why gender justice & dismantling patriarchy?

This guide by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) outlines a conceptual framework for achieving gender justice and dismantling patriarchy as essential components of broader systemic change. It advocates for grassroots, anti-capitalist feminism and ecofeminism to address the interlinked systems of oppression—including capitalism, racism, neocolonialism, and heteronormativity—that exploit women, LGBTQ+ people, and nature.

• Friends of the Earth International views the dismantling of patriarchy and the pursuit of gender justice as essential for transformative system change. The organization argues that social and environmental justice can only be achieved by challenging systems of oppression that concentrate power through the exploitation of nature, territories, work, and bodies.
• The document defines grassroots, anti-capitalist feminism as a political tool, social movement, and analysis of power. It is characterized by a class perspective, rooted in the collective experiences of women across rural and urban settings, and seeks to reclaim feminist and anti-patriarchal language against institutionalized and depoliticized gender terminology.
• Ecofeminist analysis is used to highlight the parallel exploitation of women and nature under the capitalist extractivist model. This model treats the reproductive capacities, time, and energy of women as infinite resources to compensate for the crises of capitalism and the privatization of nature.
• Patriarchy is described as a system that exploits women's bodies and work for the benefit of men as a social group, maintained through the sexual division of labour, norms, and education. This system utilizes violence and harassment as tools of control, particularly when women deviate from naturalized roles.
• The sexual division of labour creates a hierarchy between public spaces (associated with paid work and decision-making for men) and private spaces (associated with unpaid domestic and care work for women). This structure facilitates capitalist accumulation by relying on women to reproduce and raise workers; additionally, women in the public workforce are often concentrated in underpaid, precarious care-related sectors.
• The document emphasizes intersectionality, stating that patriarchy interlinks with and reinforces other systems of oppression, including capitalism, class oppression, racism, neocolonialism, and heteronormativity. These combined systems allow elites to maintain power by exploiting the working class, people of colour, indigenous peoples, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
• Heteronormativity is identified as a structure of oppression that enforces the nuclear family as the only 'normal' arrangement. This serves the patriarchal capitalist system by ensuring the continued provision of non-remunerated domestic and reproductive work by women.
• Neocolonialism is defined as the violent appropriation and erasure of peoples, cultures, and nature. The document notes that extractivist mega-projects increase control over women's bodies through trafficking, forced prostitution, and sexual violence to satisfy the interests of imperialistic States, international capital, and transnational corporations.

APA

Alldridge, C., Ramos, C., Bhatnagar, D., Ranford, F., Geuskens, I., Kulic, I., Kpondzo, K., Gonçalves, M., Drago, M., Salvático, N., Atukwatse, P., Uwaka, R., Hasan, R., Castro, S., & Quiroa, S. (2020). why gender justice & dismantling patriarchy? Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Why-Gender-Justice-and-Dismantling-Patriarchy-booklet_Friends-of-the-Earth-International_EN.pdf

Chicago

Alldridge, Celia, Claudia Ramos, Dipti Bhatnagar, Fiona Ranford, Isabelle Geuskens, Ivana Kulic, Kwami Kpondzo, et al. why gender justice & dismantling patriarchy? Friends of the Earth International, 2020. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Why-Gender-Justice-and-Dismantling-Patriarchy-booklet_Friends-of-the-Earth-International_EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{alldridge2020why, author = {Alldridge, Celia and Ramos, Claudia and Bhatnagar, Dipti and Ranford, Fiona and Geuskens, Isabelle and Kulic, Ivana and Kpondzo, Kwami and Gonçalves, Marília and Drago, Martín and Salvático, Natalia and Atukwatse, Peruth and Uwaka, Rita and Hasan, Rizwana and Castro, Sam and Quiroa, Silvia}, title = {{why gender justice \& dismantling patriarchy?}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Why-Gender-Justice-and-Dismantling-Patriarchy-booklet_Friends-of-the-Earth-International_EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }