Green feminists

I was listening to the radio earlier and heard an interesting discussion on a statement that seemed to me at first to be ridiculous.  The statement was the idea that environmentalism* was anti-feminist.

The speakers talked about how much** of the advice given to the public on green issues seems to focus on the home and on tasks that, traditionally, have been women's work.  For example, shopping and cooking using local produce and fewer packaged ready meals.  Or using washable nappies rather than disposable ones.  The point was made that this might be all very well for middle class families where the mother doesn't work- spending time every day shopping and washing etc- but for lower income families who can't afford all that, or where both parents work (or single parent families) where they can't afford the time, it's a sometimes unaffordable struggle.

I have to say that part of me was thinking that perhaps we take our modern time-saving appliances too much for granted.  Perhaps sometimes it's a case of not being bothered rather than not actually having the time.  But I'm also sympathetic, especially to the cost argument.  And I was intrigued by the thought that women are affected more than men.  Women have, over the past century, benefited most from the rise in appliances to shorten the time and effort going into housekeeping.  It has given them freedom from domestic slavery.

The fear some of the interviewees had was that by increasing the amount of time spent on housework you would increase the burden on women, many of whom already struggle to cope with juggling jobs and families.  You (or I, at least) can very easily be made to feel guilty because sometimes we don't do things exactly as we would like; we get takeaway instead of cooking, or drive instead of walking, because we don't have time or just can't be bothered.

So what do I think?  Well, thinking over the arguments I think the fears have been exaggerated.  It's not a reason not to make some changes in our lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly.  And yet there is a point to be made.  The care of the household and family is still often seen as women's responsibility- you could use almost the same arguments about health advice as for green issues.  The real problem seems to be that in the eyes of society and the media, women are still seen as the primary homemaker- they may well have a job too, but a woman doing most of the housework is seen as normal, while a man doing most of the housework would get some odd looks.  But (in the case of this argument) shouldn't a man be equally responsible for the environmental impact of the house where he lives?  For the food he (and his children, if he has any) eats, the time and energy involved in running the house?

So it's back to the old question of how to change people's attitudes and unconscious prejudices- I sometimes find myself making judgements about people because they are male or female, and then realising that I have no basis whatsoever for thinking that other than unconsciously assigning roles to people based on their gender.  But I think there is some cause for hope even in that- I realise that the judgements I'm making are flawed.  Society is changing its' opinion- slowly and with a long way to go yet, but it is happening.



*by which I mean trying to live in an environmentally friendly, 'green' way.
**I'm not mentioning green transport because I don't feel it's relevant to this discussion- if men have (traditionally) more influence in the personal car market, women probably are more frequent users of public transport.