Liberation Through Ecofeminism

July 12, 20191:00 pm1:50 pm
The liberation of women has been, and should be, a central concern in social theology. Similarly, there has been a rise in ecological theology in response to our current environmental crises. In order to tackle these issues, we must recognize that the domination of women and the domination of nature are connected. In this presentation, I will trace the attitude of domination in western thinking in order to show this link. I will demonstrate that these and other systemic oppressions follow from the cultural tendency to divide the world into a series of false dualisms (man/woman, reason/emotion, mind/body, human/nature, etc.). These dualisms support the oppression of one half of the pair (i.e. the oppression of women, emotions, the body, and nature). This means that any attempt to liberate women through the feminist tradition requires also the liberation of nature. Dismantling these dualisms reveals a new truth: liberation depends on recognizing these links and Christian social theology offers us a useful lens. I will show in my presentation that systematic feminist theology, such as the work of Kathryn Tanner, challenges these dualisms and offers a new way forward.
12:00 am M. Laurel-Leigh Meierdiercks