WOMEN IN NATURE

Vandana Shiva

500 Word Critical Thinking Essay

Vivienne Elanta 12021131

Ecofeminism S221 May 2003

Vandana Shiva’s main thesis focuses on “nature and women as producers of life”(p.171), which the current consumer society marginalises and makes invisible. She believes that we could learn much from world-views of ancient civilisations, as well as diverse cultures, toward creating sustainable societies. She suggests that the shift in perception from “Terra Mater”, the great mother goddess, to viewing the world as matter, a mere resource, is the root cause of the ecological crisis, which “spells the death of the feminine principle”(p.171).

Shiva offers insight into Indian cosmology, which honours the feminine principle, the primordial energy, which sustains all life and is inseparable from diversity and sharing. Unlike western thinking, Indian cosmology views male and female as “a duality in unity”(p.170), and sees no separation between man and women, or humans and nature. She says, “With the violation of nature is linked the violation and marginalisation of women, especially in the third world”(p.171). She further points out that it is the marginalised women, the providers of food, water and sustenance, who still embody and honour the feminine principle. Rather than seeing these women solely as victims of the current environmental degradation, she proposes that these very women, are the “intellectual gene pool of ecological categories of thought and action”(p.173).

Vandana Shiva argues that it is women who are the real producers of life and sustenance, within a truly productive and sustainable relationship to nature. The dominant ‘productive’ man uses nature’s resources and women’s labour to make consumer goods, which is the only recognised work of value. This short- sighted view of a consumer society, which is stuck in a concept of production for capital accumulation, treats the work of women and indigenous peoples as invisible and unproductive.

Sustenance, Shiva points out, is built on nature’s ability to renew its fields, forests and rivers. It is the third world women, who are deeply connected to nature, who view nature not as their surroundings, but as their substance. It is within this paradigm, that we can view natures work and women’s work as real productivity and sustenance of life’s processes. Shiva believes that the key to true liberation and transformation from the unsustainable and life negating practices of a greedy consumer society, to a life sustaining global culture which embodies the feminine principle, lies in the “new categories of thought and new exploratory directions. She also emphasises the importance of a liberation that is “trans-gender”(p.1750, which she says is the “principle of activity and creativity in nature, women and men”(p.175).

Vandana Shiva’s article is thought provoking and to the point in her argument for the devaluation of women’s work and the exploitation of women’s labour and natures resources for the acquisition of material goods for a consumer society. I do agree that third world women can and hopefully do take leadership in reclaiming ecological sanity. This, I think they are equipped to do, through their experience and daily practice of living sustainably with the land. I do think that third world women are not the only ones able to offer leadership in this regard, as there is a growing movement of peoples in the west opposed to the industrial growth machine, who are involved in many innovative projects towards a life sustaining culture.