The

environment, after all, is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest. It is
one thing that all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what
we can become.
Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States (196369)

The book Staying Ailve by Vandana Shiva provides a completely different view of nature,
women and society. According to her, the very basic fundamentals of nature are equated with
the feminine principle. She also discusses development and how it has affected the nature, due
to some factors that have led to a patriarchal rule at the highest positions of society.
This book is result of her involvement with womens struggles for survival in India over the last
decade. She questions the meaning of progress, science, development, which destroys life and
threatens survival.. The books is an attempt to show, how rural Indian women, who are still
embedded in nature, experience and perceive ecological destruction and its causes, and how
they have conceived and initiated processes to arrest the destruction of nature and begin its
regeneration.
Shiva initiates her argument by providing the modern western patriarchal view of science,
development and poverty and how these misconceptions lead to ecological destruction and
thus threatens our survival itself. According to Shiva, the rise of a patriarchal science of nature
took place in Europe during the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as the scientific revolution,
which presented Earth as source of raw material and removed all the constraints of its
exploitation. During the same period, industrial revolution started which also laid foundation to
patriarchal mode of economic development.
]It all started in the name of modern science by Bacon (1561-1626), by controlling nature in his
experiments, thereby allowing man to determine its course. The conception of nature slowly
changed from Mother Nature to a force that can be manipulated by man. With emergence of
industrial capitalism, science had started to denude nature as well create dependency of women
on men, thus, elevating them to position of authority in the society. Industrialism created a
limitless appetite for resource exploitation, and modern science provided the ethical and
cognitive license to make such exploitation possible, acceptable- and-desirable.
These events resulted in establishment of Economic Growth as a parameter to measure overall
growth of a nation and its citizen. The economic growth model of development ensued the
process of ecological destruction and marginalization of women. 'Development' as capital
accumulation and the commercialization of the economy for the generation of 'surplus' and
profits thus involved the reproduction not merely-of a particular form of creation of wealth, but
also of the associated creation of insufficient resources, unnecessary needs and redefined
poverty. According the Shiva, privatization of land and expansion of cash crops to achieve
Development have destroyed women's productivity both by removing land, water and forests
from their management and control, as well as through the ecological destruction of soil, water
and vegetation systems so that nature's productivity and renewability were impaired, thus
Development is equivalent to Maldevelopment. Development was thus equated with the
westernization of economic categories - of needs, of Productivity and of growth.
Shiva tries to establish two polarized worlds by highlighting the paradox in recognition and
awarding of two contrary view points. One world has this masculine model of economic growth
where productivity aspect of nature is the main concern and it is all about extracting things
which they consider to be of economic worth. The other viewpoint is of considering the
feminism of nature (prakriti). She says that that the dominant male society has always been

destructive, both to nature as an exploiter and to women as a knower. Markets based on debts
have been constructed a false sense of development. This bubble wont sustain according to
her. The third world women despite being often suppressed have shows instances of struggle
and are trying to revive the spirit by bringing in inclusive philosophy of nature and its feminine
aspect.

The book ably explains the contribution of Royal Society in subjugation of women and nature,
with their theory of Science being a marriage of knowledge and power. Since the inception of
scientific revolution, two schools have emerged, one contradicting the differentiation between
man and woman, mind and matter rather believing that they complement each other, while the
other, often stated as the mechanical school clearly creating dichotomies and finding ways to
establish dominance of one over the other.
The author uses instances from Europes history as testament to her belief that men of power
have done every bit to destroy the knowledge of women. She explains this citing how women
were excluded from medicines and healing, thereby not allowing them to fulfill their
productivity and potential. She opposes the reductionist science stating that it has a close
relationship with profits and violence resulting in rise of commercial capitalism.

The earth is drying up because of abuse- of her soils, of her forests, of her air and all the
resources that nurture life. It is the reductionist view that wants everything under control. The
basic assumption of a reductionist view is proving every sustainable way as inefficient as it does
not go hand in hand with the compulsion of taming the nature. Living ecosystem is being
manipulated to produce what makes profit.
The author wrties that Women have often advocated for a holistic approach to development
but their voices have been suppressed by the reductionist paradigm. Water is a fragile resource,
which is replenished by the water cycle. Stating the example of Water the author tries to
establish that Women are water experts and water providers as they are the first who are hit by
the consequences of any natural disaster, especially related to water. Women are also first to
notice change in the existing water resources. She further strengthens her argument with the
fact that reductionist Science has gained popularity and recognition by political support. The
reductionist science has often destroyed nature only due the lack of knowledge about it.

