Implications of ecofeminism for political theory

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Gender Studies, grade: A, University of Auckland, course: Political Theory of the Environment, language: English, abstract: Feminism and Environmentalism are both recent phenomens in political theory. Theyboth challenge mainstream politics as movements and as critical concepts. Thus theyhave in common that they are in themselves political and question the establishment. As concepts they can be applied in political theory to a variation of ideologies andinterrupt the political scene. Andrew Dobson and Robyn Eckersley argue that there is arising interest of the mainstream in environmental thoughts as they can contribute tomajor political concepts like democracy, justice and others. Herein they see a parallel tofeminist theory which has a major impact on a broad range of aspects in political theory(Dobson/Eckersley. 2006: 3). In ecofeminism both concepts merge together. Val Plumwood calls ecofeminism the'hybrid area' which aims at developing a feminism that is ecological and an ecologythat is feminist (Plumwood. 2006: 51). Thus the question is how both concepts mergewithin ecofeminism and how they can contribute to each other and have a larger impacton political theory in general. As part of this essay I will examine the basic arguments ofecofeminism and its implications for both concepts as well as on political theory ingeneral. I will begin with a definition of the major terms: environmentalism/ecologism, feminismand ecofeminism. [...]