Greta Gaard - Ecofeminist Theory

Ecofeminist Theory

"One of the most influential ecofeminist scholars," Gaard has extended ecofeminist theory by mapping linkages with queer theory and by compiling ecofeminist ideas concerning vegetarianism and animal liberation.

Prior to Gaard's germinal 1997 article, "Toward a Queer Ecofeminism," published first in the scholarly journal Hypatia and then anthologized in Perspectives on Environmental Justice, Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, ecofeminism and queer theory were separate realms within feminism. As Gaard writes in her introduction to that piece,

Although many ecofeminists acknowledge heterosexism as a problem, a systematic exploration of the potential intersections of ecofeminist and queer theories has yet to be made. By interrogating social constructions of the "natural," the various uses of Christianity as a logic of domination, and the rhetoric of colonialism, this essay finds those intersections and argues for the importance of developing a queer ecofeminism.

Numerous scholars have since drawn upon that essay in formulating their theories. Gaard's 1993 anthology, Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature also introduced new theoretical intersections. As Gaard noted in her introduction to the pieces collected in that work, "in the three anthologies published at the time of this writing, ecofeminism has failed to locate animals as central to any discussion of ethics involving women and nature." Gaard followed up that anthology with a 2003 review of vegetarian ecofeminist thought.