Can Women Save our Planet?

Let's make the following two hypothesis:

1) mainly men or the male human species with its major dominating and destructive forces is responsible for climate change and environmental degradation

2) only women or the female human species, holding mainly "feminine" traits and characteristics, in providing them with the necessary responsibilities, leadership roles and position, are able to save our planet

An interesting source of information in that regard is the text on Environmental Ethics (cf Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy SEP), section 3.2 on Feminism and the Environment.

Support of hypothesis 1) are related to men's or male traits and characteristics

- authoritarian nature

- domination and oppression

- dualistic and favoring inequality

- slavery

- arms race

- warfare

- application of atomic bombings and arms of mass destruction (Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

- application of chemical and biological weapons

- enviornmental disasters, e.g. chemical (Bhopal), nuclear (Fukushima), oil (Deepwater Horizon)

- men's attribute of coercive power, domination of women, nature

- young men enjoying destructive and warfare video games

- young men shooting and killing (e.g. Utoeya Island, Columbine)

- white-collar criminality

- etc

With regards to hypothesis 1) we would need to differentiate with regards to culture and evolution of (violent) societies. A counterargument could be, that the traits listed above would not be attributable to the buddhist culture dominated by men.

Hypothesis 2) would need to be scientifically proven. Still we could argue, the female attributes in favor of hypothesis are for example

- sustainable

- care taking

- empathetic

- emotional intelligence

- and more

In my opinion, with regards to the differentiation between men and women, we cannot use a simplistic dualistic differentiation. In that respect I also recommend to read the SEP article on Psychoanalytic Feminism. I agree that we need to look at the psychoanalytical work and findings of both, men (e.g. Freud) and women (e.g. Simone de Beauvoir, Karen Horney).

Also men can hold feminine traits and vice versa, women can hold male traits. A question to analyze is whether in "feminine" men, once in a leader position, male traits again take over to dominate a man's female traits. We would need to characterize and define, whether feminine men exist and what there major feminine traits and characteristics are.

While it is interesting to favor and assess women leadership and responsibility with regards to climate and environmental change, two areas should be analyzed

- the consequences of women leading men in our society and businesses

- how men and their experience can be used and valued in supporting women leaders

- comparing leadership of both women with little or no male traits and feminine men

If leadership of "feminine" men can be associated to the leadership of "feminine" women, in that case hypotheses 2) could be extended to include "feminine" men. In that case we could look at the notion of "feminine leadership" rather than making a difference between the two sexes.

I think one important question is related to domination and whether women can lead without falling into male domination under different circumstances (e.g. "by nature", men's instinct, men's tendency to dominate, men's coercive and destructive forces).