User:PatiluD/sandbox

United States[edit]
Women's involvement in environmental movements of the United States can be traced back to the early 20th century when women of upper and middle class backgrounds became active in urban organizations advocating for reform in environmental issues such as sanitation, smoke and noise abatement, civic cleanliness and purity in food and drugs. Female activists of this period included Alice Hamilton, Jane Addams, and Ellen Swallow Richards who brought to the forefront issues of pollution, urban degradation and health hazards. Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist, advocated for the cleanup of hazardous work environments during this period as well.During the eras of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II the United States saw a period of inactivity on environmental issues. It was not until 1962, with the publication of Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, denouncing the U.S. government's use of pesticides and the nation's increase in industrial waste, that women in the United States returned to environmental issues. The book is considered one of the seminal pieces of environmental works written. The 1970 s found women actively engaging in environmental issues. W.A.R.N. (Women of All Red Nations) was formed by Native American women to combat the environmental and health effects of uranium mining on native lands. Lesbian women formed communal spaces, returning to living on the land, recycling materials, using solar power and growing organic foods in their efforts to combat industrial pollution and degradation of natural resources.

The 1980 s was an important decade for women in the environment. In 1980 the term 'ecofeminism' was born with two important events taking place. In April, 1980 the conference, "Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the 1980's" was held in Amherst, MA, the first in a series of conferences on ecofeminism. In November, 1980 the Women's Pentagon Action took place in Washington D.C.. when the group, "Women and Life on Earth" gathered to protest war, militarism, nuclear weapons and the effects on the environment. At its core, ecofeminism recognizes the link between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. The liberation of women and nature are linked and it is towards this end that ecofeminists work towards. Inherent to this concept is sexism. Australian ecofeminist Ariel Kay Salleh was an early critic of deep ecologists of this time claiming that most of its spokespersons were male and therefore were afraid to confront the naturism and sexism causing environmental crises. Carol Adams furthered this ideology with her work The Sexual Politics of Meat in which she established the link between sexual objectification of women to the consumption of animals as objects of food. Environmental issues continued to dominate women's activism work in the 1980 s with the publication of Judith Plant's book, Healing the Wounds the Promise of Ecofeminism in 1989, the first North American anthology of ecofeminsim. Also of importance, in June of 1989, the Ecofeminist Caucus of the National Women's Studies Association was formed.The second half of the decade saw the emergence of American socialist ecofeminists, Karen Warren and Carolyn Merchant. Warren 's work was instrumental in defining the four core principles of ecofeminism; the connections between women and nature, the need for the understanding of those connections, that feminist theory and perspective must include ecological perspectives and that ecological solutions must come from a feminist perspective.Socialist ecofeminists are concerned with issues impacting the environment resulting from the intersection of oppression by race, class or gender. Specific issues addressed by Socialist ecofeminists are colonialism, multinationa l corporate development of the South, global distribution of wealth, overpopulation and the critique of biotechnology.

Since the 1990 s the United States has seen women continuing to foster their concerns of the environment. The decade saw the growth of the Environmental Justice movement beginning with Lois Gibbs, who formed the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, helping community organizations battle toxic waste issues and others. The Principles of Environmental Justice were adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. on October 24-27, 1991. In a series of seventeen mandates, the principles call for public policies guaranteeing the right to responsible uses of renewable resources and land, creating a sustainable planet for all living beings. Feminists involved in current ecological movements continue the examination of the intersectionality of race, class and gender in human’s experiences within their environments and the examination of perceptions and how values of the connection between humans and the environment are shaped by gender roles and assumptions. Other topics of concern include structures of power at the political and economic institutional level that are instrumental in the ecological movement, particularly the interdependence between oppression and domination. Today’s environmental feminists' scholarship focuses upon transnational, post-structuralist and postcolonial deconstructions.

