Be Kind To Your Mother: How FMF Got Involved With the Environment

When the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) first approached me to talk about the possibility of creating a toolkit on women and climate change with FMF's Global Program, I didn't know what to say. Is it actually possible for me to be speechless, I hear you ask? I'll have you know that the answer is yes. Well, every now and then, that is ;)

The truth is, I had nothing to say because I didn't know anything about the issue. Aside from a mandatory class during my Master's "coursework," as the Brits would say, I did not know much about what the connections between women and the environment were. A hundred years ago when I was at UNIFEM UK (United Nations Development Fund for Women), I had to write a piece connecting deforestation in Africa to women's health, mainly respiratory issues through the burning of wood for fuel and food (scroll to pg 26). During my research for this article, I was shocked to uncover that this issue also carried with it a huge sexual violence component, a connection I never would have made.

Nevertheless, women and climate change pretty much ended for me there.

I decided to take the hand offered by WEDO to do this project together, and we brought Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and largest environmental organization, into the fold. I felt with the environment being an issue of huge interest with our students, it was time for FMF to make the women and climate change case for our Campus Program. After combing through an endless list of environmental "hot button" issues, we decided on exposing the gendered impact water had on women's lives. With that, our toolkit "Women, Water and the Search for Equity" was born :)

Deciding what issue we would work on was an education in itself. When I first started work on this project, I was more confused than confident. "What were the links between women and the environment? How are women paying a disproportionate price? Are they?" Let's just say I had my reading cut out for me!

What I learned through our collaboration with WEDO and Sierra Club is that women are tied to the environment in such quiet and intimate ways you would not think of unearthing. But the ties are there, just beneath the surface. Because women are the primary collectors of water in their homes, girls are often pulled out of school to help their mothers with walking the unimaginable distances to fetch water for their families. Hundreds of thousands of girls around the world are denied education as a result. Women are the first to be exposed to water-borne illnesses, resulting in low-birth weights and higher infant mortality ratios in some of the poorest developing nations. Because women have to walk into the forests to gather firewood for fuel, an immeasurable number of women and girls are raped by bandits who lurk in the dark. These are major trends we have seen in both Kenya and Darfur, Sudan.

In honor of Earth Day this year, I could not be more proud to introduce to you to the Feminist Majority Foundation's first ever toolkit on women and water. We have added a whole new page to our global feminism campus site. All the information you need on FMF, WEDO, and Sierra Club's campaigns can be found there!

This Earth Day is the first in my adult life where not only am I educated and aware of all the ways the environment impacts women's lives, but the first time that I am motivated to take action. With the knowledge I gained putting this very new campaign of ours together, came a sense of empowerment that makes me want to act!

This Earth Day, if nothing, take action by acknoweldging that we all have a reponsibility to ourselves and our environment, as women to our bodies and to our sisters around the world, to educate ourselves and each other on how the human population is causing the environmental degradation of our planet, and what we can do to make the destruction stop.

After all, as feminists we have a special responsibility to be kind to our mothers don't we? ;)

Check out FMF's campaign on women and climate change today and spread the word to your friends!

Happy Earth Day!