What do we consider Ecofeminism? Are there wrong and right perspectives?
Women in the global south are affected enormously by environmental degradation. There are multiple ways that women are affected by environmental degradation, one major way is the water sources that are offered in the global self. One basic need that we have as humans is the consumption of water. Every day you do not think about going to your sink or going to your fridge and grabbing a glass or a bottle of water. Sometimes you don’t even finish it and we’ll throw it out with some left in. Unfortunately, women and girls are responsible for fetching water in the global south. This is a severely dangerous task that can cause things such as long walks to travel for water, vulnerable for attack, especially on women, and secludes them from school or earning an income.
The connection between woman and water, especially in the west, is that women have more specific hygiene needs. And this unfortunately is not offered to everyone equally. You might think that water is such a basic and easy item to acquire in today’s day and age here in America, while it is a struggle for others. Hygiene for a woman starts with clean, drinking water and clean water to bathe in. This is the most basic necessity for any person regarding hygiene. Ecofeminism has many strands which include the relationship between women and the environment.
Although there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to ecofeminism and the perspectives, people might have different ideas of what that can look like. In the piece by Agarwal the gender and environment debate:lessons from India, there is a conception that the connection between woman and nature is seen as ideological as rooted in a system of ideas and representations. This is to insinuate that the ideology is all below men.
Hobgood explains different roles of women, especially in religious traditions and the empowerment through practices regarding religion. While Hobgoods interpretations are accurate, Bina Agarwal works towards issues of economics and development. This includes the everyday factors of feminism and women’s property rights.
Both ideas regarding the perspective on ecofeminism, I personally related more with Bina Agarwal. I believe that there are many convincing points and statistics behind Agarwal’s ideology, and there is physical proof. I also personally have done a lot of research on women’s rights in the west and considered different things that women specifically lack regarding hygiene so it does relate more to what I know and continue to learn.
Sources-
Agarwal, Bina. “The gender and environment debate: Lessons from India.” Population and Environment, 4 June 2019, pp. 87–124, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429302602-6.
“Water and Gender: UN-Water.” UN, www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-gender. Accessed 12 Feb. 2025.