This document provides an overview of feminism, environmentalism, and postmodernism. It discusses the key principles and theorists of each movement. Feminism focuses on eliminating oppression and achieving equality for women. Major issues discussed include women's suffrage, birth control, and recognizing politics in personal relationships. Environmentalism emphasizes protecting nature and adopting sustainable practices. Theories discussed include deep ecology, bioregionalism, and green political parties. Postmodernism is skeptical of absolute truths and metanarratives that claim to fully explain reality.

1. Chapter 7
Feminism, Environmentalism and
Postmodernism

2. Feminism
• An ideology
centered on
eliminating
oppression of all
human beings
while stressing
the importance
of women.

3. Patriarchy
The Rule of Men over Women
Control by Men of a disproportionately large
share of power
• Women have been denied
• Equality of Resources
• Equality of Political Power
• Equality of Educational Opportunities
• Equality of Respect
• Equal Protection from Violence
• Equal Protect by the State

4. Development of Feminism
• Debates over social roles of
men and women go back to
classical and biblical times
“I recognize no rights but human rights
– I know nothing of man’s rights and
women’s rights.”
-- Angelina Grimke

5. “You have trampled
underfoot every vital
principle of our
government. My natural
rights, my civil rights,
my political rights, are
all alike ignored.
Robbed of the
fundamental privilege of
citizenship, I am
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
degraded from the
1815-1902
status of a citizen to that
of a subject.”

6. 1848 Convention in Seneca Falls
“All laws which prevent women from occupying
such a station in society as her conscience
shall dictate, or which
place her in a
position inferior to
that of man, are
contrary to the great
precept of nature,
and therefore of no
force or authority.”

7. Main Issues
• WWI
• The Vote
• Birth Control
• WWII
• Desire to have same
opportunities as men
“Rosie the Riveter”

8. Personal is the
Political
• Politics is about power
• There is politics between men and
women both individually and as groups
• Power relations between friends and lovers
and within families
• Who spends how much
• Who allocates household tasks
• Division of labor

9. Sexism
• Socialization
• Religion
• Language
Response?
• Women want equality for all humans
• Rights and opportunities should not be
based on gender

10. Environmentalism

11. Green Political Thought
• Silent Spring (1962)
• The Population Bomb
(1968)
• The Whole Earth
Catalog (1968-1981)
• Whole Earth Catalog
(1994)

12. Theorists of
Environmentalism
• Andre Gorz (b. 1924)
• Ivan Illich (b. 1926)
• Murray Bookchin (b. 1921)
Ivan Illich wrote of
the destructive power of modern institutions that
"create needs faster than they can create
satisfaction, and in the process of trying to meet the
needs they generate, they consume the earth."

13. Ecotopia
• Published in 1977
• A country formed of
Washington,
Oregon, and
Northern California
• Closeness to nature
• Plants inside trains
• Knowledge of the natural world
• recycling

14. Principles of Environmentalism
• A high evaluation of nature
• Compassion toward other peoples,
generations, and species
• Avoid technology that not
environmentally sensitive
• Limiting growth
• A new social paradigm
• New politics

15. New Politics
• Greater participation
• Simpler living
• Cooperation
• Public versus private solutions to many
issues
• Greater emphasis on worker
satisfaction

16. Ecosocialism
• Andre Gorz
• Marxist who argued for a
way of life that is no
longer dominated by work
• Simpler lifestyle
• Productions limited to socially necessary goods
• Everyone works, but they work less and at more
satisfying jobs
• Accepted possibility of using technological
means to solve world’s pollution problems
• Most environmentalists reject “authoritarian
technological solutions.”

17. Ecosocialism
• Murray Bookchin
• An Anarchist
• “An ecological society would fully recognize
that the human animal is biologically
structured to live with its kind, and to care for
and love its own kind within a broadly and
freely defined social group.”
• Radically decentralized
• Participatory
• Replaces hierarchy with society that respects
each individual and the planet

18. Ecofeminism
• Combines feminism,
the peace movement,
Ursula K. Le Guin
and environmentalism
• Women more in tune with nature than
men
• Ecological problems stem from the male
notion of dominance as applied to
nature and other human beings

19. Deep Ecology
• Most controversial
movement within
environmentalism
• Places the rest of nature above humans
• It is all right to damage human interests and even
human beings to protect nature
• Earth First!
• “Deeper” values the emphasize the entire
biosphere, as opposed to just human beings

20. Animals Rights
• Two basic views
• Animals have rights at same
level as human beings
• Have right to humane treatment
• Animals have more rights, including right to not be
exploited by human beings
• Vegetarianism
• Rejection of using animals for scientific experimentation
• Most environmentalists recognize need to
protect animals

21. Neo-Luddites
• Ned Ludd
• Workman who broke stocking
frames in 1779
• Machines taking away jobs
• Take direct action against the
forces they see destroying the
environment
• Oppose technology
• Unabomber called for return to a
more natural, less technological way
of life

22. Monkeywrenching
• Civil disobedience or direct
action
• Individuals
• Butterfly (Julia Hill)
• 738 days in tree to protest
logging
• Saved Luna and other old-
growth forest
• Small groups
• Ecowarriors
• Practice what they preach by living in voluntary poverty

23. Eco-Village
Movement
• Small
settlements the
integrate human
life into the
natural
environment

24. Green Political Parties
• Political problem of
how to balance
competing interests
• U.S. Green party
• Green Key Values

25. Sustainability
• Energy policy
• Elimination of nuclear power
• Development of renewable energy sources
• Solar
• Wind power
• Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
• Alternative transportation
• Natural gas vehicles
• Solar and electric vehicles
• Bicycles and bikeways
• Mass Transit

26. Bioregionalism and
Biodiversity
• Bioregionalism
• The recognition that no single
policy is appropriate to any
political area
• Each ecological region has its own, unique
relationship among land, flora, fauna, and the human
inhabitants
• This relationship needs to be respected
• Biodiversity
• Each bioregion is biologically diverse
• Diversity must be maintained and fostered

27. Genetically
Modified Foods
• Controversial issue
• Advocates
• Food identical to natural foods
• Same concept as selective breeding
• Can radically increase food production and
solve world hunger
• Opponents
• Claims not proven scientifically
• Need to closely monitor experiments

28. That which is
not good for the bee-hive cannot be
good for the bees.
-- Marcus Aurelius

29. Postmodernism
• Any ideology putting forward
absolute statements as
timeless truths should be
viewed with profound
skepticism.
• Metanarratives
• Any system of thought that Jean-Francois Lyotard
identifies its own explanation of
reality as an undeniable truth
having independent validation.
• Use language to create names
for what they view as reality.