During the 2000's women in the environment have turned their focus to another aspect of the environmental justice movement, that of gender justice. Gender justice differs from ecofeminism in that this perspective argues that women are affected by the environment in gender-specific ways as opposed to the focus on the connection between the oppression of women and nature.Gender disparities for women include the increase of environmental burdens due to their involvement in women’s work of care taking and lack of access to resources due to lower incomes or poverty. Women are more likely to make food sacrifices for their family, and are more impacted by climate change, which impacts at a greater risk those that are already environmentally disadvantaged. Women are at greater risk during natural disasters, and subjected to increased levels of male violence in the wake of these disasters. Overall, women are less likely to be able to avoid or adapt to environmental degradation.The response to these gender inequities has been an increase in activism by women of color. In a marked difference from mainstream environmentalists, women of color, primarily Native American and Hispanic, are driving political change using grassroots organizations in a desire to address the gender specific differences of environmental effects. Gender justice activists also seek to empower their communities and preserve their cultural traditions in addition to preserving the environment. Following these principles, environmental leaders such as activist Julia Butterfly Hill, founder of the Circle of Life Foundation, and Native American activist Winona LaDuke (Anishinabe), founder of Indigenous Women’s Network, are continuing women's participation in the environmental gender justice movement in the United States today.

Women have had a longstanding impact on the environment in the United States, with efforts being shaped by larger feminist movements. In the early 20th century women's involvement in the ecological movements grew out of the Social Feminist work that occurred in between the First and Second Waves of the feminism. Ecofeminism stems from the Second Wave of Radical Feminism that was prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's. Environmental Justice and Gender Justice arose from the feminist move towards intersectionality of race, class and gender in the 1990's. As feminists continue to examine these issues, the environment and women's roles pertaining to it will continue to be topics of concern.

References:( article citation numbers 36 through 46)


 * 1) Unger, Nancy C. (2004). "Women, Sexuality, and Environmental Justice in American History". In Stein, Rachel. New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 52, 54, 56.
 * 2) ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Gaard, Greta (1998). Ecological Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 11, 19, 28–29, 42–43.


 * 1) ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Tong, et al. “Ecofeminism” Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. 5th ed., Westview Press, 2013. pp.205-206, 210
 * 2) ^ "Gibbs, Lois." American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present, Anne Becher, and Joseph Richey, Grey House Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008.
 * 3) ^ De Luca, K. M. "A Wilderness Environmentalism Manifesto: Contesting the Infinite Self-Absorption of Humans" Environmental Justice and Environmentalism : The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement, edited by Ronald Sandler, et al., MIT Press, 2007. pp. 28.
 * 4) ^ Jump up to:a b "Appendix A" Environmental Justice and Environmentalism : The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement, edited by Ronald Sandler, et al., MIT Press, 2007. pp. 321-323
 * 5) ^ Jump up to:a b Seager, Joni. “Rachel Carson Died of Breast Cancer: The Coming of Age of Feminist Environmentalism.” Signs, vol. 28, no. 3, 2003, pp. 950.
 * 6) ^ Jump up to:a b c d Bell, Karen, “Bread and Roses: A Gender Perspective on Environmental Justice and Public Health” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 13,10 1005. 12 Oct. 2016, doi:10.3390/ijerph13101005. pp. 2,5
 * 7) ^ Jump up to:a b Prindeville, Diane-Michele. “The Role of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Class in Activistsʹ Perceptions of Environmental Justice.” New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, edited by RACHEL STEIN, Rutgers University Press, NEW BRUNSWICK; NEW JERSEY; LONDON, 2004, pp. 93
 * 8) ^ Becher, Anne; Richey, Joseph (2008). "Hill, Julia Butterfly". American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present (2nd ed.). Grey House Publishing.Credo Reference, http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ghael/hill_julia_butterfly/0?institutionId=1591 . Accessed 09 Dec. 2018.
 * 9) ^ "LaDuke, Winona." American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present, Anne Becher, and Joseph Richey, Grey House Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008.Credo Reference, http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ghael/laduke_winona/0?institutionId=1591 . Accessed 09 Dec. 2018.

