Eco Feminisim - what is it and why is it important?

Introduction by Karen J. Warren

Source: http://www.uisio.com/envisioning-an-ecofeminist-social-transformation/

The past few decades have witnessed an enormous interest in boththe women's movement and the ecology (environmental) movement. Manyfeminists have argued that the goals of these two movements aremutually reinforcing; ultimately they involve the development ofworldviews and practices that are not based on male-biasedmodels of domination. As Rosemary Ruether wrote in 1975 in her book,New Woman/NewEarth:

Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and nosolution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamentalmodel of relationships continues to be one of domination. They mustunite the demands of the women's movement with those of theecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basicsocioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this [modernindustrial] society. (204)

Since the early 1970s, many feminists, especially ecologicalfeminists ("ecofeminists"), have defended Ruether's basic point: theenvironment is a feminist issue.
Just what makes the environment (ecology) a feminist issue? Whatare some of the alleged connections between the domination of womenand the domination of nature? How and why is recognition of theseconnections important to feminism, environmentalism, andenvironmental philophy? Answering these questions is largely whatecofeminism is about.
In this essay I offer an introduction to the literature and issuesof ecofeminism. I begin with a characterization of ecofeminism. ThenI identify eight sorts of connections--what I call"woman-nature connetions"--that ecofeminists claim link thetwin dominations of women and nature. Discussion of these allegedconnections provides an overview of the scholarly literature inecofeminism and the sorts of reasons ecofeminists have given for thecentrality of ecofeminist insights to environmental philosophy andfeminism. It also helps to situate the four essays included in thissection (essays by Merchant, Plumwood, Salleh, and Warren) withinthat range of scholarly positions. I conclude by suggesting that thephilosophical significance of ecofeminism is that it challengesfeminism to take environmental issues seriously, environmentalphilosophy to take feminism seriously, and philosophy to take bothseriously.