Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology

by Johanna Oksala

A philosophical response that brings together feminist and ecological approaches to solving the global environmental crisis that the capitalist economic system has created
 
In the face of ecological catastrophe, neither feminists nor environmentalists have the option of merely supporting an environmental politics that would preserve an imagined nature somewhere outside capitalism. As Johanna Oksala contends, the political goal must be more to challenge the capitalist economic system itself and the mechanisms by which it expropriates life on the planet.
 
Feminism, Capitalism, and Ecology lays the critical groundwork for this political project. It develops a new way of bringing feminist and ecological responses to capitalism together into a cohesive framework. By exposing the systemic logic by which environmental destruction and gender oppression are jointly rooted in capitalism, Oksala establishes the theoretical foundations for an effective political alliance. The traditions of materialist ecofeminism and Marxist feminism are critical starting points. But the rapid rise of biotechnology and the steady increase of precarity necessitate a model of resistance that responds to the distinctive challenges of contemporary biocapitalism. Timely and urgent, this book articulates a theoretically sophisticated response and maps out our real-world options in this existential struggle.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism

176 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2023

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Books to read instead of this: They Call It Love, Alva Gotby, Full Surrogacy Now, Sophie Lewis, & especially Care: the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Premilla Nadasen. OH AND ALSO Caliban and the Witch by Silvi Federici

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, insightful, and surprisingly readable once you make it past the introduction.

[Zeenah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The long introduction aside, I think if you have no prior knowledge of the surrogacy industry or emotional and alienated labor, this book is a good introduction, though some of the arguments presented are kind of weak (i.e. not paying for domestic work, UBI, etcetera). The proposed solutions are either detrimental or aren't really long-term solutions (band-aid fixes), and the text doesn't really address the biggest cause of the feminist and ecological issues presented in the text: colonialism and imperialism. I thought there would be potential discussion of racial capitalism and how this ultimately shapes commodification, both of women and on an ecological level, but it was not present. The book, however, lends itself to interesting discussion due to its very philosophical nature.

[Victoria Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I liked most about this book is that it’s a readable yet not shallow political proposal. As much as I love theorizing and reading others doing so, it’s about time we all get some clarity about what to do. As someone said below it’s a good intro book if one hasn’t read much about surrogacy, housework, commodification of nature, etc. Only one critical point is Oksala’s lack of engagement with non-Western ontologies when she’s arguing against abandonment of human-nature dualism.

Leaving this book determined to make my motherhood and family life a political act.

“Living one’s politics means embodying a vision of the social relations one hopes to see in a more egalitarian future.” (Oksala, 2023, p. 140)

[Ricky Chen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feminism is not a philosophy, or a theory, or even a point of view. It is a political movement to transform the world beyond recognition. It asks: what would it be to end the political, social, sexual, economic, psychological and physical subordination of women? It answers: we do not know; let us try and see.

Amia Srinivasan, The Right to Sex

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was incredibly readable and an interesting analysis.