The analysis of the interconnectedness of women, population and environment in the development discourse

Abstract

The role women have played historically and still today within the web of interaction of population and environment has been neglected or misinterpreted. This thesis attempts to identify the strands of the discourse, which ought to move forward in order to promote women's agency and empowerment within the issue of women, population and environment. It is contended in the thesis that in order to effectively shift the debate to a more empowering and women centred perspective, one must look at the issue of environment, population and women from a holistic perspective, incorporating all the factors, which affect each element of the debate. Ecofeminism offers such a holistic and agency oriented analysis of the relationship and as this school evolves, it ought to provide the foundation for a debate that will be geared to the empowerment and improved agency of women of the South.