Beyond Mothering Earth: Ecological Citizenship and the Politics of Care

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The social research undertaken by MacGregor for her doctoral degree
resulted in this academic publication. It is an exploration of women’s
role as environmental activists, asking whether that role is the result
of women’s maternalism or citizenship.

The research was conducted in the Toronto area in 1999–2000, a time
when the provincial government, under the leadership of Mike Harris,
implemented significant cuts to social programs and rolled back
environmental regulations. In making these funding cuts, the Ontario
government called on citizens to meet needs formerly covered by the
government through increased volunteerism. In this context, 30 women
involved in volunteer work on environmental issues were interviewed as
the empirical research for the paper. The interviewees were juggling
caring for family members, community work, green household practices,
and, for most, paid employment.

From these interviews, MacGregor draws material to flesh out her review
of the literature and make the point that to credit women’s concern
for the environment as an offshoot of their maternalistic nature is
sexist. Caring must be recognized as a form of work if gender equality
is to be recognized. The identification of women with caring narrows our
understanding of women acting as concerned citizens. Using women as
volunteer “shock absorbers” to fill in for lost state-provided
services is to use women’s caring nature to justify dismantling the
welfare state.

The work elaborates on the concept of “environmental justice,”
bringing ecological concerns back from a “big picture” focus on
wilderness and whales to include industrial contamination in inner-city
and low-income communities, pesticides on lawns, waste management, water
quality, and other close-to-home issues.

The thesis dwells to absurd lengths on terminology. Is it
“feminist” or ”womanist,” “eco- feminism” or “feminist
environmentalism”? The constant referencing of other writers’ and
researchers’ work, while an essential characteristic of academic
writing, contributes to the dry, ponderous prose.