How Does Feminist Thinking in ‘Gender and Development’ Affect Change in the Anthropocene? Insights from Vietnam

Feminist theory has long been concerned with the anthropogenic impact of human development on the environment. This essay draws on gender research in northern Vietnam with Thai ethnic minority coffee farmers. I reflect on the use of gender transformative approaches (GTAs) and feminist participatory action research (FPAR) as tools that centre gender and women’s experiences in rural development, both theoretically and practically; tools that place women’s relationships at the heart of how development in this age of the Anthropocene can be practised. GTAs can be considered a feminist response to the techno-normative approaches to development at a time of polycrisis where conflict, extreme weather, and pandemic events are exacerbating poverty and inequality. I offer empirical evidence for how GTAs in rural development actively examine, question, and seek to change unequal gender norms as a means of achieving sectoral (productivity, food security, market access) and gender equality outcomes. I also introduce and reflect on using an FPAR conceptual framework for its attempt to blend feminist theories and research with participatory action research. I propose that these two feminist approaches—GTAs and FPAR—contribute to an ‘Anthropocene Feminism’ to highlight the alternatives a feminist lens can offer us for thinking relationally about achieving progress in gender equality specific to this age of the Anthropocene.