Perrin, Sam and Siriwardane-De Zoysa, Rapti (2017) Women in marine science: The efficacy of ecofeminist theory in the wake of historical critique. . Working Paper Series, 3 . Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen, 18 pp. DOI https://doi.org/10.21244/zmt.2017.004.

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Abstract

Ecofeminism at its simplest is the combination of ecological and feminist principles with a strong grounding in social movements. As in the case of most philosophical paradigms and socio-political agendas, it has also been the subject of criticism from feminists of diverse schools of thought since its conception in the 1970s. As the offspring of a social movement as diverse as feminism, this is not unexpected. As it came to prominence in the seventies, an era in which second-wave feminism flourished, it shared many of the same criticisms. It was seen as vague and poorly defined, often only explained as the sum of its parts, and also as appealing mainly to white, middle-class women. It also struggled with criticisms of essentialism – in this context the notion that “woman” (in its singularity) shares an affinity with nature and is therefore better positioned to speak on its behalf. These criticisms and conflicts have, however, helped ecofeminism to evolve into a conceptual framework, grounded in ecological principles and feminist theory combined with local perspectives. Pressing forward, we examine the value of this conceptual framework through surveying a selection of diverse female marine scientists based in Germany, and show that ecofeminism is a valuable scholarly lens through which to view contemporary forms of androcentrism and of gendered discrimination in the marine scientific community, among others.

Document Type:	Report (Working Paper)
Programme Area:	UNSPECIFIED
Research affiliation:	Social Sciences > Development and Knowledge Sociology
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.21244/zmt.2017.004
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2023 10:07
Last Modified:	27 Mar 2023 10:07
URI:	http://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/5150

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