Feminism or Death How the Women's Movement Can Save the Planet

The passionately argued, incendiary French feminist work that first defined “eco-feminism”—now available for the first time in English

Originally published in French in 1974, radical feminist Francoise d’Eaubonne surveyed women’s status around the globe and argued that the stakes of feminist struggle was not about equality but about life and death—for humans and the planet. In this wide-ranging manifesto, d’Eaubonne first proposed a politics of ecofeminism, the idea that the patriarchal system's claim over women's bodies and the natural world destroys both, and that feminism and environmentalism must bring about a new “mutation”—an overthrow of not just male power but the system of power itself. As d’Eaubonne prophesied, “the planet placed in the feminine will flourish for all.”

Never before published in English, and translated here by French feminist scholar Ruth Hottell, this edition includes an introduction from scholars of ecology and feminism situating d’Eaubonne’s work within current feminist theory, environmental justice organizing, and anticolonial feminism.

Françoise d’Eaubonne (1920–2005) was a leading French feminist who is credited with coining the term “eco-feminism" in 1974. A former member of the French Communist Party, she co-founded the Front homosexual d’action révolutionnaire in 1971 and created the Ecology-Feminism Center in Paris in 1972. d’Eaubonne was the author of more than 50 works, including novels, poetry, and essays. Her historical novel Comme un vol de gerfauts (1947) was translated into English as A Flight of Falcons, and extracts from Feminism or Death appeared in English in the anthology New French Feminisms in 1981.

Myriam Bahaffou is a scholar activist. Her main field of research is animal ethics, in an decolonial ecofeminist perspective. In France, she tries to renew the vision of the ecofeminist movement, insisting on its radicality and showing the originality of its narrations.

Julie Gorecki is an ecofeminist activist, scholar and writer. She works on new ecological feminisms towards a “feminist system change not climate change.” She is a PhD candidate at the University of California Berkeley and is also part of the transnational women and feminists for climate justice movement.

Ruth Hottell holds a Ph.D. in French from the University of Illinois.  Having published numerous articles on French literature, cultural studies, and film, she also co-authored three books on Francophone women filmmakers.  Now Professor Emerita of French at the University of Toledo, she was recently named to the Order of Academic Palms by the French government.