“Behind the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor lie the deeper issues of disempowerment and/or environmental degradation” — I completely agree. The connections between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature are impossible to ignore or not recognize. Because of this, women tend to be leading environmental activist movements to fight back against their situations. Some key examples of this are Standing Rock and mining projects in Honduras.
Standing Rock has been heavily publicized, but in case you haven’t heard or need a refresher, this has to do with the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is an underground oil pipeline in the Midwestern US. This pipeline is an alternative to trains for transporting oil, and began being built very close to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The Standing Sioux set up spiritual camps in protest. They argued that the pipeline “would contaminate drinking water and damage sacred burial sites” (BBC News). This project threatens the Standing Rock Sioux’s land and culture. Because of the matriarchal tribal structures, women are leading the fight against the pipeline, “protecting the basic human right to clean water. But for some indigenous activists, the internationally recognized movement has become a larger fight against a history of misogyny, racism, and abuse by law enforcement” (The Guardian). Law enforcement officers arrested pipeline protesters, many of whom were Indigenous women, and subjected them to cruel and inhuman treatment. One woman describes male and female guards forcibly removing her clothes when she refused to strip in front of them. Others describe being packed into vans and cells, with mostly native women. They describe these native women being incarcerated for a wide variety of reasons, not just related to the pipeline. The conditions in the jail were unacceptable. Those incarcerated include “one who was pregnant and feared she was having a miscarriage and another who appeared to be severely ill” (The Guardian). “Black Lives Matter” gets much more air time, but “studies have shown that Native Americans are more likely than any other racial group to be killed by law enforcement” (The Guardian).
There is a clear relation between violating land and violating women where mining project began in Honduras. Mines lead to increased violence against women because increased revenue leads to increased drugs and alcohol abuse which leads to higher rates of domestic abuse. One group that is largely affected by this is Indigenous women. In “July 2010 until the end of September there have been at least 72 Indigenous people killed. . . among the 72 are 8 Indigenous women. One of them was pregnant when she was killed. This violence is experienced at the mine site, at home, and in the community” (Gendered Impacts 5). Some women went to work at the mine as cleaning staff, making them very vulnerable to sexual harassment. In order for women to be empowered, they must be able to work so they can make money to buy things to own, to own their own land, their own shelter, to be financially secure, among other things. If women’s well-beings are at risk going to work, trying to improve their quality of life, women will never be able to rise up to a position of equality within society.
Sources
BBC News “Dakota Pipeline: What’s behind the controversy?” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37863955
The Guardian. “At Standing Rock, women lead fight in face of mace, arrests, and strip searches.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/04/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-standing-rock-women-police-abuse