United States
Women's involvement in environmental movements of the United States can be traced back to the early 20th century when women of upper and middle class backgrounds became active in urban organizations advocating for reform in environmental issues such as sanitation, smoke and noise abatement, civic cleanliness and purity in food and drugs. Female activists of this period included Alice Hamilton, Jane Addams, and Ellen Swallow Richards who brought to the forefront issues of pollution, urban degradation and health hazards. Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist, advocated for the cleanup of hazardous work environments during this period as well. During the eras of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II the United States saw a period of inactivity on environmental issues. It was not until 1962, with the publication of Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson,denouncing the U.S. government's use of pesticides and the nation's increase in industrial waste, that women in the United States returned to environmental issues. The book is considered one of the seminal pieces of environmental works written. The 1970 s found women actively engaging in environmental issues. W.A.R.N. (Women of All Red Nations) was formed by Native American women to combat the environmental and health effects of uranium mining on native lands. Lesbian women formed communal spaces, returning to living on the land, recycling materials, using solar power and growing organic foods in their efforts to combat industrial pollution and degradation of natural resources.

The 1980 s was an important decade for women in the environment. In 1980 the term 'ecofeminism' was born with two important events taking place. In April, 1980 the conference, "Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the 1980's" was held in Amherst, MA, the first in a series of conferences on ecofeminism. In November, 1980 the Women's Pentagon Action took place in Washington D.C.. when the group, "Women and Life on Earth" gathered to protest war, militarism, nuclear weapons and the effects on the environment. . At its core, ecofeminism recognizes the link between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. The liberation of women and nature are linked and it is towards this end that ecofeminists work towards. Inherent to this concept is sexism. Australian ecofeminist Ariel Kay Salleh was an early critic of deep ecologists of this time claiming that most of its spokespersons were male and therefore were afraid to confront the naturism and sexism causing environmental crises. Carol Adams furthered this ideology with her work The Sexual Politics of Meat in which she established the link between sexual objectification of women to the consumption of animals as objects of food. Environmental issues continued to dominate women's activism work in the 1980 s with the publication of Judith Plant's book, Healing the Wounds the Promise of Ecofeminism in 1989, the first North American anthology of ecofeminsim. Also of importance, in June of 1989, the Ecofeminist Caucus of the National Women's Studies Association was formed.The second half of the decade saw the emergence of American socialist ecofeminists, Karen Warren and Carolyn Merchant. Warren 's work was instrumental in defining the four core principles of ecofeminism; the connections between women and nature, the need for the understanding of those connections, that feminist theory and perspective must include ecological perspectives and that ecological solutions must come from a feminist perspective. Socialist ecofeminists are concerned with issues impacting the environment resulting from the intersection of oppression by race, class or gender. Specific issues addressed by Socialist ecofeminists are colonialism, multinationa l corporate development of the South, global distribution of wealth, overpopulation and the critique of biotechnology.

Since the 1990 s the United States has seen women continuing to foster their concerns of the environment. The decade saw the growth of the Environmental Justice movement beginning with Lois Gibbs,  who formed  the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, helping community organizations battle toxic waste issues and others. The Principles of Environmental Justice were adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. on October 24-27, 1991. In a series of seventeen mandates, the principles call for public policies guaranteeing the right to responsible uses of renewable resources and land, creating a sustainable planet for all living beings. Feminists involved in current ecological movements continue the examination of the intersectionality of race, class and gender in human’s experiences within their environments and the examination of perceptions and how values of the connection between humans and the environment are shaped by gender roles and assumptions. Other topics of concern include structures of power at the political and economic institutional level that are instrumental in the ecological movement, particularly the interdependence between oppression and domination. Today’s environmental feminists' scholarship focuses upon transnational, post-structuralist and postcolonial deconstructions.

