Ecofeminist political economy

This paper will argue that ecofeminist political economy can make a major contribution to green economics. Ecofeminist political economy sees women's work and lives, like the natural world, as being externalised by current economic systems. Through an analysis of the gendering of economic systems, the paper explores alternative ways of conceptualising the provisioning of human societies. Central to this is a critique of conventional notions of 'the economy' and its dualist framework that only values marketable aspects of humanity and nature. The paper identifies the core elements of an ecofeminist analysis, including women's work as body work in biological time, and the necessarily embedded and localised nature of this work. From this perspective the paper goes on to explore conceptions of an embodied and embedded economics that would not be exploitative of women and nature.