ecofeminism could be viewed as a special school of social ecology, since it, too, addresses the basic dynamics of social domination within the context of patriarchy - however, its cultural analysis of the many facets of patriarchy and of the links between feminism and ecology go far beyond the framework of social ecology -- ecofeminists see the patriarchal domination of women by men as the prototype of all domination and exploitation and of its hierarchical, militaristic, capitalist, and industrialist forms - they point out that the exploitation of nature, in particular, has gone hand in hand with that of women who have been identified with nature throughout the ages - this ancient association of woman and nature interlinks women's history and the history of the environment, and is the source of a natural kinship between feminism and ecology - accordingly, ecofeminists see female experiential knowledge as a major source for an ecological vision of reality.
so far, I have emphasized perceptions and thinking - if that were the whole problem, the paradigm shift would be much easier - there are enough brilliant thinkers among the proponents of the new paradigm who could convince our political and corporate leaders of the merits of systemic thinking - but that's only part of the story - the shift of paradigms requires not only an expansion of our perceptions and ways of thinking, but also of our values.
The New Vision of Reality: excerpt 7
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