During the 2000's women in the environment have turned their focus to another aspect of the environmental justice movement, that of gender justice. Gender justice differs from ecofeminism in that this perspective argues that women are affected by the environment in gender-specific ways as opposed to the focus on the connection between the oppression of women and nature. Gender disparities for women include the increase of environmental burdens due to their involvement in women’s work of care taking and lack of access to resources due to lower incomes or poverty. Women are more likely to make food sacrifices for their family, and are more impacted by climate change, which impacts at a greater risk those that are already environmentally disadvantaged. Women are at greater risk during natural disasters, and subjected to increased levels of male violence in the wake of these disasters. Overall, women are less likely to be able to avoid or adapt to environmental degradation. The response to these gender inequities has been an increase in activism by women of color. In a marked difference from mainstream environmentalists, women of color, primarily Native American and Hispanic, are driving political change using grassroots organizations in a desire to address the gender specific differences of environmental effects. Gender justice activists also seek to empower their communities and preserve their cultural traditions in addition to preserving the environment. Following these principles, environmental leaders such as activist Julia Butterfly Hill, founder of the Circle of Life Foundation, and Native American activist Winona LaDuke (Anishinabe), founder of Indigenous Women’s Network l , are continuing women's participation in the environmental gender justice movement in the United States today.

Women have had a longstanding impact on the environment in the United States, with efforts being shaped by larger feminist movements. In the early 20th century women's involvement in the ecological movements grew out of the Social Feminist work that occurred in between the First and Second Waves of the feminism. Ecofeminism stems from the Second Wave of Radical Feminism that was prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's. Environmental Justice and Gender Justice arose from the feminist move towards intersectionality of race, class and gender in the 1990's. As feminists continue to examine these issues, the environment and women's roles pertaining to it will continue to be topics of concern.

Week 9 Training Exercise I have not yet begun to draft my paragraphs for developed nations under the "Women and Environment" article as I am still researching and reading various sources. But for this exercise, I will try and link a few pages to this paragraph to satisfy the requirement for the training due this week. I am writing about the United States, Europe and hopefully China for my additions to the article. China has been particularly difficult to find source material on, I am wondering if there are no women in environment in China, although they could use some environmental programs judging from the news. I have found a great deal of information on the United States and Europe and I am confident I can write my minimum of three paragraphs on those two areas alone, but I would like to include a section on developed areas of Asia, maybe I will switch to Japan and see if I can find source material there. This exercise is to link to other wiki pages, so I am going to link three, the United States, Europe and Japan and see what happens. Another fun exercise to try. Okay that was easy. I am going to now try and link to environmental issues in China as a redirect link and see what happens. Nice, that was easy! Now to try and insert an image. Very easy, I searched "water pollution" and found this image already approved by Wikipedia, I edited the caption easily and here it is! Just for fun, I am going to link water pollution as well.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

So far my research has yielded five sources of information that I can use in the construction of three paragraphs under the "Developed Nations" section of the article. I anticipate adding many more references as I read through the following reference sources and begin drafting my paragraphs. The following list is what I have marked as source material so far:

“Women, Sexuality, and Environmental Justice in American History"

This book chapter will serve to give a broad historical overview of women’s impact in environmentalism in the United States. I may be using more chapters from New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, but upon first reading, this chapter holds a great deal of information I was interested in including.

"Ecological Politics" by Greta Gaard

This book I am reading to gain a deeper understanding of ecological politics and how it relates to ecofeminism in developed nations. I have not yet identified any specific chapter or use within the article as I have not yet read the book. Upon reviewing the table of contents, it appears there will be some pertinent information I can use in my United States paragraph. Gaard has written numerous pieces on women and the environment and I assume I will be using more of her works in this assignment besides this one.

“Tracking the Elusive Green Women: Sex, Environmentalism, and Feminism in the United States and Europe.”

This article may be used to list an argument that environmental causes in the U.S. and Europe are not dominated by women. It is a case study and upon scanning appears to have some pertinent information contained in tables that may be useful.

"The Challenge of Ecofeminism for European Politics"

This chapter gives us an overview of women and the environment in Europe and the impact had on European politics. I plan to use this in the section on Europe under the developed nations heading to give insight to European women's movements in the environment.

“The Way of Yin: The Chinese Construction of Ecofeminism in a Cross-Cultural Context.”

