Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics

Simon Dalby is a research associate at the Centre for International
Studies at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Biehl tackles the growing literature linking feminism and ecological
concerns, in a trenchant critique of many recent writings on the
subject. In her critique, which is heavily influenced by her mentor
Murray Bookchin’s writings on social ecology, she raised important
questions about the politics of ecology and about the intellectual
underpinnings of contemporary feminist politics. Biehl has adopted
social ecology’s penchant for political polemic, and uses the
sometimes complex conceptual jargon of social ecology to challenge a
number of ecofeminist themes.

Among other concerns, Biehl singles out ecofeminism’s use of dubious
archaeological interpretations of neolithic European settlements to
promote the possibility of nonpatriarchal society. She points to the
illogicalities and misleading conceptions in the ecofeminist religious
interpretations of female deities and living planets. Further, she
disputes claims that female intuition is superior to critical reason,
and that women are inherently closer to nature. All these ecofeminst
beliefs reject the liberating possibilities of reason, often confusing
scientism with science and rational thinking. They also ignore the
practical politics necessary to challenge the forces of destruction that
have brought ecological and feminist themes together.

The alternative to these beliefs is, Biehl argues, a focus on
dialectical reason and the ecological understanding that is essential to
social ecology.

Her attempt to “rescue” ecofeminism from its mystical and
nonpolitcal adherents does not make for easy reading, especially for
those unfamiliar with the literature on ecofeminism.

Despite this difficulty, the book will certainly be interesting to
readers concerned with the current philosophical and political debates
in both the environmental and feminist movements.