Since the time of hunters/gatherers, nature and women had been primary food providers. The
women were very closely associated with nature. They were a crucial part of agriculture and
animal husbandry. The agricultural practices were based on contribution of the women and
were self-reproducing and self-sustaining as it was modeled around nature. The practice was
developed over forty centuries and was the most sustainable agricultural practice. There was a
feminine element in food production, which formed a link between trees, animals and crops.
The livestock and forests provided organic input for agriculture. The objective of agriculture was
to provide food for sustenance of humans and animals. The intent of the women for protecting
trees and rivers was rooted in the agricultural base providing a classic example of the
environmentalism of the poor. All these help us to understand the role of women in
environmental struggles, how deeply women understand the nature and consider it as a whole.
The utility of resource, which is perception-based, is different for women and the other world.
Like forests is not just timber producing resource.

Eco-feminism concept is prevalent in the book. Eco feminism is a philosophy that believes in
caring, nurturing and regenerating nature rather than exploiting it. The author compares
Women to the nature, its existence since primordial time and its significance is discussed.
Women are referred as PRAKRITI (nature) and PRAKRITI is defined as the primary soul of the
universe, creator of the world. The contemporary western view believes existence of a division

between men and women, whereas Indian cosmology contradicts it. The work of women like
providing sustenance and creating wealth is invisible. It is same as work of nature, which cannot
be seen but felt. She believes that one of the missions of ecofeminism is to redefine how society
looks at it. The author has compared different views on this issue and by comparing different
ideas; she has given much emphasis on feminist values. Shivas opinions lead us to Neha
agrawals feminist environmentalism. Also, she has talked about the deprivation of women from
ownership that can be linked to bundle of rights.
The efforts of woman in managing and conserving forest though have been invisible to the
outside world but the ideology and consistency in their efforts has never declined. The well
known Chipko movement sets an excellent example of the thought of women towards forests as
life supporting and central system for soil and water conservation and also brings forward the
struggle they have faced in building such a huge movement. Women have been instrumental in
nurturing this resource as the basic dependence of all the household chores in on water. Chipko
was therefore not only a battle for survival but also a movement that propagated the very
philosophy of nurturing the nature.

The profit driven approach towards afforestation and wasteland development are witnessing
step backs as the commons ultimately find the truth behind them. The shift from ancient
forestry practices to the newer developed approaches has led to removal of the essence of
natural from the nature itself. Practices are needed which forbid such destruction to take
place.

The earth is drying up and the victim is the mankind. The sanctity of the hydrological cycle has to
be maintained by participating in it and not controlling it . It is a common resource and to
ensure its sustainability, rather than viewing it as a cash cow, it should be nurtured. Natural
resources have to manage in a way that the rate of extraction is in harmony with the rate of
replenishment.

Realization of the negative results has pushed people to revert to the traditional practices. In
the past women have taken lead in protecting the society from externalities and there is hope
that their importance and position in the society would be revived too.

CRITICISM:
She has adequately presented her view and the argument has been built fantastically but she
has exerted much on the dominance of world by the male society. She has kept her views
streamlined to this thought and have structured her opinion accordingly. She has kept her scope
where the women can come to rescue the world in future and also truly enlighten the world.
Vandana Shiva is interested in deeper meanings of femininity and Prakriti and in asserting these
as far more humane and natural than the dominant 'scientific' paradigm that is essentially
macho in its conception.

Shivas argument that the Science is carried out in the laboratories, not in natural ecosystems,
which influences the properties of a subject that are perceived actually makes sense. Such
procedures aim to control of nature and exclude other factors. We would buy her explanation of
how Science is ontological, epistemological, and sociological due to the thoroughness with
which she explains it.
Shiva identifies the deeper meaning of feminity with nature (prakriti). Nonetheless, one has to
agree with Kothari that equating all women with the nurturing, life-sustaining feminine principle

tends at times to be overdone. While it is true that women are close to nature, this is not an
inclusive, all encompassing relationship. Given the opportunity, access and training, they can
and do achieve success in the male dominated world of the machine.