Eco-Feminism and the Neolithic Era: May 2020

My perspective is that of an eco-feminist artist, so I have explored issues of gender inequality to seek ways to understand and communicate, not only the problems, but their source.

The problems are formidable. The UN Regional Information Centre states:
“While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment… women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. …Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.”

Statistics shows the appalling lack of gender equality:
• every year in Africa there are three million women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation.
• in 30% of cases globally, women suffer violence from their partner within their home.
• More than 33.000 girls become child brides every day. Globally, 12 million girls get married before the age of 18 every year.
• Women are 47% more likely to suffer serious injuries in traffic accidents, because the safety features of cars are designed for men.
• Women in rural areas of Africa spend 40 billion hours a year to collect water.
• 137 women are killed every day in the world by a member of their family.
• Worldwide, it is estimated that around 35% of women have experienced sexual and non-sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.

• Worldwide, women earn on average 23% less than men.
• Women spend an average of three hours a day more than men in household chores and family care in developing countries, and two hours a day more than men in developed countries.

• Single mothers with children make up about 75% of all single parent families and suffer higher poverty rates than single fathers.
• Women are largely excluded from the executive branches of government and are rarely leaders of major political parties.
• only Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden scored high on eight indicators (from receiving a pension to freedom of movement) that influence the economic decisions made by women during their careers.

• Femicide is “intentional killing of a woman following the alleged transgression of gender roles deriving from tradition and social norms. Transgressive behaviour therefore varies according to the social context in which the crime is perpetrated“.

There are the problems of parental leave punished by companies and governments, the consideration of the ‘responsibility’ of women in sexual violence, hatred (also online) for women who are judged by their appearance instead of by their professionalism, etc. The UN estimates it will take another 108 years at the current pace to achieve gender equality.

Where does this aberrant behaviour come from and why does it persists? I am exploring the idea that gender inequality and gender violence have the same root as human violence against nature. In both cases, the violence stems from belief in a superiority that justifies dominance: of humans over nature and of men over women.

This has not always been the case because for thousands of years people revered nature and cultural beliefs did not assume the superiority of men over women. Instead, the female principle was recognized as a sacred life-force as expressed in images.

These goddesses were powerful deities and usually animal/human hybrids that showed the relationship between the female life-force and the forces of nature. Clearly human societies have not always encouraged the degradation of women and nature and it is not an ingrained human attribute, but could be considered a relatively recent development and there is the potential for humans to return to their earlier beliefs.

From 2019-2021 I worked with the art & images of the European Neolithic era that existed between about 6000-3000 BC. Research indicates that early human kinship during this era was everywhere matrilineal. Images from early human societies in what is now Western & Eastern Europe depict figures incorporating human female and animal characteristics that are clearly supernatural and/or divine.

One Neolithic image used in paintings from my Neolithic series was a female form that was abstracted so that the arms are like wings and the body narrows down to a point like an insect. Though it hasn’t been confirmed, my theory is that this figure represents a bee goddess, which often appears in Neolithic art. As we are only now re-discovering, bees may be the force of nature that will determine if life on this planet as we know it continues.

As discussed in another blog, that series of paintings created between 2019-2021 explored the pre-historic alternatives to patriarchal religions.

Patriarchal religions are based on the idea that the human male is made in God’s image, human females can only access God through men and all other species are subordinate to humans. This is the root of the not only the problem of gender inequality and violence, but the disastrous impacts of violence against the planet.

Michelangelo’s gorgeous painting, shown below, is the powerful and iconic image of this system of belief.