Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:34:58.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A New Discourse on the Kitchen: Feminism and Environmental Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2015

Holly A. Stovall ,
Lori Baker-Sperry  and
Judith M. Dallinger
Holly A. Stovall*
Affiliation:
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, USA
Lori Baker-Sperry
Affiliation:
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, USA
Judith M. Dallinger
Affiliation:
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Holly A. Stovall, Western Illinois University, 1 University Cir, Macomb, IL 61455, USA. Email: ha-stovall@wiu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Popularised feminist discourse has devalued daily cooking and implicitly defined it as work that reinforces women's second-class status. In an era of climate change linked to industrialised foods and disease epidemics caused by the modern Western diet, kitchen work has acquired political importance. Daily cooking must be understood as public, as well as private. Neither feminist theorists nor environmental educators have integrated cooking in the kitchen, specifically, into discourse. By examining two local foods activist groups, we measure one site where feminists value cooking, and we develop a feminist theory of gender-inclusivity. Based on our survey, feminists who cook with local foods are only beginning to ideologically integrate feminism and sustainable foods cooking; however, we argue that in practice, the connection is strong and that it is time to conceptualise a new discourse on the kitchen for a feminist-environmental theory of cooking.

Keywords

feminist theoryenvironmental educationcookinggender roleskitchensustainable foodsactivism
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 31 , Special Issue 1: Putting Food on the Table , July 2015 , pp. 110 - 131
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Astyk, S. (2008). Depletion and abundance: Life on the new home front. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Avakian, A.V. (1997). Through the kitchen window: Women explore the intimate meanings of food and cooking. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Barrett, M. J. (2005). Making (some) sense of feminist poststructuralism in environmental education research and practice. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 1, 79–93.Google Scholar
Barndt, D. (2008). Tangled routes: Women, work, and globalization on the tomato trail. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Beck, S., Bertholle, L., & Child, J. (1969) Mastering the art of French cookery. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bennets, L. (2008). The feminine mistake: Are we giving up too much? New York: Hyperion.Google Scholar
Berry, W. (1996). The unsettling of America: Culture and agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.Google Scholar
Bianchi, S.M., Robinson, J.P., & Milkie, M. (2006). Changing rhythms of American family life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Bitch Magazine. (2013). The food issue. Bitch Magazine, 61.Google Scholar
Brunsdon, C. (2005). Feminism postfeminism, Martha, Martha, and Nigella. Cinema Journal, 44, 110–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunch, C. (1979). Not by degrees: Feminist theory and education. Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, 5, 7–18.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009, June 7). Databases, tables & calculators by subject. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymostGoogle Scholar
Carroll, A. (2013). Three squares: The invention of the American meal. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clover, D.E. (2002). Traversing the gap: Conscientización, educative-activism in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 8, 315–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Counihan, C. (2004). Around the Tuscan table: Food, family, and gender in twentieth-century Florence. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, T. (2011). Memories of mothers in the kitchen: Local foods, history, and women's work. Radical History Review, (110), 167–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Chiro, G. (1987). Applying a feminist critique to environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 3, 10–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elias, J. (2011). Women's work in the global economy. In Lee, L. & Shaw, S. (Eds.), Women worldwide: Transnational feminist perspectives on women. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Ezzati, M., Friedman, A., Kulkarni, S., & Murray, C. (2008). The reversal of fortunes: Trends in county mortality and cross-county mortality disparities in the United States. PLoS Medicine, 5, e66. Retrieved from http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050066CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friedan, B. (1963). The feminine mystique. New York: Dell.Google Scholar
Friedan, B. (1977, January 5). Cooking with Betty Friedan . . . Yes, Betty Friedan. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/05/books/friedan-by-cooking.htmlGoogle Scholar
Fussell, B. (1999) My kitchen wars. New York: North Point Press.Google Scholar
Gough, A., & Whitehouse, H. (2003). The ‘nature’ of environmental education research from a feminist poststructuralist viewpoint. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 8, 31–43.Google Scholar
Grady, D. (2006, July 17). Link between diabetes and Alzheimer's deepens. New York Times.Google Scholar
Henderson, N. (2013). Butterfly woman: Healthy food is human right. Retrieved from http://www.dailykos.com.Google Scholar
Hirshman, L. (2007). Get to work and get a life . . . Before it's too late. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hochschild, A. (2001). The time bind; When work becomes home and home becomes work. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Henderson, M. (2007). Betty Friedan 1921–2006. Australian Feminist Studies. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08164640701361725.Google Scholar
