Rediscovering the Bond between Mother-Nature and the ‘Second Sex’

The relationship between Environment and Man (Human) is evaluated principally based on two fundamental theoretical grounds – Determinism and Possibilism. Environmental Determinism had ruled over Possibilism for the greater part of our entire human civilization. Gradually the perception has changed and opportunities were made from a different vantage point. How can Gender be excluded while analyzing the very vantage point?

Gender roles are commonly described, as the gender appropriated roles or behavioural outcomes learned by a person throughout her/his life. It is principally controlled by the existing or mainstream, more accepted popular socio-cultural norms. Present study analyses the very perception of environment from a gendered viewpoint i.e. from a feminine point of view. It is a very common belief that women perceive the environment differently from men. There are varying objectives, responses, reactions and socio-political aspirations.

Eco-feminism is a byproduct or a branch of conventional Feminism, which essentially deals with human reactions or reactions from women against various environmental issues and concerns. Examples can be cited across the globe. Perhaps a classic example from India is the Chipko Movement. These reactions can take any form or shape and can go any distance, from a simple daily living to global scale environmental movements.

Environment and development concerns are probably the most talked about areas around the world in last few decades. Then, there is a threefold sub-division of the world order, originating after World War II. The basic idea of First, Second and Third world came from a politico-strategic agenda and the Nations of NATO and the Warsaw Pact were clubbed together to form the First World. The Second World referred to the countries under Communist influence. The Third World is defined as the areas not belonging to the above two groups and are essentially less developed in nature than the First World nations. So, environmental concerns are far more pronounced in the less developed global South, than the global North. At this very juncture the varied roles and experiences of women come into the scene.

The general binary of Formal and Informal economy is much more pronounced in developing nations rather than in developed nations. Women doing economically productive job is often overshadowed by their contribution in the Informal sector, which is generally unnoticed or unrecognized by mainstream economics or legal systems. The labor and effort given by women often surpasses that of men, but women do not get their due recognition because of the unregulated and uncontrolled nature of the Informal economy. Classic example of which is the better half of a male farmer in the Third World. Development projects often hurt women more, than their male counterparts. Shifting from indigenous or subsistence farming to commercial or commodity farming wreck havoc in the lives of rural women, who involuntarily participate in the new order of wage economy.

Wage economy driven policies encourage men to migrate from their native place in search of a job. The absence of working male members in rural families tend to overburden female members of those families to work more for the upkeep of the household. This is a common scene in most part of the global South. Women here, left with no choice but to engage themselves collecting firewood, water or basic supplies round the clock. Clearing forests in the name of development worsen the situation more.

Gender roles are commonly described, as the gender appropriated roles or behavioral outcomes learned by a person throughout her/his life. It is principally controlled by the existing or mainstream, more accepted popular socio-cultural norms. Present study analyses the very perception of environment from a gendered viewpoint i.e. from a feminine point of view. It is a very common belief that women perceive the environment differently from men. There are varying objectives, responses, reactions and socio-political aspirations. Brannon (1976), discussed the origin of the concept of ‘Role’, tracing its adoption by social science back to the terminology of theatre. The word ‘role’ was French for ‘roll’, referring to the roll of paper on which an actor’s part was printed. This usage is of a particular meaning, as the role, the part a person plays, differs from the person herself/himself. So, the female gender role or the male gender role is only a scripted performance in which women and men are mere actors. They always try to act masculine or feminine according to the mainstream social norm.

Brannon defined (1996), “the social science usage of role in terms of expected, socially encouraged patterns of behavior exhibited by individuals in specific situations. Thus, a person acts to fulfill a role by behaving in the expected way in the appropriate situation”. In discussions of gender, economy and environment, any reference to sexuality usually indicates to motherhood. That is essentially linked to childbearing or women’s natural mothering roles. Women are perceived to have a very special, secret aisle to the natural environment. Bearing, nursing and caring for children and family are symbolized through labor on land. Jacobs (2014) rightly points out that, “women’s nurturing nature often extends to the types of work considered appropriate for them”.

Gender is considered as an ideological or social construct, but it definitely shapes our perception of physical or social worlds. As a result, gendering parts of female bodies became private while same parts for males remain public, as in the social differences

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between men going top-less versus women. Another alternative perspective on intersections of gender and environmental social construct, suggests an “eco-intersectional” framework. It provides an insight of how social exclusion, systems of power (patriarchy) based on gender and other social markers join hands to shape up human-human and human-environment relations. This framework also adopts the feminist commitment to positive social change by bridging academic scholarship with environmental activism.

