Celebrating women in the environmental movement
by Brittany Matter, associate editor
Friends of the Earth is celebrating Women’s History Month by recognizing the contributions and careers of several women on Friends of the Earth’s staff. We discussed their inspirations, interests, the importance of women in the environmental movement and each shared advice for the next generation looking to be a part of the movement.
Food and Technology Campaigner Dana Perls
For our first guest, we have our Food and Technology Campaigner Dana Perls who brings a strong background in grassroots campaign organizing and environmental policy and combines them with her commitment to environmental justice.
“At every step I’ve always been surrounded by really strong women so I guess there’s not one single woman…I grew up in a household that was very dominated by very strong women. My mom is an activist and she’s a very strong leader around disability rights, and she also is a pretty potent feminist and she has a lot of strong words to say around patriarchy…so I grew up around this idea that women have to lead and women have to be strong.”
Read more about Dana’s work and her recent report “Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Human Future: Reclaiming Emerging Biotechnologies for the Common Good.”
Staff Scientist Kendra Klein
Next up is Staff Scientist Kendra Klein who supports our agroecology work. She has over 14 years of experience as a writer, researcher and environmental advocate. Her areas of expertise are environmental sustainability, environmental health and food and agriculture. She talks with us today about why she joined Friends of the Earth and the role of women in the environmental movement.
“I joined Friends of the Earth this January as Staff Scientist in agroecology and environmental health. You could say my journey to this position began in 2002 when I read Living Downstream by ecologist Sandra Steingraber. This “investigation of cancer and the environment” is the intellectual sequel to Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book on pesticides, Silent Spring. Like Steingraber, the experience of cancer in my family — my mother’s breast cancer at age 30 and recurrence at 48 — inspired me to learn about the intimate interconnections between the health of our bodies and that of the environment.
It is so often women who do the work of addressing threats to life, health and the environment based on their own experience with illness and that of their families. From pesticides and fracking to climate change, I see this intersection as a powerful platform from which to work for change. At Friends of the Earth, my work focuses on creating a healthy food and farming system — healthy for the land, for eaters, for farm workers and for communities. Organic farming is a huge part of the solution; it eliminates the toxic pesticides that Steingraber and Carson so eloquently and incisively warned us about,” Klein concluded.
Follow Kendra on Twitter.
Vice President of Programs Michelle Chan
Finally is our Vice President of Programs Michelle Chan who talks about her career and what future generations can do who are interested in joining the environmental movement.
“I started my career at Friends of the Earth over twenty years ago, and it has been a wonderful journey — from brand new Fellow (she clarified: back then Friends of the Earth Fellowships were like glorified internships) to Vice President of Programs,” a position she assumed in January.
“As a woman I have always felt supported at Friends of the Earth. When I joined, fresh out of college in 1995, it was during the time the organization was transitioning from the leadership Jane Perkins to Brent Blackwelder. Not only was it pretty rare then to have a woman leading a national green group, but Jane had come to us from the AFL-CIO, which was probably even more exceptional. And coincidentally (or not), one of our dynamic board members at the time, Ann Hoffman, was a chief lobbyist for UNITE, the garment workers union. The mid-late 1990s was during the heyday of the anti-sweatshop movement, so it was particularly exciting for me as a young person to have Ann on our Board.”
“It was a pleasure to have this conversation about women in the environmental movement, in honor of women’s history month. As Friends of the Earth begins to more deliberately work at the nexus of environmental, social and economic justice, I am reminded that approach has deep roots at our organization. And as I move into a new leadership role in the organization, I am thankful for the women leaders who have come before me,” Chan concluded.
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