Hoby, H. (2010). The feminine mystique by Betty Friedan. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/11/feminine-mystique-betty-friedan-feminism.Google Scholar
Hollows, J. (2007). The feminist and the cook: Julia Child, Betty Friedan and domestic femininity. In Casey, E., & Martens, L. (Eds), Gender and consumption: Domestic cultures and the commercialisation of everyday life (pp. 33–48). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Inness, S. (2001). Dinner roles: American women and culinary culture. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, N. (2005). Martha Ballard: A woman's place on the Eastern frontier. In Avakian, A.V. & Haber, B., (Eds.), (From Betty Crocker to feminist food studies: Critical perspectives on women and food (pp. 109–119). Boston: University Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Kalish, M. (2008). Little heathens: Hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Kingsolver, B. (2007). Animal, vegetable, miracle: A year of food life. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Kleinfield, N.R. (2006, January 9). Diabetes and its awful toll quietly emerge as a crisis. New York Times.Google Scholar
Komlos, J., & Lauderdale, B.E. (2007). Falling behind in an opulent economy: The remarkable stagnation of American heights 1955–2000. Social Science Quarterly, 88, 283–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köse, S., Gener, A.S., Gezer, K., Erol, G.H., & Bilen, K. (2010). Investigation of undergraduate students’ environmental attitudes. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education, 1, 86–96.Google Scholar
Lappe, A. (2010). Diet for a hot planet. The climate crisis at the end of your fork and what you can do about it. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Lee, J., & Shaw, S. (2011). Women worldwide: Transnational feminist perspectives on women. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Lekies, K.S., & Sheavly, M.E. (2007). Fostering children's interest in gardening. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 67–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libman, K. (2007). Growing youth growing food: How vegetable gardening influences young people's food consciousness and eating habits. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 87–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malone, K. (2006). Education researchers as environmental activists. Environmental Education Research, 12, 375–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monroe, M., Andrews, E., & Biedenweg, K. (2008). A framework for environmental education strategies. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6, 205–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKibben, B. (2007). Deep economy: The wealth of communities and the durable future. Oxford: Henry Holt & Co.Google Scholar
Nestle, M. (2007). Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition, and health. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, J. (2013). Taste of home. She Writes Press.Google Scholar
Planck, N. (2006). Real food: What to eat and why. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Pollan, M. (2006). The omnivore's dilemma. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Reichl, R. (2010). Tender to the bone. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Ronald, P., & Adamchak, R.W. (2010). Tomorrow's table: Organic farming, genetics, and the future of food. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sachs, C. (1996). Gendered fields: Rural women, agriculture, and environment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sadler, T., McIlvaine-Newsad, H., & Knox, B. (2013). Local food networks and activism in the heartland. Champaign, IL: Common Ground.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauvè, L. (2005). Currents in environmental education: Mapping a complex and evolving pedagogical field. Canadian Journal of Environmental Studies, 10, 11–37.Google Scholar
Schenone, L. (2003). A thousand years over a hot stove. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Shapiro, L. (1986). Perfection salad: Women and cooking at the turn of the century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shiva, V. (1989). Staying alive: Women, ecology, and development. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Shiva, V. (2008). Soil, not oil. Cambridge: South End Press.Google Scholar
Slocum, R. (2011) Race in the study of food. Progress in Human Geography, 35, 303–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabo, M. (2013). Foodwork or foodplay? Men's domestic cooking, privilege and leisure. Sociology, 47, 623–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supski, S. (2007). It was another skin: The kitchen in 1950s Western Australia. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.Google Scholar
Tarkan, L. (2008, October 27). A rise in kidney stones is seen in U.S. children. New York Times.Google Scholar
Wallop, H. (2009, August 17). Men spending more time in the kitchen. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/6030731/Men-spending-more-time-in-the-kitchen.htmlGoogle Scholar
Walter, P. (2012, August 24). Theorising community gardens as pedagogical sites in the food movement. Environmental Education Research. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504622.2012.709824Google Scholar
Waters, A. (2008). Edible schoolyard. Retrieved from http://edibleschoolyard.org/users/alice-watersGoogle Scholar
Wilson, B. (2013). Consider the fork: A history of how we cook and eat. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wollstonecraft, M. (2004). A vindication of the rights of woman. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Woodruff, S., & Kirby, A. (2013). The associations among family meal frequency, food preparation frequency, self-efficacy for cooking, and food preparation techniques in children and adolescents. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 45, 296–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed