The rise in energy prices and the rise of the trad wife seem to be unrelated – but what if that isn’t the case? There is a deep connection.
As a young woman, I’ve been very concerned to see the return of the tradwife and daily headlines about threats to women’s bodily autonomy. But though I’m concerned, I’m not exactly surprised. I’m also an environmentalist. In Trump’s first year back in office, his administration initiated nearly 70 actions to undo rules protecting ecosystems and the climate. He also created a barrier for tens of thousands of married women to vote, and criminalised reproductive healthcare. These actions have each been thoroughly covered in our news, conversations, and media. But though they are often treated as separate issues, they work in tandem and should be looked at together as part of the same system. Each is a result of the same male power grab and a concerted effort to condense power in the hands of a few.
Trump was elected largely for his strongman persona and promise to reinstate heteromasculine roles across the country. But rather than uplifting men by enacting policies to support their wellbeing, like addressing the male mental health crisis, the Trump administration has drawn on deep-rooted racist, misogynistic, and colonial ideology to actively disempower and belittle all those seen as “lesser” than men, including women and the Earth itself.
Origins of a patriarchy secured by the subjugation of women and the Earth
The Trump administration’s strategy is nothing new; the marginalisation of women has long been exploited as a means to secure greater male power. This strategy dates as far back as Biblical stories. There are two contradictory tellings of Genesis 1; in the first version, there is a simultaneous divine creation of woman, man, and the Earth. Feminists like Riane Eisler attribute this to earlier versions of the Bible written in a time of a partnership society. As the patriarchal society came under attack and men sought out a higher status, Genesis 1 was revised to reinforce a male-dominant society. In this second version, Eve is created out of Adam’s rib to serve men. To secure Eve’s subordinance to man, she is soon tricked by the serpent, who was originally associated with female strength, into disobeying God and eating from the tree of life, which was also once associated with female wisdom. In this version, women’s connection to animals and the Earth is depicted as a weakness, and women, animals, and even plants are blamed for humans’ fall from grace. Over the millennia, as male leaders came to rule with force, women and nature were stripped of their rights, only to be valued for the ways they served male power.
Women’s belittlement as a tool
The Women’s Suffrage Movement, Second and Third Wave Feminism, and the #MeToo Movement all made significant strides toward gender equality. Nevertheless, gender stereotypes date back thousands of years and continue to be thoroughly ingrained throughout our society. Women’s work is undervalued, earning 85 cents for every dollar men earn in the same jobs. Women are routinely viewed as emotional, dramatic, and hysterical, deeming their experiences trivial if not simply overlooked. Women are less likely than men to be prescribed pain-relief medications for the same complaints, and women who report sexual assault are increasingly doubted, allowing 98% of perpetrators to walk free. Women are not even trusted to make fundamental decisions about their own bodies; 1 in 3 women in the US now live in states that restrict abortion. Furthermore, we still routinely see whatever a woman wears, enjoys, fears, or is passionate about being ridiculed, invalidated, and turned into a joke.
If women are seen as lesser, anything “feminine” will be likewise undervalued. What better way then to encourage the public to disregard environmental degradation than to equate environmental protection with women, or, in other words, to “feminise” environmentalism? The feminisation of the environment is deeply ingrained in our society, and it has been reinforced time and time again in our modern world by men in power.
Big Oil’s role in associating environmentalism with women
Big Oil has been a significant player in bringing the linked oppression of women and the environment into the twenty-first century. Once the fossil fuel industry could no longer deny climate change, their next best option was to minimise the harm of climate action to their companies. From 2004 to 2006, Big Oil funded a $100m-plus a year marketing campaign to equate climate action to domestic feminine action. The campaign introduced the concept of a “carbon footprint.” The idea was to shift the focus from big business to the realm of the individual and, specifically, the domestic, the feminine. The campaign focused on actions to reduce one’s carbon footprint, such as turning off the lights, recycling, hang-drying clothes, and sustainable cooking, all of which traditionally fall on the female caretaker. When Big Oil strategically frames climate action as a domestic, and therefore a “women’s issue,” climate change as a whole becomes subjugated to the marginalised status of women in our society.
The “carbon footprint” not only belittles climate action in theory, but also literally reduces the scope of the actions themselves. Over 70 percent of global emissions have come from just 78 companies, yet rather than pushing Big Oil to change its practices and coming together in collaboration to advocate for the systemic changes required to address the issue on scale, people are encouraged to focus on comparatively insignificant individual actions. In short, Big Oil strategically launched a successful campaign to place the weight of and responsibility for the crisis on individual women, allowing their companies to continue to emit greenhouse gases with minimal pushback. Big Oil has fundamentally changed the public’s perception of and execution of climate action.
Today, well-meaning media, schools, and even feminist environmental activists have largely adopted Big Oil’s framework and also tend to promote individual domestic action.
The Trump Administration’s simultaneous attack of women and the environment
The Trump Administration has drawn on Big Oil’s attack on women and the environment to further its agenda to reinstate white male power. As Trump romanticises a “great” conservative past, his administration has both glorified women’s role as primary caretaker confined to the kitchen in impractical dresses without reproductive agency and utilised heteromasculine “family-first” and “America-first” rhetoric to justify its revival of America’s oil and gas industry, and large parts of the culture have followed his lead.