Evaluation Exercise

In the evaluation of an article on Wikipedia, there are several elements that designate an article as being one of good quality as opposed to an article where the quality is held to be sub-par. The elements of a quality article are: a detailed lead section, clear structure, balanced content without opinions or arguments, a neutral tone covering many aspects of the topic and good sourcing, reliable and cited throughout the article as much as possible. Additionally, from a feminist perspective, the reviewer should be evaluating the article to see if it is written solely from a Western feminist perspective, the relevance of the article to the topic and missing information that could more fully inform the reader of the topic. In evaluating the negative qualities of the article, one is looking for warning banners, fragmented lead sections, persuasive statements such as “the best” or “most important” and imbalanced sections. Another important aspect of the evaluation is to review the citations, links and sources for applicable content as they relate to the information contained within the article. During the evaluation, one should also review the article’s talk page, which gives the reviewer information on the original posting of the topic, edits and suggestions by other editors as well as comments made by viewers as to the overall reaction to the article. For the purposes of this evaluation, the Wikipedia article selected for review is “Women and the Environment”. This topic article was first published on Wikipedia in 2009 and was substantially reworked in 2012. Since that date there have been few edits to the article. Because of this it is a perfect candidate for evaluation and its merits and problems are discussed here.

In beginning the evaluation, the talk page of the article was reviewed. The article is listed as part of several Wiki Projects, In the Wiki Projects for Environment, History of Science and Women’s History, the article is rates as Start-Class with Environment giving it a rating of mid-importance and History of Science and Women’s History giving it a rating of low importance. It is also part of the Wiki Project for Gender Studies but does not include a rating. Several comments on the talk page have denounced the article as being biased, poorly written and lacking adequate source material. However, these early comments appear to have been rectified in part with inclusions of more detailed paragraphs. The original paragraphs appear to be unedited, lending the article an unbalanced nature regarding the headings of "Women, environment and development (WED) debate" and "Farming and agriculture". These sections are particularly badly written, lacking adequate citations and failing to introduce the various individuals being cited for relevance to the work.

When evaluating the lead section, at first read, the paragraph is clearly written and easy to understand. However, as an introductory paragraph it should not contain a quote, which it does from the World Bank, dated 1991. By including a quote within the introduction of the article, there is already a sense of bias and lack of neutral tone. After reading the article in its entirety one realizes that the leading statement is incomplete and needs revision to more adequately define the information contained within the article. Rather than outlining the article the lead section makes broad overstatements in its attempts to encapsulate the view that there is an inherent link between women an and the environment due to their historical ties to the land as agricultural workers.

There is a clear structure to the article, with several headings and sub-headings, arranged by themes. In terms of future editing of the article, it would be proposed to rearrange the headings and their content to give the reader a better understanding of the topic. By leading the article off with the heading and content “Women’s connection with the environment” the reader is not given an opportunity to understand the theoretical perspectives discussed under this heading. It would be suggested to move the content headed “Theoretical perspectives” to the beginning of the article which would make the following content easier to follow and understand. One would also propose the shifting of the headings titled “Ecological Movements Initiated by Women” and “Women Environmentalists” ahead of the “Women’s Connection with the Environment” as these sections also provide historical background of the topic of the relationship between women, the environment and the economic realities that link the two.

The evaluation did not find evidence of a balanced content except in the later sections written. These sections include: " Women Environmentalists" and "Ecological Movements Initiated by Women". The section titled “Theoretical Perspectives” was particularly unbalanced as it failed to adequately provide critiques of Ecofeminism (pg. 8, par. 2). The critiques of Environmental/Ecological Feminism were poorly written and confusing, written in a bullet point fashion without adequate sourcing or citations. This is another section that would be advisable to edit and expand. Similarly, those sections with a balanced content provided a neutral tone to those sections, those not containing a balanced content (the rest of the article) were subject to a non-neutral tone and at best read like a poorly written essay.

