Women's work - women in the environmental movement

E: The Environmental Magazine, Jan-Feb, 1997 by Stuart Miller

It's as basic as keeping the air we breathe clean and the water we drink pure, and it's as politically knotty as halting construction of incinerators in the inner city and reducing population growth in developing nations. Environmental activism comes in many guises but shares one common trait - it has increasingly become women's work.

"Women are now taking their place side by side and equal to men," says Barbara Bramble, the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) international office director.

The environmental glass ceiling has chipped and splintered in the last 15 years; where the top slots were once completely dominated by men, women now hold key policymaking positions at organizations like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, NWF, The Wilderness Society, INFORM, the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV).

"The number of women in leadership roles reflects the fact that women care about these issues and are attracted to this kind of work in the first place," says Patricia Forkan, executive vice president of HSUS. "Cause-related organizations demand teamwork, which is how women tend to manage."

Women have not just entered the halls of power, they are achieving significant successes there. In Congress, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) strengthened the Safe Drinking Water Act. Before retiring last year, Representative Pat Schroeder (D-Colorado) wrote legislation transforming a military Superfund site into a wildlife refuge.

Since Kathryn Fuller became president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) seven years ago, the organization has doubled its revenue and membership, helped secure an ivory ban, promoted the debt-for-nature swaps in Asia and Latin America, and developed an environmental educational program called "Windows on the Wild" which is currently being introduced into middle school curricula around the country.

Greenpeace USA was falling apart financially in the early 1990s, but since Barbara Dudley became executive director four years ago, she has helped stabilize the organization's finances. Additionally, Greenpeace under Dudley has earned crucial environmental victories: By educating small-time fishermen about sustainable fishing and working to change the focus of its fisheries campaign from "jobs versus the environment" to "jobs and the environment," Greenpeace was able to help defeat the Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) favored by corporate fisheries. "We even got a decent fisheries management bill," says Dudley, who adds that the bill was co-sponsored by Republican Don Young of Alaska, chairman of the House Resources Committee. (Normally notoriously anti-environment, Young listened to the local fishermen galvanized by Greenpeace.)

Greenpeace under Dudley has also started making inroads in its battle to ban chlorine, a dangerous toxin backed by a wealthy industry. Humanizing a complex issue by raising health issues - like the 1993 report linking chlorine to breast cancer - Greenpeace gained support from women's groups and organizations like the American Public Health Association.

At the Sierra Club, Debbie Sease was the primary lobbyist on the California Desert Protection Act, and as legislative director, she has been the chief strategist in the battle against the war on the environment waged by the Republican leadership in recent years. Sease can also be found brainstorming with the other female power players in the environmental movement at a networking luncheon held in Washington, D.C. every six weeks. Started during the Clinton administration by several women, including Carol Browner, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the lunches attract women like Sease and Dudley from major organizations as well as government officials like Katie McGinty, senior environmental advisor to President Clinton and chair of the President's Council on Environmental Quality (see Conversations this issue).

The animal rights movement also includes many women leaders like Ingrid Newkirk of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). HSUS' Forkan oversees the leading national group's whole domestic operations, which include everything from humane legislation to wildlife and farm animal protection.

The Movement Evolves

While part of the power shift is easily attributable to the women's movement and society's overall breakthrough in the last quarter-century, Bramble says a major reason for this flourishing has been the evolution of the environmental movement. A generation ago, concerns about conservation held the spotlight - it was all about outdoor activities, hunting, fishing and hiking...very male activities - but in the last quarter century, the light has shined equally bright on health and urban issues like clean air and safe drinking water. Not surprisingly, many female environmentalists say, it was a woman, Rachel Carson, who sparked this shift in priorities.

"As the environmental movement has come to include an environmental health movement, it has come to include women in leadership," says Greenpeace's Dudley. There is, however, much enduring chauvinism and the pace of advancement is excruciatingly slow, she adds. Many men are reluctant to share power and, equally significant, to adopt the approach to environmentalism and negotiating generally favored by women. Still, progress is undeniable and has inspired even more women to become involved, paving the way for greater change.