ABSTRACT
Environmental justice (EJ) movements are distinct from mainstream environmental movements in their attention to social justice. Instead of focusing on the preservation of nature in itself, EJ movements seek social justice for people who live, work, play, and learn in the most polluted environments in the world (Cole and Foster 2001). Numerous scholars have found that while women as a whole have lower rates of participation than men in the mainstream environmental movement (Brown and Ferguson 1995; Mohai 1992), women “are heavily represented in both the leadership and the membership” of environmental justice organizations (EJOs), representing up to 70 percent of the activists in local and state organizations (Brown and Ferguson 1995, 148–50; Kaplan 1997; Naples 1998). Little research, however, has focused on why such sex segregation exists within these movements.
