To understand how ecofeminism is related to intersectionality, first we must understand what intersectional feminism is. Intersectional feminism is a term that was first coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw back in 1989 as a way of thinking where one has to see the intersections of feminism and how it individually affects people. For example, a gay black woman has less privilege than a gay white women because although they’re both female and gay, one is white and the other is black. Whiteness is the biggest privilege of them all and people need to understand that although they are not privileged in some aspects, they are extremely privileged in others. “Intersectionality is a concept that helps us think about the ways that a person might be oppressed in one category, and be privileged in another. It is also about how a person might be oppressed by more than one category at a time”. The point of intersectionality is to understand the “interconnectedness of race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, caste, religion, age, and the effects which these can have on the discrimination, oppression, and identity of women and the natural environment” (Kings, 64). There are three main aspects of intersectional theory: 1. “intersectional theory viewed at the micro or individual level, this is a concept that helps us think about the ways that a person might be oppressed in one category, and be privileged in another”, 2. “intersectionality is also a framework for analysis, we can apply the concept of intersectionality to any ‘women’s issue'”, and 3. “intersectionality as praxis: social justice movements, when looking at social justice through an intersectional framework, it means that ending sexism will never be complete unless we also end racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, etc.. because they are deeply connected to sexism”. 

Ecofeminism has some slightly different main principles compared to intersectionality: 1.”the building of Western industrialization in opposition to nature interacts dialectically with and reinforces the subjugation of women, ecofeminists take on the life struggles of all of nature as our own”, 2. “life on earth is an interconnected web, not a hierarchy onto nature and then used to justify social domination, ecofeminists seek to show the connections between all forms of domination”, 3. “A healthy, balanced ecosystem, must maintain diversity, we need a decentralized global movement that is founded on common interested yet celebrates diversity and opposes all forms of domination and violence”, and 4. “the survival of the species necessities a renewed understanding of our relationship to nature, of our own bodily nature and of non human nature around us” (King). The ecofeminist “interconnected web” perspective explains how all life on earth is connected between all forms of domination. According to Kings, intersectionality is an interconnected web as well, “a spider’s web preserves the necessary complexity of intersectionality and the potential ‘stickiness’ of cultural categories, which can often leave people stuck between two or more intersecting or conflicting social categories” (Kings, 65).

Ecofeminism and intersectionality both make “attempts to attend the variety of ways in which women live and the range of circumstances, which influence their often vastly different experiences” (Kings, 64). Intersectionality has provided ecofeminism “with a convenient opportunity to confront some of the skeletons in its closet” (Kings, 64). Intersectionality has allowed ecofeminism to broaden it’s theory a lot, “the success of intersectionality in feminist and ecofeminist work points to the self-reflectivity of both disciplines and to the capacity of intersectionality to be interpreted and practiced in multiple ways” (Kings, 65). Intersectional feminism helped develop the “practical application of ecofeminism by ‘initiating a process of discovery’ (Davis 2008) by acting as an analytic tool or ‘lens’ to aid critical thinking on ecofeminist debates” (Kings, 69). Something that many people forget it that ecofeminism and intersectionality are theories in progress and shouldn’t be viewed as the ‘end all, be all’- instead, they should be seen as theories that continue to adapt to the changing political and environmental landscape in which it finds itself (Kings, 82). Also, one must remember that ecofeminism is mainly full of white, middle class people who lack intersectionality (lack care for black people and their struggles as well) (Cain). Ecofeminism struggles to focus on how “sexism affects black women in its intersectional approaches” (Cain)  and this has made it so that “black women are involved with the environmental justice movement because environmental racism often directly affects their homes, families, and communities” (Cain). 

Works Cited:

Cain, Cacildia. “The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements.” Medium, Black Feminist Thought 2016, 14 Apr. 2016, medium.com/black-feminist-thought-2016/the-necessity-of-black-women-s-standpoint-and-intersectionality-in-environmental-movements-fc52d4277616.

Kings. “Ethics & the Environment .” Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism , vol. 22, no. 1, 2017, muse-jhu-edu.libproxy.umassd.edu/article/660551.