Why is the ecological issue a feminist issue? It is known that sustainability is not primarily a question of technical efficiency but of social relationships. To realize ecologically sustainable ways of life we have to first of all start changing the aim of economics. We need economic action which is not oriented to never-ending growth and profit making but which cares for the needs of life. Such an issue is obviously a "women's issue", because women are the ones in the patriarchal world who produce life and care for it. So the famous sentence "The future is female" seems to be true, but what strikes is that women aren't paid for the most important cultural and economic action, they are not even valued for their work at all. The destructive economic system we are living in - and shaping at the same time - needs a radical change towards de-centralized, regionalized and autonomous economies in which not only water can be drunk and air can be breathed but in which everybody who works to maintain life and relationships worth living will be highly honoured.

Christa Müller
Ph.D. in Economic Sociology in 1997
Schweisfurth Investigation Award on Ecological Economics in 1998
Scientist at the Anstiftung Foundation in Munich