THE ECOFEMINIST DESIRE FOR NATURE
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feminist and social ecological theory, she articulated in turn, the need for a
feminist dimension to the theory of social ecology:
The perspective that self-consciously attempts to integrate both
biological and social aspects of the relationship between human
beings and their environment is known as social ecology,. .while this
analysis is useful, social ecology without feminism is incomplete.
Feminism grounds this critique of domination by identifying the
prototype of other forms of domination: that of man over woman.23
In this way, Ring drew out the feminist implications of social ecology,
exploring new ways of examining the relationship between systems of male
domination and ecological crises in general from a perspective informed by
social anarchism. Although feminists such as those in the WITCH collective
were drawing similar connections between oppressions almost a decade
earlier, Ring made the articulations between forms of social hierarchy explicit,
demonstrating their relationship to ecological injustice.
Ring’s grounding in anarchist theory and social ecology allowed her to
avoid many of the epistemological traps into which feminists fell during those
years. Through a social ecological critique of hierarchy, she recognized the need
to abolish aE forms of oppression, while emphasizing as weE, the potential for
political collaboration between women of different class, race, and ethnic
backgrounds. Ring’s key role in establishing WomanEarth, as well her
participation in international feminist forums such as the United Nations
Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, reflect her epistemological sensitivity
to questions of difference as well as her anarchistic appreciation of the need to
simultaneously fight against aE forms of hierarchy and oppression.
Ring’s ecofeminism did more than just recognize the importance of
making connections between different forms of social and ecological injustice:
It recognized the importance of making connections between different women
aE over the world to counter these interconnected crises. Repeatedly in her
writings, Ring expressed the need to create face-to-face dialogue between
women, both intemationaUy and cross-culturaUy within the United States, to
create unified anti-radst strategies to address women’s diverse struggles for
sodal and ecological justice.
EcofEMiNisM, EnvIronmentaIJustIce, AncI International EnvIronmentaIIsm
To fully appredate die historical distinctiveness of Ring’s partidpation in
multicultural and anti-radst projects such as WomanEarth, we must locate it
within a larger history of both the feminist and ecology movements of the
mid-1980s. As a mostly white feminist movement was being chaEenged
regarding problems of racism and essentiaHsm, the ecology movement was
confronted on its exclusion of die concerns and partidpation of communities