Two suffragettes standing on a cart, bringing their message. England, location unknown, about 1900.

Content warning: This article contains mentions of diet and calorie control.

Seven Standen

Around the world, studies have found that women are more likely to practice vegetarianism or veganism than men. Today, the link between masculinity and meat eating is well-established. But vegetarianism isn’t just related to being feminine. It’s also feminist.

Pioneers of vegetarianism

Vegetarianism, as an ethical concept, emerged in Europe during the Renaissance. Frequently associated with other cultural reform movements, it began to grow in popularity during the 19th century, especially in the United Kingdom. The Vegetarian Society was established in 1847.

Women were prominent in the vegetarian movement, being much more inclined to do work in support of vegetarianism and animal welfare than men. Jane Hurlstone, a founding member of the RSPCA, and Elizabeth Horsell, who wrote one of the first vegan cookbooks, were early female figures in the movement.

“Vegetarian ecofeminism was already popular within first-wave feminist thought”

Many vegetarian women also identified as feminists.

Leading women’s suffrage campaigner Frances Power Cobbe believed that humans should treat animals sympathetically and founded a number of animal advocacy groups. American journalist Margaret Fuller wrote that once women were liberated, they would transform violent male society and vegetarianism would become the dominant diet. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, better known for writing the novella The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), also wrote Herland (1915), a utopian novel about an all-female vegetarian society.

Vegetarian ecofeminism was already established within first-wave feminist thought during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Vegetarian ecofeminism

Many feminists believe all types of oppression intersect. Therefore, the only way to achieve true liberation is to eradicate oppression in every form. Vegetarian ecofeminism is the belief that the domination of humans over all other animals is a form of oppression, which must be revoked alongside patriarchal oppression.

Unlike regular ecofeminism, the concept of speciesism — discrimination and exploitation on the basis of species — is central to this philosophy. Vegetarian ecofeminism suggests the oppression of women and animals is closely linked. It draws parallels between the hierarchy of men and women with that of man and animal, arguing the latter is often used to validate the former.

“Quite a number of the leaders in the Women’s Suffragist movement are vegetarians”

While some feminists protest the comparison between women and animals, others argue that women are objectified and exploited in the same way. One example is the concept of the male gaze, which argues women are viewed as a “piece of meat for consumption” by men.

Vegetarian ecofeminism opposes the consumption of meat or fish, a practice which endorses exploitation and systematic oppression on a patriarchal hierarchy.

Women’s suffrage

“Quite a number of the leaders in the Women’s Suffragist movement are vegetarians,” wrote The Vegetarian Society in 1907.

The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) often hosted Welcome Breakfasts at the Eustace Miles restaurant on Charing Cross Road in London. Many women arrested for suffrage campaigns had been on hunger strikes while imprisoned, and were sometimes granted their freedom because of health concerns. Following their release, the WSPU would celebrate their reduced sentences with vegetarian breakfasts.

When women first got the vote in 1918, the Women’s Freedom League held a pescatarian dinner to celebrate. For the previous year, the group had run their own vegetarian cafe in Holborn, London. It served as a meeting place for radicals of the time, including suffragettes and suffragists.

“Cooking beans, grains, and vegetables took less time than meat, liberating them from the kitchen”

Many of the women who campaigned for suffrage were vegetarians. Some were vegetarian ecofeminists. Others viewed vegetarianism as a uniquely feminine practice due to its subversion of a typically masculine diet. Many social activists, also including socialists and anti-vivisection campaigners, also believed that vegetarianism was symbolic of peace, removing violence from the diet.

But large numbers of feminists had become vegetarian for more practical reasons. Prior to revolutionary kitchen innovations, such as electric ovens and refrigerators, 1900s women commonly spent much of their days preparing and cooking meals. Cooking beans, grains, and vegetables took less time than meat, liberating them from the kitchen for long enough to develop their suffrage campaigns.

Second-wave vegetarian ecofeminism

During the war, food shortages meant that the majority of Britons had to reduce their meat consumption, and many temporarily adopted vegetarian diets.

Plenty of people were happy to return to eating meat, once it was readily available for consumption again. But in the 1960s, the latest wave of feminist theory continued to oppose meat-eating. Popular feminist theory at the time pronounced that gender inequality was the foundation of environmental destruction and subsequent violence against both women and the natural world.

Meeting places for activists like feminist bookstores and restaurants were widely expected to be vegetarian.

During this era, Carol Adams, Greta Gaard, Lori Gruen, and Marti Kheel were the most prominent vegetarian activists. Gaard extended ecofeminism to include queer theory and Kheel cofounded Feminists for Animal Rights. In the 1990s, Adams published the most authoritative work about vegetarianism and feminism: The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990).

Adams explains: “The patriarchal attitude, or the patriarchal ethics, of meat eating creates other beings as objects, not as subjects.” She believes progress has since stagnated, with farm-to-table brands and vegan activists alike now missing the point of vegetarian ecofeminism.

Is vegetarianism feminist or feminine?

Veganism is still a predominantly female movement. One US survey found only 24 per cent of vegans are men, while a UK study found women aged 18-34 were most likely to be vegan.

There are a variety of reasons cited for cutting animal products out of your diet, including personal health, climate change, and social-political beliefs. Despite this, women remain more likely to make the switch to vegetarianism or veganism.

But is avoiding meat still feminist or has it simply become feminine?

“The high influx of women avoiding meat could be linked to the contemporary pressure for women to diet”

The patriarchy has historically endorsed that meat is for men, not women. Toxic masculinity promotes the idea that men should be big, strong, and dominant — consumption of a lower-ranking being feeds into this mentality. Meat also helps build muscle through protein and is frequently eaten by men to body-build. Similarly, fad diets which promote heavy meat consumption, such as the paleo diet, are often anti-feminist.

On the other hand, women are usually encouraged to eat ‘lighter’ meals with fewer calories. Women are more likely to consume salad — the antithesis of meat — than men. Veganism is also a legitimised means of cutting calories from your diet, often resulting in weight loss. The high influx of women avoiding meat could be linked to the contemporary pressure for women to lose weight.

In the 21st century, not eating meat or animal products may not signify a rejection of masculinity or patriarchy. Instead, it may represent conformity to gender roles.

Vegetarian ecofeminism today

However, veganism is still associated with progressive social movements.

It makes sense that activists who oppose the exploitation of animals believe that the exploitation of any being is a fundamentally deplorable practice. Scholars, such as Angela Davis, draw attention to the parallels between the treatment of animals and the treatment of humans at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The reverse is also true: most people who have experienced exploitation see the harm in doing the same to animals.

Today, many feminists are still vegetarian or vegan due to the intersectional nature of oppression. Even feminists who don’t prioritise speciesism in their beliefs can acknowledge that meat farming is a form of exploitation.

Many women have set up groups, networks, and blogs that criticise the gendered nature of animal advocacy. They argue a majority of animal rights groups continue to reflect the patriarchal structures that characterise broader society. Others highlight the racism, classism, and ableism present in vegan activism, suggesting that the movement should work to be more inclusive.

Being vegan or vegetarian isn’t always a feminist decision. But every decision we make has political repercussions, and this is especially true of what we eat.

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Featured image courtesy of National Archief on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Seven (they/them) is a BA History and Sociology student at the University of Warwick. They are a freelance journalist, disability advocate, and lover of cats.

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