Sourcing was poor throughout the initial sections, lacking information on authors quoted, links or actual citations themselves. It is not until page 7, paragraph 2 that sources, links and citations are properly and adequately used. In reviewing the sources cited, pages 7 through 14 had correct, informative sources and links. Pages 1-6 contained sources that sometimes adequately informed the reader, but most often did not.

Most of the article was relevant to the topic heading, only one distraction was found: under the heading of Ecofeminism, the author writes of the Chipko Movement, “The Chipko movement also led to the formation of anti-alcoholism” (par. 2, pg. 5). In terms of improving the article, three sections would benefit the reader by editing. Developed Nations, which to date only discusses the country of Sweden, New technologies and land use as referred to in the section “Relationship between violence of nature and women” which would require substantial editing to be cohesive and factual and the addition of the definition of gendered division of labor and its effects on women and the environment.

In conclusion, the article evaluated showed several areas that should be edited and expanded upon to make it a quality posting under Wikipedia’s guidelines. Citations and adequate sourcing, the inclusion of critiques of ecofeminism and ecological feminism, the addition and/or expansion of gendered division of labor, relationship between violence of nature and women, and new technologies and land use as they apply to women’s roles in agricultural development. The article could also benefit from restructuring of its current layout by moving current sections ahead of the beginning section to make the reading more cohesive and informative. The article requires all these suggestions to bring it up the quality standards of Wikipedia.

Reference Sources for adding citation exercise

Agarwal, Bina. A Field of One's Own : Gender and Land Rights in South Asia / Bina Agarwal. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Adding Citation Exercise:

September 23, 2018

Today I completed the exercise for adding citations to an existing article. I continued working with the "Women and the Environment " page evaluated last week. My edits were done to the critique of ecofeminism by Bina Agarwal section of the article. I chose this section as it was lacking citations in several areas and I wanted to challenge myself to find the missing source information. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I used SDSU libarary online search, found material by Agarwal and read through table of contents and found the applicable section I thought might contain the information I was looking for. Once I found it, I was able to edit the article, post my changes to the "talk" page ( I started a new topic for us to post under) and reviewed my entries for accuracy. I have to admit, this is a lot of fun. I should have gone into editing!

The following are the changes I made:

I added a citation to this sentence, taken from Bina Agarwal's book A Field of One's Own (see my reference source above). This sentence did not have any reference citation attached to it at all "Land access allows for a number of production advantages such as growing trees, fodder and/or crops" (Agarwal, pg. 32)

I added an additional reference to this sentence as it was paraphrased out of the same Agarwal book in the previous sentence but the existing citation listed a different source: "But, land access also allows for increased credit, bargaining power and strengthens aggregate real wages rates."(Agarwal, pg. 32)

I also added a sentence to further enhance the benefits under the efficiency effect spoke of in the article: "Land access allows for a number of production advantages such as growing trees, fodder and/or crops (Aarggwal, pg. 32) But, land access also allows for increased credit, bargaining power and strengthens aggregate real wages rates.(Agarwal, pp. 37-38).

The citation entry is labeled [23] under the page's reference list. I entered the data manually including the ISBN number, all taken from the SDSU library website. I also made one correction, the spelling of Bina Agarwal's name on the link to her page under the same section. It was misspelled Agaarwal. I verified the correct spelling both on the library webpage and the Wikipage link that it took me too. I could not help correcting that, it was bugging me.

Here is how the entry looked prior to my edits:

Criticism[edit]

Bina Agaarwal has critiqued the ideas of environmental feminism. She proposes problems with welfare, efficiency, and source of land.

·      Welfare

Due to gender differences in income-spending patterns, women are at a higher risk of living in poverty. For this reason, access to land is of special importance. Land access allows for a number of production advantages such as growing trees, fodder and/or crops. But, land access also allows for increased credit, bargaining power and strengthens aggregate real wages rates.[11] Even the smallest amount of land can have huge impacts on welfare directly as well as increasing entitlement to family welfare.[23]

·      Efficiency

1.   Incentive effect: If women are given secure land rights, there will be a greater incentive for higher production rates. Women will be motivated to use the best technologies, increase cultivation, and make long-term investments.