Social media idealises organic from-scratch cooking and baking as a woman’s way of engaging in the world. Galas presents women in conservative yet perfectly shaped restrictive clothing that valorises the classically feminine body. Pop culture reinstates young women’s goals of finding a man to serve as a stay-at-home girlfriend and wife rather than following a path of engagement outside the home. Meanwhile, men are driven to assume heteromasculine roles, further repress their feelings, including their care for the natural world, and take on the role of fiscally providing for their families by any means necessary.
The use of male power to glorify fossil fuels
As the Trump administration reinstates the patriarchy, female power is confined to the nuclear home, while male power is confined to violent sources; harmful non-renewable fossil fuels are depicted as an essential source of male power. Oil and gas are equated with masculine cars, machinery, and energy to power the nation. In 2018, as a response to the Trump administration spreading this rhetoric, Cara Daggett coined the term “petro-masculinity” to bring attention to the toxic masculinity attached to the fossil fuel industry. American oil and gas projects are marketed as fueling the nation’s power, while the manufacturing jobs they create are marketed as allowing men to return to their role as primary breadwinners and women to return to their role as domestic caretakers.
Fossil fuels as “white-wealthy-male” first, not “America-first”
The perception of fossil fuels, like masculinity, as a sign of power is so ingrained in our culture that we may first think this is a fact. On Trump’s first day back in office, he declared a National Energy Emergency, attacking the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act under claims of falling behind other nations. The US, however, is not losing the energy race; we’re losing the clean energy race. Renewable energy is not only a solution for climate change but a common sense economic investment and political tool. Other countries are seeing their investments in clean energy pay off; in China, wind and solar are now more profitable forms of energy than fossil fuels. Building a sustainable green economy is critical to America’s success. Similarly, empowering women, feeding children, and providing citizens with accessible healthcare are necessary for a country’s success, but have been defunded. “America-first” can be read as “white-wealthy-heterosexual-American-men-first.”
As oil executives accumulate wealth, they are able to use it to further their agenda. According to The Guardian, Big Oil spent $445m in the last election cycle to influence Trump and Congress. This partnership has paid off for both sides. Trump not only won the election, but also advanced policies that support his own and Big Oil’s accumulation of wealth. Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6.5 billion, over $2 billion greater than when he first ran for office. Meanwhile, in 2025, the fossil fuel industry received an estimated $35 billion in annual US subsidies, more than double the amount it received in 2017. Patriarchal gender norms have helped create a larger culture that supports white males’ accumulation of wealth at the expense of the environment and marginalised communities.
The same people hurt by the patriarchy are hurt by fossil fuels
Increased use of fossil fuels and attacks on clean energy and climate solutions disproportionately impact women. United Nations data shows that, across the globe, women make up 80% of all people displaced by climate change because women are more dependent on natural resources, are responsible for getting food and water, and experience higher poverty rates. The crisis does not only disproportionately affect women; all marginalised communities, including people of color, LGBTQ+ communities, people in poverty, immigrants, and people from the Global South, stand on the frontlines.
That said, climate change is increasingly affecting everyone, even the most privileged. It is projected that by 2050, one-third of the planet will face water stress, 95% of the Earth’s Soil is on course to be degraded, and there will be 1.2 billion climate refugees. The environment, like women’s rights, is incredibly important for all of society.
Coming into female power is a climate solution
This is the time for all people, and especially those on the frontlines, and especially women, to be empowered to take the lead in a fight for systemic climate action. Now is not the time for women to return to the role of traditional housewife. Ecofeminist thought explores not only ways in which the marginalisation of women and Earth have largely aligned, but also the energetic life-giving power held by both women and Mother Earth.
Women in our society do assume a caretaker rolenot only for their communities but also for the Earth. This caretaker role, however, can extend far beyond the nuclear family home. When women are disempowered and confined, the collapse of community and environmental wellbeing doesn’t fall far behind.
Women’s liberation and empowerment are listed by Project Drawdown and cited by Brookings as one of the leading solutions to climate change. Girls’ education and family planning have the potential to avoid nearly 85 gigatons of carbon emissions by 2050. Studies have also found that women are highly skilled in resource management, and female representation results in lower carbon emissions. Investment in women’s education and rights is also extremely economically viable; the UN reports that every dollar invested in girls’ education yields an average return of $2.80. Women’s liberation is a key pillar for democratic resilience and social stability.
Only when we see past the deceptive framework that Big Oil and misogynistic leaders have continuously set to distract us from what really matters will we be able to move forward as a collective society. In a moment of multiple crises, the subjugation of women and all marginalised peoples, the ever-more-pressing climate crisis, the consolidation of corporate wealth and power, and an increasingly fascist state, understanding how social justice issues intersect is more important than ever. When we work towards climate justice, we are addressing fascism, misogyny, and gender discrimination. And when we work towards democracy, equality, and women’s rights, we are addressing climate injustice. We have the ability to create a culture that truly reflects reality and the majority of people’s needs.
