Activism is an important part of inciting change in issues one would like to reform, but how can it be done? There are different levels to activism, being personal, more general to encompass communities, or even global activism. In order to begin my personal journey of activism, I am starting on the personal level to incite change within my own life that will hopefully translate into future activism on higher levels. Through this class, I feel as though I have learned a great deal about a theory of feminism that I was once skeptical about, and would like to try to give back to causes that support women’s human rights as well as environmental well-being. In one of the past blog posts, a supplemental source that was given was a link to the organization WEDO’s website. I find that a cause I am increasingly passionate about is the impact of environmental degradation on women’s lives, and WEDO is an organization that I would like to give back to.
(Pictured here are founders and contributing women of WEDO.)
To provide some information on WEDO, this non-profit organization works to ensure that women are able to engage as decision-makers, advocates, and leaders to fight for environmental related issues, as well as develop sustainable policies that are gender-related to present for implementation (“Vision & Mission” 1). WEDO was founded in 1991 by former United States Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist and hournalist Mim Kelber. Since their establishment, the organization grew on a global scale and included influential women such as Gloria Steinam, Wangari Maathai (The Green Belt Movement), and Vandana Shiva (Environmental activist in India) to advocate for their cause (“Herstory” 1). WEDO participates in international government processes to ensure that women’s voices are heard in the conversation about environmental struggle and provides a platform for women to lead this conversation to hold governments accountable (“Processes” 1).
My plan to donate to WEDO is to, undoubtedly, donate a sum of money myself to contribute even a small amount to the work that they do. The other part of my plan is to try to gain awareness and educate others on this organization to see if others would donate to the cause as well. I am going to create posts on my social media accounts to describe the organization’s main objectives and encourage others to donate, or even simply learn about the impact that this organization has on gender-related political activism to benefit the environment. The posts I will make will contain a link to WEDO’s donation page directly on their website, and also a link to their mission statement so others may learn about the organization. My goal for my personal activism is to help an organization whose message and missions I care deeply about to donate what is possible so they can continue doing the work they do for global women.
During this time of quarantine under COVID-19, it may not be possible for many people to donate money, which is understandable. What I hope to achieve is to raise more awareness about ecofeminism and how there are organizations in the world that are advocating for reform to combat issues facing women and the environment by including women in global political discussions about policies. I think my plan will be well received, not only because of the people I interact with on social media, but because I feel it is a great way to raise awareness to this cause. If I can manage to have even one person ask me to explain a little more about what WEDO contributes, I will consider that a victory. The personal is political after all, and I hope I can spark some sort of activism within others to benefit this cause.
Sources:
“Herstory.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.
“Processes.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.
“Vision & Mission.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.
Hi Madi,
Human rights is a great place to start with your activism. I was wondering, would you would start locally and then go international as a goal to getting more active, and is there a particular area of human rights you would start? After this class I realized that there are so many areas just in environmental degradation, my head was spinning. Which ever direction you take, I think the key thing is to be well informed as to how to go about your mission.
The ecofeminist perspective brings a lot of value to one area but as we’ve learned with Warren, Shiva and Kingsolver, depending on the area you choose, there are other elements to the environment that brings in intersectionality, which deals with the different oppressions. This was something I kinda struggled with when I was writing my blogs, and this was mostly at the beginning of the course. I was was thinking of environmental issues only but before long everything circled back to the environment, giving rise to even more oppressive issues that fit into the woman/nature perspective.
Hi Mary,
For my next plan of action I think I would like to start locally, as I don’t know of many environmental awareness groups/initiatives in my community besides the chapter of Key Club that the local high schools have. It’s unfortunate that environmentalism isn’t prioritized in my small community, so local activism seems to be the ideal place to start personally.
I agree that in the beginning of the course, I found it difficult to see how certain issues, like reproductive rights, could link back to the environment. I’m glad that my skepticism was overcome and that we have learned more about how prominent ecofeminism can be in most issues!