Our society has a perception that conservation is a male-dominated sector. In March, I talked about the more recent role of women in wildlife enforcement efforts in the region. But a pertinent question arises that deserves our consideration; are women’s involvement in these popularly masculinized areas of work a product of mere chance or is there some factor beyond the employment opportunity?
Indeed, there is an intrinsic socio-cultural link between the figure of the woman, in her full femininity, and our Mother Earth. The divine feminine is the spiritual concept that there is a female counterpart to all patriarchal cult structures.
In mythology, the divine feminine, usually represented by the figure of the Mother or Goddess, unites humans with the sacred. In this way, ancient societies saw the planet and all life as sacred. The family and the land were sacred, and women were revered as beings of extreme beauty and power because they had the power to generate sacred life.
It is no secret that women tend to have a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Not only are we better stewards of the natural resources we have access to, but compared to men, we litter less, recycle more, and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Following this line of thought, we can distinguish a possible correlation between the environment and gender.
Let’s look for example at the difference in reactions to frequent water supply cuts; in general men are more concerned with personal hygiene, however, women tend to extend this concern to their children’s hygiene, house cleaning, and necessities for their family’s food.
Ecofeminism, aims to emphasize values such as cooperation, sustainability, dialogue, and peace, values that are hardly compatible with classic masculine approaches where the use of violence and domination predominate.
Thus emerges ‘ecofeminism’, a movement that espouses the theory that environmental degradation and gender inequalities are both caused by a combination of a capitalist and patriarchal system.
It is important to consider the hypothesis that the oppression of women is the result of relations between men and women determined by a capitalist production system, which does not observe the physiognomic particularities of reproduction of the human species from an egalitarian social perspective, and focuses only on labor power to enable survival. Ecofeminism, intends to emphasize values such as cooperation, sustainability, dialogue, and peace, values that are hardly compatible with the classic masculine approaches where the use of violence and domination predominate.
This reasoning allows us to conclude, that only by increasing the participation of women in decision-making in political, economic and public life, can we guarantee a better sustainable management of natural resources in an adequate manner and with benefits for all. The promotion of gender equality, leadership and participation in politics are some of the global goals of the 5th Sustainable Development Goal on Gender Equality.
