Ecofeminism

Aida Granert of the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation, which is concerned with  biodiversity, reminded us of the importance of the dragonfly.

Only bats can pollinate the exotic durian, she told us in the Tingog sa Kababay-an forum hosted by the Legal Alternatives for Women Center. Nida Cabrera, who led in organizing women in trash recycling, is now the frontliner in Cebu City’s  attempt to rationalize waste management.

When there are calamities resulting from environmental destruction, women have to bear the human impact. They have to see to it that children are safe. They worry about their food. If the event brings illness in the family, they are the women are  caregivers.

In Africa, women and their families had to walk great distances and spend hours to get  life-essential water. So women from the various places organized to set up a water system.

In Bohol, after a water system was set up in a partnership of the local government and AusAID with the cooperation of the people, cooperatives were organized to manage  water distribution. Women willingly gave time for the management of the cooperatives.

Truly there are many points of convergence between the women’s cause and that of Mother Earth.

I reviewed Ecofeminism from the UP Open University textbook – Feminist Theories and Movements. Thanks to Arleen Mercado Tampus.  I could pore over the material prepared by Dr. Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo, Prof. Victoria Narciso-Apuan and Sylvia Estrada-Claudio. They have referred to Maria Mies, German social scientist and Vandana Shiva, Indian physicist.

In the ecofeminist perspective, the dominant economic system, which is male-dominated, promotes maldevelopment. In this structure,  nature and people get exploited.

Progress is pushed through the “subjugation of nature and extraction of nature’s wealth.” Behind this is the idea of man as conqueror of nature rather than the view that humans are part of nature.

“Ecofeminists point out that poverty and environmental degradation in the South are directly related to profligacy and over consumption in the North.” In  working on an  environmental crises the issue of gender has to be a concern. We have realized how many women are the main victims of this crisis. Yet they can be very significant in responding to the environmental challenge since “they are the ‘hidden wheel’ of real development which is based on nurturance, sustenance, production and maintenance of life.”

Since ecofeminism rejects the conquest of nature, it proposes living in harmony with nature because nature is “a dynamic, active, productive, and creative force, not just something that is merely to be exploited and dominated.” Instead of domination, it proposes relationships of “mutuality, reciprocity, sharing, caring, respect for the individual and responsibility for the whole”.

What appeals to me the most are the ecofeminist strategies.  The authors explain how “think globally, act locally” can be done.  First, it is to realize that the challenge of the environmental crisis is global and therefore must be viewed comprehensively. It involves a complex economic structure, which has implications on local realities. The phrase also involves how the ecofeminist interpretation will reshape our personal lifestyles. For Mies and  Shiva, it means “voluntary, simplicity and consumer liberation.” Because that also means “starting with the doable at ground level”, it is better to connect with those with similar perspectives.

In UP Cebu High School we are doing this as an entire program with the student council coordinating  efforts. After viewing the film “Eleventh Hour”, we encouraged   World History students to draw up  a checklist of earth-nurturing behaviors. We hope that after some time of regularly examining our conscience with the earth-loving checklist, certain earth- friendly behaviors will become part of  the adolescent personality.