Ecofeminism: Gender and Word Associations

Ecofeminism is the environmental philosophy that finds an association between nature and the female gender in society. Using correlational design, in the current study the associations between gender and nature terms and gender and occupations were examined in 106 college aged students (Mage = 19 years, 4 months, 10% male, 89% female, 79% White). Using a word association test created for the use in the current study, participants reported their association between nature terms, human-made terms, and occupations using a 11-response scale ranging from 0= Little to no association (low masculinity, low femininity) to 10= Masculine or Feminine. Findings indicated that nature terms had a higher association to femininity than masculinity. These findings support the environmental theory of ecofeminism, providing much needed research to this field of study. More research, however, is needed in order to add validity to scientific claims of the theory, as this area is not yet heavily studied