Staying Alive Summary

Staying Alive by Vandana Shiva makes a person see the world in a different light. Shiva is one of the world's most prominent radical scientists and her work are focused on women nature relation.
In Staying Alive, the developmental science, the patriarchal system experienced all around the globe, women and her relation with nature are among the core aspects of the book. She examines the position of women in relation to nature and violation of nature with marginalization of women. The author has equated nature with the feminine principle; its degradation all these years in the name of development, colonization which ultimately lead to destruction, are the result of a long male or "patriarchal" culture. Development is called a product of western patriarchy which focuses on productivity and growth. In this process, Shiva says, women have been left out. She says that …show more content…
Relating to the history, she talks about a lot of cases where women has raised voice for the right access of natural resources; Chipko movement (Garhwal Himalaya), Reni- where women formed vigilance groups and prevented the cutting of trees, Adwani, Dungari, Badiyagarh, where women tied sacred threads to branches and also hugged trees to prevent them from axe-men.
Shiva believes that rural women have the best understanding about the basic principles of nurturing and managing land and forests. She is critical of afforestation, social forestry and wasteland development projects because she believes they lead to the imposition of foreign models and encourage privatization of common land. She questions the basis on which areas are declared wastelands and explains how wastelands can be put to productive use not only through elaborate projects also but by women using simple