Joni Seager
Department of Geography
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405=0114
USA
TEL: 802-656-2091
Environmental problems are typically conceptualized as problems of physical systems under stress; thus defined, 'things environmental' are usually considered to be primarily the domain of science, and issues about which feminists have little to say. To lay the groundwork for feminist contributions, we must re-shape how we define environmental problems. Environmental problems are, of course, not just (or even primarily) failures of physical systems; the physical problems of which we are so keenly aware are, rather, symptoms of a larger -- and dysfunctional -- culture. A feminist analysis of the environment starts with the understanding that environmental problems derive from the actions of large-scale institutions and cultural arrangements that create ecological distress. Feminist analysis enters the environmental arena through an analysis of the social, political, and cultural institutions that are responsible for environmental distress.
In the USA as in Russia, the most egregious environmental violators are militaries, large industrial interests, and governments. These are "gendered" institutions. As a feminist, then, the first environmental question might well be this: "does it 'matter' that the institutions that for the most part control our collective environmental fate are constructs of male culture? And in what ways does it 'matter'?" By pursuing a materially grounded, structural analysis of the workings of institutional power, feminists pave the way for new policy initiatives.
From this starting point, we can identify a set of basic gender-sensitive principles that should guide policy and research agendas. These principles are based on generalizations that include the following: the institutional structures that hold the balance of environmental power are gendered; women and men have different relationships to these institutions; environmental degradation almost always has a different impact on men and women; environmental conflict is gendered; men and women have different socially-structured relationships to the environment. With these guidelines in mind, when we turn to examine particular environmental problems our diagnosis of what has gone wrong and how to fix it will look very different than policies that are not guided by gender-sensitive curiosity.
In my presentation, I will include specific examples of how this sort of gender analysis helps to re-frame environmental questions and the ways in which it can shape specific policy.
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