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Gender and the Environment Library Display

Digital slideshow depicting a shelf of items that come from exploitive industries, an empty shelf, and photos of female leaders in labor rights movements. See the heading Description for a full description.

Creator

Madison Owens

Object

Slideshow depicting a shelf of items that come from exploitive industries, an empty shelf, and photos of female leaders in labor rights movements.

Description

For my Social Justice Art piece, I’d like to reveal the gender inequity and invisible exploitive labor behind common products found on the average United States household shelf. Women, the economy, and the environment are connected under a theory called Feminist Political Ecology, described by scholars Wangari, Nirmal, and Rocheleau. Feminist Political Ecology touches on how gender, race, and class are influenced by our political institutions and the market system. This theory is what led to my project titled, “What’s on Your Shelf?”. On this shelf, include products that cover issues of women’s labor, environmental degradation, and labor movements. The first slide is a representation of an ordinary shelf, an empty shelf to represent invisible labor, photos of female labor rights leaders, an empty shelf again, a colorful shelf bringing the movements back to life, and finally back to the normal shelf we see in our kitchen. I want these photos to represent stories that we all may have on our shelves. This piece visualizes invisible labor, and powerful labor rights figures who will not be forgotten.

Photo Credits:
Fender, Diane, et al. “Women's Rights in the Textile Industry.” Girls' Globe, 19 June 2014.

Rodriguez, Adrianna, and Lorenzo Reyes. “Nurses Read Names of Colleagues Who Died of COVID-19 in Protest Outside White House.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 21 Apr. 2020.

Watt, Lori, and Robyn Pelletier. “Women in Labor History.” Zinn Education Project.

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