"Ecofeminism to Survive the Present"

Collab: Carolina Somoza, B.A. in Political Science (University of Buenos Aires), holds diplomas in Environmental Law, the Rights of Migrants and Refugees, and Comprehensive Environmental Education. Teacher and serves as an advisor at the Office of the Ombudsperson (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires).

November is a month of visibility and action. Every November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women reminds us that gender-based inequalities and aggressions continue to shape everyday life. Yet, in recent years, a broader perspective has gained ground: violence is not only individual but also structural, permeating every dimension of life. Among these dimensions is the environment—along with those who care for it, who are still, overwhelmingly, women.

Discussing environment and gender is no longer peripheral to the public agenda. Climate crises, extractivist models, pollution, and biodiversity loss have differentiated impacts depending on gender, class, territory, and ethnic origin. This intersection—this knot where environmental inequalities meet gender inequalities—opens new ways of understanding violence and, more importantly, of designing preventive strategies and fairer public policies.

In this context, preventing gender-based violence also requires examining how natural resources are produced, managed, and distributed; who sustains environmental care work within their territories; and how they are affected when ecosystems degrade or when projects advance without ever consulting them.

The concept of environmental violence emerged to describe the systematic harm experienced by territories and communities due to polluting, extractive, or environmentally degrading activities. However, when analyzed through a gender perspective, a more complex phenomenon appears: gendered socio-environmental violence.

Women, gender-diverse people, and feminized identities are disproportionately represented in care economies: they care for household health, water, food, and community wellbeing. When a territory is contaminated, when a river dries up, or when agroecological production becomes unviable, those tasks—already rendered invisible—become heavier and riskier. This overload is not a “side effect”: it is structural violence.

For example:

• When access to potable water is interrupted, it is usually women who walk longer distances to obtain it or who take on additional domestic responsibilities.

• When air pollution or agricultural spraying occurs, women are often the ones caring for sick family members, without economic or institutional recognition.

Environmental degradation does not operate in the abstract—it is gendered. And this is even more pronounced in working-class and marginalized sectors, where environmental labor—waste picking, urban recycling, agroecological production, cooperative work—is largely sustained by women.

Throughout Latin America, women have historically been at the forefront of socio-environmental struggles: Indigenous defenders resisting extractive projects, neighborhood organizations confronting waste dumps, pesticide spraying, or pollution. This is not accidental—they are deeply linked to their territories as spaces where life is reproduced.

But this active participation also entails greater exposure to risks. Reports from international organizations show that environmental women defenders face not only threats and criminalization but also gender-specific forms of violence: sexual violence, harassment, media persecution rooted in stereotypes, and attempts to discredit their community roles or personal lives.

Violence against environmental women defenders is one of the least visible forms of gender-based violence. Naming it is essential. A society that does not protect those who care for the environment perpetuates a model of inequality that harms both bodies and territories.

Ecofeminisms, across all their currents, emphasize a key idea: there is no environmental justice without gender justice. Environmental degradation and the historical subordination of women and gender-diverse people are not separate phenomena—they share structural roots: the belief that nature is an infinite resource to exploit, and that women’s invisible labor can be sustained without recognition.

Latin American community ecofeminism denounces violence against bodies as an extension of violence against territories. It proposes rebuilding more respectful relationships with nature through existing practices: popular economy initiatives, agroecology, recycling networks, community water-care systems, and local markets.

These practices—driven largely by working-class women—not only guarantee food, water, and care in adverse contexts but also propose new, more equitable and sustainable models of development.

The climate crisis exacerbates existing inequalities. Droughts affect food production; extreme weather events cause economic losses; and pollution has harsher consequences for households with limited access to basic services.

In this scenario, women and gender-diverse people face heightened risks due to:

• Greater dependence on natural resources for daily life.

• Limited access to land and economic resources.

• Increased care burdens linked to climate-related illnesses and pollution.

• Greater exposure to violence during climate disasters or environmental displacement.

The climate crisis does not only burn forests or contaminate rivers—it reinforces patriarchal structures. This is why incorporating a gender perspective into climate planning is urgent.

Preventing gender-based violence from an environmental perspective requires public policies that integrate both agendas:

Recognizing and strengthening feminized environmental labor:

• Formalizing and remunerating urban waste pickers and recyclers.

• Providing technical and financial support to agroecological women producers.

• Prioritizing women-led socio-environmental cooperatives in public procurement.

Recognizing these forms of labor helps prevent economic and symbolic violence.

Binding participation in environmental decision-making:

No project affecting a territory should be designed without the meaningful participation of the women and gender-diverse people who inhabit it.

Accessible information and a care-centered approach:

Early-warning systems for floods, heatwaves, or pollution must consider the realities of households that sustain care responsibilities.

Comprehensive protection for environmental women defenders:

This includes specific protocols, legal support, safe reporting mechanisms, and public campaigns recognizing their role.

Urban planning and basic services:

Lack of potable water, poor waste management, or air pollution increase the care burden for women. Socio-environmental policies must also be equality policies.

Preventing gender-based violence cannot be limited to the domestic sphere. Structural violences—economic, environmental, territorial—also shape people’s lives and often provide the conditions for more explicit forms of aggression.

This month invites us to broaden the conversation #ForABetterWorld. To talk about gender is to talk about the environment. To talk about the environment is to talk about rights.And to talk about rights is to talk about dignified lives, free from all forms of violence.

Building fair public policies, protecting those who defend their territories, recognizing environmental labor, and promoting sustainable development models is not merely an environmental agenda—it is a gender-aware agenda.

Because without environmental justice there is no gender justice. And without gender justice, there is no possible future.

Bibliography:

Ecofeminisms and Feminist Environmental Theory:

Mies, M., & Shiva, V. (1993). Ecofeminism. Zed Books.

Puleo, A. H. (2011). Ecofeminismo para otro mundo posible. Cátedra.

Salleh, A. (1997). Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern. Zed Books.

Shiva, V. (1993). Ecofeminism. Zed Books.(Note: Often published jointly with M. Mies.)

Socio-environmental Violence and Gender:

Cabnal, L. (2010). Acercamiento a la construcción del pensamiento epistémico de las mujeres indígenas feministas comunitarias de Abya Yala.

Falquet, J. (2014). Peleas, faldas y fusiles: Relaciones de género y poder. Ediciones Desde Abajo.

Observatorio de Defensoras de América Latina. (2020–2024). Informes sobre violencia contra defensoras ambientales y territoriales.

Svampa, M. (2019). Las fronteras del neoextractivismo en América Latina. CALAS / Siglo XXI Editores.

Climate Crisis Through a Gender Lens:

CEPAL. (2021). La autonomía de las mujeres en escenarios económicos cambiantes. CEPAL.

IPCC. (2022). Sixth Assessment Report: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

UN Women. (2022). Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Policy Tools. UN Women.

Care Economy and Popular Economy:

Carrasco, C. (2014). Economía feminista: Aportes conceptuales y debates.

Hintze, S. (2018). Economía popular y feminismos en América Latina.

Pérez Orozco, A. (2014). Subversión feminista de la economía. Traficantes de Sueños.