Vegan Ecofeminism: The Intersection of Gender, Animal, and Environmental Justice

Written by Sarya Gulec

Veganism and feminism do not seem to be interrelated, yet they are linked on deep ethical grounds. Both of them reject frameworks of domination, exploitation, and hierarchical power. For the most part, they both reject the normalization of violence and demand justice for the oppressed subjects, human or animal.

Feminism is the product of the past and ongoing struggle of women against patriarchal structures that systematically exploit and exclude them, most evidently over work, reproduction, and bodily autonomy. Veganism, although centered on animals, raises similar ethical concerns. In the same way that patriarchy objectifies and exploits women, the animal-agriculture complex objectifies and exploits animals, especially female animals.

Take the case of the dairy industry. Female cows are forcefully bred year after year, have their newborn calves taken away from them within hours, and are subject to hormones to induce milk production. Their natural maternal bonds are repeatedly broken, causing immense psychological and physical suffering. Male calves, who are worthless for milk yield, are typically slaughtered early. Female cows, however, endure protracted exploitation since they are fertile. This is the haunting imitation of past management of women's bodies—e.g., forced sterilization denied access to birth control, and reproductive labor expectations—and shows the structural link between women's and animal exploitation. From a feminist perspective, shared logic in commodifying and dominating women's bodies makes the vegan analysis relevant as well as obligatory.

This is where ecofeminism steps in. Ecofeminism brings together the environmental, feminist, and animal liberation movements since it points out that the domination of nature, women, and animals is driven by the same mentality—a patriarchal, capitalist drive for domination. Ecofeminists argue that the worldview that places creatures in rank order not only justifies but encourages violence on those below them, including women, racialized groups, queer people, people with disabilities, animals, and the earth.

Philosopher-activist Carol J. Adams is one of the most important thinkers in vegan ecofeminist scholarship. She examines, in her groundbreaking book “The Sexual Politics of Meat,” how the eating of meat is related to masculinity and male dominance. She argues that not only is meat-eating made normal, but it is even being celebrated as a masculine habit—a symbol of strength, power, and virility. This creates a culture that compounds a narrative, she argues, in which violence and consumption are identified with power, and the pain and suffering of animals and women are rendered invisible. In her analysis, the female animal is a "missing text," whose presence is important but deleted, similar to the way that women's work and suffering have historically been silenced in patriarchal cultures.

Vegan ecofeminism also critiques capitalism for turning all bodies into commodities—both human and nonhuman—for profit. The same economic rationale that turns cows into milk-making machines is the same that steals women's reproductive labor or factory workers in international supply chains. Both are driven by the devaluation of specific bodies, specifically those that do not belong to the privileged group. Vegan theorist Aph Ko writes that veganism is not about animals; it is about resisting the wider system of white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism that decides whose lives matter and whose do not.

The vegan theory also universalizes the male-female binary onto a broader axis of privilege. It illustrates how systems of oppression intersect. All those who are not part of the normative group—white, rich, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied men —are devalued, marginalized, and exploited. Ecofeminism, then, does not just link patriarchy to speciesism, but also to racism, ableism, heterosexism, and colonialism. Factory farming and environmental devastation in disproportionate ways, for instance, affect communities of color and poor nations in the Global South. Land is exploited, water is polluted, and people are displaced—all in service of a profit-driven, meat-centered global food system.

Vegan ecofeminism is, therefore, not an empty way of life but a political stance. It is a path towards dismantling the multifaceted systems that harm both humans and animals. It refuses to draw arbitrary moral lines between species, and it calls instead for a radical empathetic strategy—the ability to sense the pain of the other, species, gender, or race. Above all, it eschews the morality of guilt and instead demands systemic responsibility.

In the meantime, ecofeminism as veganism must be intersectional and inclusive. The idea that everyone is able to access plant food, education, or resources is a fallacy. There are people impacted by food deserts, poverty, and cultural divides. Feminist veganism does not judge people, especially marginalized people, for what they eat. Instead, it judges industries, policies, and systems of domination. Feminist veganism becomes less about personal purity and more about public freedom.

Concise and to the point, vegan ecofeminism is a good way to think about and deconstruct the interconnected oppressions that structure our lives. It clarifies how the disvaluation of certain lives—women, animals, or nature—results from the same violent logic. Ethical action, in this sense, comes to include the nonhuman, and solidarity is a practice that includes all living beings. By linking the principles of veganism and feminism, we can imagine a more equal, more empathetic world—one in which nobody is disposable.

References:

1. PETA. (n.d.). What’s wrong with the dairy industry? PETA.org. Retrieved July 5, 2025, from https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/dairy-industry/

2. Adams, C. J. (1990). The sexual politics of meat: A feminist-vegetarian critical theory. Continuum.

3. Plumwood, V. (1993). Feminism and the mastery of nature. Routledge.