/1833-1866/cgp/v06i01/35978.
• Salleh, Ariel (1984) 'From Feminism to Ecology', Social Alternatives, Vol. 4, No. 3, 8–12.
• Salleh, Ariel (2019) 'Ecofeminist Sociology as a New Class Analysis' in Klaus Dorre and Brigitte Aulenbacher (eds.), Global Dialogue, International Sociological Association Newsletter: Vol. 9, No. 1.
• Salleh, Ariel (1991) 'Essentialism and Ecofeminism', Arena No. 94:167-173.
• David Pellow (2018), 'Review of EcoFeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern', Journal of World-Systems Research, doi:10.5195/JWSR.2018.864.

Fiction

See also: Feminist science fiction

• A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
• Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
• The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Holdfast Chronicles by Suzy McKee Charnas
• The Madonna Secret by Sophie Strand
• Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
• The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
• The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You by Dorothy Bryant
• Bear by Marian Engel
• The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
• Sultana's Dream by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Poetry

• The Sea of Affliction (1987, reprinted 2010) by Rosemarie Rowley

External links

• Ecofeminism: Toward global justice and planetary health Feminist Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen's ecofeminist framework
• "An Ecology of Knowledge: Feminism, Ecology and the Science and Religion Discourse" Metanexus Institute by Lisa Stenmark
• "Ecofeminism and the Democracy of Creation" by Catherine Keller (2005); cf. Carol P. Christ, "Ecofeminism", in Michel Weber and Will Desmond (eds.), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, 2008, pp. 87–98.
• "Toward a Queer Ecofeminism" by Greta Gaard
• Feminism and ecology: the same struggle? – The shaping of ecofeminism by Marijke Colle
• Feminist Environmental Philosophy by Karen Warren
• What is Ecofeminism? Perlego Books