Women in the grassroots movement for environmental justice: A gendered analysis.

This was a feminist, environmental, and sociological study of the reciprocal relationships between the empowerment and politicalization of women in the grassroots movement for environmental justice and the consequences for a multi-cultural movement of women eco-activist's participation in it. Qualitative and inductive analyses were used to develop grounded theory from the narratives of 78 women of color and white eco-activists from Michigan and Ohio. Results show that women eco-activists face a paradox: in their traditional roles as caregivers and homemakers women see the local effects of environmental degradation from polluting industries, often hazardous chemical and nuclear waste facilities, posing threats to the health and safety of their families, homes, and communities. Their social positions make it likely that women will frame threats as significant issues they must oppose. Yet in a patriarchal, capitalist society women find they are subordinate to men and multiply marginal to the arenas of decision making relevant to their environmental issues. Women's struggles are characterized by trying to resolve this gender-based paradox and working toward eco-political goals. Stories showed strikingly similar patterns, activist careers, from recognition of environmental threats to women's predominance as articulate spokespersons, leaders or co-leaders with men, and members of grassroots environmental groups. Narratives revealed gendered consequences of women's eco-political participation for groups and the movement. Grassroots environmental groups are framed as arising from civil society, and organizing to protect public and local commons--air, water, soils, and biota--that affect the health and well-being of communities and environments. Grassroots environmentalism, as a collective response to local degradation with no prior political agenda, is characterized as an eco-populist movement. This was a participatory action research project; the researcher worked as an organizer in five grassroots groups during four years of fieldwork.PhDEnvironmental scienceHealth and Environmental SciencesSocial SciencesSocial structureWomen's studiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129824/2/9624759.pd