Credit for coining the word ecofeminisme (1974) is generally given to feminist Francoise d’ Eaubonne. On the other hand, Janet Biehl makes a claim in favor of social eco-feminist Chiah Heller. According to Salleh (1997), “Eco-feminism is more than an identity politics, it reaches for an earth democracy, across cultures and species. It reframes environment and peace, gender, socialist, and post-colonial concerns beyond the single issue approach fostered by bourgeois right and its institutions.” (p.x). The philosophy of Eco-feminism can be subdivided into Liberal Eco-feminism, Marxist Eco-feminism, Social Eco-feminism, Socialist Eco-feminism and Cultural Eco-feminism.

According to Jacobs, “Eco-feminism refers to the view that the mentality and actions that have led to the domination of women by men are directly connected to pillaging of the natural environment”. Domination of gender, class or environment is in fact collinear attributes of established socio-political order. Post-modernism has a profound impact on feminist discourses, challenging or deconstructing the positivist belief in scientific objectivity and commonly accepted norms of a masculinist or patriarchal culture.

Eco-feminism in action is sometimes called as eco-activism, which can be found in initiatives like women’s legal challenges to giant nuclear corporations in USA to tree-hugging protest in India. Despite economic and cultural differences between women in global North and South, these actions reflect a sense of solidarity, a common intuition for a feminine voice to be heard and taken seriously. It was a buzz word in 1970s with a double-edged political perspective. Some First Wave feminists though criticized the idea, labeling it as one-dimensional, a mere extension of the housewife role.

The Chipko Movement of Garhwal Himalayan village Adwani is perhaps the best known eco-feminist movement in the entire global South. Another spontaneous movement by women of that caliber is hard to find. It gained worldwide publicity in 1970s because of poor women villagers hugging trees (tree-huggers) to protect them from felling, in the hands of commercial loggers. The decisive moment came in the village when the head-man’s wife joined the movement to embrace mother-nature. That much of courage to overcome social oppression made it a true eco-feminist endeavor. The movement had some success in making Indian government to rethink over the issue.

The KGB (Kenyan Green Belt) movement on the other hand was not a spontaneous movement, which needed the inspiration of Professor Wangari Maathai. It was a rural tree planting program designed for the women by the National Council of Women. Objectives of the movement was to solve the fuel problem of the villagers, as well as preventing desertification and soil erosion by surrounding each village with a ‘Green Belt’ of at least a thousand trees.

The question remains, are we living in a false perception that Nature and women make natural bonds? Is it a sentimental or over simplified belief? To some, this belief only, has attracted women worldwide to the conservation cause. Not only women are more associated with birds and flowers, but also many female nature writers anthropomorphized nature by portraying the domestic arrangements of wildlife as similar to their own. There is an accepted socio-political or socio-ecological notion that women are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation. Domination of their spatial existence creates gender hierarchies, result in unequal access to power, strategic resources, education, employment and information. Due to this contrasting gender inequality in labor economy, women’s spheres of economic activities are far more attached to the environment.

For example, deforestation can affect a rural woman’s life in many ways- firstly, in less developed areas women are disproportionately responsible for household chores. Gathering of fuel wood for power to fetching of potable water, need a strong local environmental association and understanding. Depletion of forest resources can dramatically increase daily household labor hours for rural home-makers. Secondly, rural women often engage themselves in very small scale profit making activities like handicrafts or any other cottage based activities, which are actually very much dependent upon local forest resources. Due to deforestation these alternative livelihoods gets hampered. Thirdly, forest clearing can cause havoc on women’s health and well-being. Studies have confirmed that smoke from burning dung-cake & crop residue is much more toxic than fuel wood. Moreover, spine damage (due to longer travel distance with heavy burden on shoulders), maternal complexity, morbidity, lack of food preparation time (compromising quantity and quality) can also be attributed to environmental degradation as a whole.

The time has come, when we take the leap forward by extending the philosophy of eco-feminism from theory to practice- from political ideology to environmental reality. One aspect of feminist movements is to create a world, where the dream of participation of women in decision making comes true. But, this very decision making ‘role’ is not contradictory to the bearing and nurturing roles of women. Thus, motherhood symbolizes a new beginning- beginning of a new world order with gender equity and environmental sustainability. The very bonding between a mother and her child can be seen as the perfect setup for planting the seed of eco-worshipping. Particularly in the global South, where mothers have greater opportunity to perform the duty of an environmental crusader to transact environmental values and ethics to their children.