Movement: Women’s Environmental Network
“The green movement, like almost everything else, was run by men. Then Wen came along”
The Women’s Environmental Network is a UK national organisation who has been championing a feminist approach and solution for environmental issues for the last 10 years through collaborating with organisations, academics and policymakers. Wen fights global problems around gender, health and our environment by taking action on issues affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods. They work alongside communities supporting action and get a real-world understanding of women’s lived experiences in the process. Wen stands out for their systemic approach in the ways they challenge all forms of inequality, discrimination and power and the ways they interact together, through empowering an intersectional and joyful message.
Some numbers:
— 4% of World Council Energy are held by women
— 32% of MPs in the House of Commons are women
— 80% of people displaced by climate change are women
What does WEN do?
By linking gender health and climate through local grassroot movements, Wen tries to inspire and empower women to take action for a healthier planet, through personal and political action.
Their goal is to bring women’s voices and particularly diverse women’s voices into the environmental movement. Wen takes an intersectionnal feminist approach to all environmental issues, linking together not just gender inequality but other factors of discrimination such as racial inequality or disability. Intersectionality is anchored in their approach as they firmly believe that creating a society that eradicates these discrimination means to understand such factors not as separate but as interconnected.
Wen understands that the climate crisis can sometimes feel abstract, causing people to not feel connected to it on a personal level, which is why one of their main focuses for the last 20 years has been working with local communities. As their office lies in London in the borough of Tower Hamlets, it is therefore where their local projects are organised with local community and women organisations. Wen supports many different projects such as the Tower Hamlet Food growers Network and Food Partnership, which organise community gardens and events aiming to bring people together and celebrate the knowledge of many women from the community, who often already are fantastic food growers. Creating spaces for learning about practical skills and learning about wider environmental issues has proven to be a very effective space for engaging people in the fight against the environmental crises.
Beyond the grassroot engagement, Wen also takes part in projects on a national level to promote a feminist climate resilient society. Wen raises awareness on a topic they named “environmenstrual”, advocating for risk free menstrual products for people and the planet and to which they dedicate a week of campaign every year under the name “environmenstrual week”. Another exciting topic Wen has been working on is the Feminist Green New Deal project, which aims to ensure gender and racial equality are at the heart of plans to tackle the climate crisis. This exciting project involves grassroots workshops, policy roundtables, discussion papers and the launch of the Feminist Green New Deal Manifesto at COP26 Glascow Climate talks in November 2021.
“When the problem is man-made, the solution is feminist”
What’s the Story?
WEN was founded in 1988 by pioneers of the environmental justice movement in order to offer an alternative way of thinking and dealing with environmental issues. Because the founders recognised the environmental movement often neglects and overlooks the experience and perspectives of women, WEN established an approach and a voice that brought gender-sensitive issues to the forefront of the environmental movement and continues to do so today. Since its establishment, Wen has worked on groundbreaking campaigns for things that have now become mainstream. One of their first campaigns was on raising awareness to the use of bleach in menstrual products and to the danger of toxic shock syndrome.
What are Some of Their Main Challenges? And their Progress and Reasons for Hope
Wen has established a long lasting relationship with the communities living in their borough. After having built strong trust with these communities, the challenge for the Women's Environmental Network is to get the voices and experiences from these women from the grassroots heard at a policy level. Because women and especially women of color are not included equally in the majority of climate politics, science, and business it has an impact on the sort of solutions that are prioritized. Wen believes such processes have to be more inclusive and make sure it involves different perspectives. Their challenge is to create effective spaces where these women can speak directly to policymakers about their experience, what their priorities are and make sure that they are willing to hear it. Positive impact for the communities also needs to come from policymakers; it becomes especially clear in cases such as air pollution, which cannot be solved through only local work but has to be discussed and tackled through larger policies.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought its own range of positive and negative challenges to the organisation. A positive aspect for the organisation has been the light the pandemic has put on important topics often overlooked such as air pollution. People were generally getting more receptive to hear about air quality during the pandemic, including in Tower Hamlets, which enabled Wen to make policymakers listen to the concerns of the communities and their health, as they are often most affected.
On the other side however, because Wen works so strongly on a community level, the pandemic did however bring a number of challenges, particularly for their community projects and gatherings like the soil sister project, as they weren’t able to deliver sessions there during the lockdown. Wen has been forced to temporarily change their way to reach these communities, but have simultaneously observed an exciting surge of interest in food growing as members have been quick to respond to Wen’s provision of seeds or compost from their community garden. This engagement has proven to the organisation that their work is having a lasting positive impact and that the community is receptive to their message, as shown by the appetite people have had to continue growing their own food despite the pandemic.
