Chernobyl: a reference point in a study of East German ecofeminism 1968-1989
In this fascinating blog based on her presentation at the 2023 WESWWHN Annual Conference on Women and the Natural World: Historical Perspectives on Nature Climate and Environmental Change, Charlotte Oakes explores East German women’s participation in the global ecofeminism movement. The Democratic Republic of Germany (GDR) was not the first nor the last place for ecofeminist thought to proliferate. Existing research portrays ecofeminism as a globally resonant political ideology but one predominantly focused within the Western hemisphere [1]. To demonstrate that ecofeminism did exist outside of the former capitalist bloc, my paper looks closely at the form that the political ideology took in contemporary East Germany. Ecofeminism, a strand of feminist thought reliant on the belief that women and nature are inextricably connected, flourished from the 1970s onwards [2]. In my period of study, 1968-1989, the woman/nature bond became a valuable tool for some women to justify thei...