Earth day was started in the 70s as a part of the environmental movement. This movement, along with other movements, grew out of the civil rights movement. One of these movements was the feminist movement. From these two movements, environmental and feminist, grew a new movement. Eco-feminism holds that in order to end female oppression and environmental degradation humans must reject traditional patriarchal values. Rather than gender defined identities, Eco-feminism asserts that we are all a combination of masculinity and femininity. Life can only exist in harmony with a balance between the two. Eco-feminism argues that humans and nature are not separate but actually one in the same. In order to sustain humans on earth we must learn to live with nature, not dominate it, and we must learn to embrace both our masculine and feminine sides.

JAH