Not Victims, but Fighters: Women and Environmental Justice Movements.

A recent study published in the Journal of Political Ecology analysed 104 extractive conflicts documented in the Environmental Justice Atlas. The objective was to identify global patterns and divergences in women's participation in environmental justice movements. This data is further reinforced by a ecofeminist literature that elucidates the disparate impact on women, as well as other socially marginalised groups (ethnic minorities, indigenous groups, the poor, etc.), of the extractive violence of the capitalist system and the global economic order. The objective of this contribution is to examine the role of women in the process of bringing conflict issues to the public agenda and the media. It is evident that there is a growing number of groups, including at the local level, that seek to counteract ecological threats and racial, economic and gender injustices. In pursuing this objective, these groups adopt strategies that invoke the role of women as 'mothers'. This approach, as we propose in this contribution, has the effect of undermining the innovative and transformative potential of these same movements. A notable example is the so-called 'Mamme no Pfas', a protest movement that emerged to demand justice and an end to the production and use of Pfas. This is not an isolated case; in 2019, the Italian network 'Mamme da Nord a Sud' was established. This composite network has made the intrinsic ability of women to take care of their children's health, as well as other care tasks, its manifesto. This paper analyses a number of movements in order to reflect on the risks of instrumentalising and idealising the role of women as the only agents capable of countering environmental crises. This approach may erode the potential for alliances with other actors and movements that support more conflictual strategies of resistance.