Hi. Welcome to this video about Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is an activist, social, and academic movement that link the oppression of the woman and the exploitation of the environment in a context of a patriarchal society. It emerges a movement around the 1970s alongside the radicalization of second wave feminist and intensification of the environmental movement. The first who introduced the concept was the French feminist, Francoise d'Eaubonne. However, it emerged at the same time in different parts of the world. For example, in Kenya, led by Professor Wangari Maathai with the Green Belt Movement against deforestation, and for example, in the United States with the Love Canal Movement after a massive pollution disaster. Although there are a variety of theories, all ecofeminists agree in different principals. For example, they have a critical view of the patriarchal constitution of Western society. This society has a dualized vision of the world. For example, you have different dichotomies, body against mind, private life against public life, or for example, rationality against emotion. If you stop for a moment and think of these dichotomies, there's always one part that has been eclipsed by the other one, and normally, this part has been the more feminine one. So we can say that there is a hierarchy in this pair of opposites. Another point in common is that all the ecofeminists see the connection between woman and nature as something positive. This renewed association is an opportunity to promote ecologically sustainable values and social justice. Also, all ecofeminists consider the connection woman-nature as something positive to be restate. This renewed association could be seen as an opportunity to promote ecologically sustainable values and social justice. Now that we have seen what is ecofeminism, we can go deeper and explore the two groups of ecofeminists that have been traditionally distinguished. Basically, the main divergent between these two groups is how they explain the connection woman-nature and how they explain the origin of women subordination. The first group is the affinity ecofeminism. This group, they argued that the connection between woman and nature is something innate. It is like an inherent connection in both senses; physiologically and psychologically. Probably, one of the best examples of this group of ecofeminists is Vandana Shiva. She has been already introduced in this course, but she's one of the most influential voices. She states that, "Women are double evaluated in the modern economic system. First, because the work cooperates with natural processes. And second because the type of work is evaluated in general." What she calls "maldevelopment" is imposed by the North, an excess violence against women bodies and against nature. Maldevelopment sees natural resources as something to be dumbed. It attacks biodiversity and it attacks communities and the culture and knowledge. The second leg of ecofeminists current can be called constructivist ecofeminism. In this group, they state that the relationship between woman and nature is a social, historical, or cultural contingent, rather than a natural phenomenon. The connection between both arises from the common experience of being exploited. Beyond these two approaches to ecofeminism, other authors did a more structural analysis of the connection between humanity and the non-human part of nature. They claim that ecofeminism could be a brother movement involving other types of oppression. For example, race, class, colonialism, or gender. Or in the words of Bell Hooks, "Feminism, as a liberation struggle, must exist apart from and as a part of a larger struggle to eradicate domination in all forms." Two good representative voices of this larger group of ecofeminism are Mary Mellor, who is Emeritus professor at Northumbria University in New Castle, and she has worked on ecofeminist economy, politics, cooperation, and sustainability, and also, a good example can be Val Plumwood who was an Australian philosopher and ecofeminist. She worked at several universities in Australia and the United States. To finish this insight into ecofeminism, I would like to talk about what ecofeminists are talking about at the moment. That's why I have chosen Yayo Herrero, who is a Spanish anthropologists, engineer, professor, and ecofeminist activist. She states that, "Capitalism is at war with life and bodies and that ecofeminists should break the capitalist dogmas and place life at the center of people's priorities. Only by doing so, we can build alternatives to this environmental and social crisis for a life worth living." However, this comprehensive social change has to be based on the recognition that we all depend on "nature", that's what she calls ecodependency, and we all depend on each other, inter-dependency. Since we all need care and attention at certain moments of our life in order to survive. To conclude what Herrero highlights is the material basis of nature and care. She renounces that the reproduction, which is the part of the economy that is private or domestic and doesn't have an exchange value, has been feminized and omitted by capitalism. Therefore, ecofeminism must claim for the recognition of this reproduction work because without it, the rest of the economy, what we understand as production and the human survival or society in general, cannot be sustained.