Gender matters in environmental justice

This chapter presents a though-provoking examination of why gender is central to contemporary environmental justice struggles and scholarship. It introduces the concept of gender and how it is used to understand differences, inequalities and power relations between men and women. Organized into three main sections, the chapter first looks at the connections between gender (in)equality and environmental (in)justice, before demonstrating how and why gender shapes environmental justice struggles through selected examples from around the world. The focus is on women’s involvement in movements for bodily wellbeing, the protection of land and livelihood, and global climate justice. The chapter concludes by setting out the main features of an ecofeminist concept of environmental justice and the ways in which ecofeminist scholarship demands the continual sharpening of EJ’s critical edges.