A member of the Degrowth group made a post asking if other women would be interested in this, as women (and I would also add nonbinary folk) have some concerns regarding the realities of climate change and adaptation and degrowth that are not necessarily shared by men.
A few thoughts I shared:
(In response to the OP):
Thank you for this post. I have often enjoyed and appreciated what you share in this group.
On a personal note: I dropped out of the middle class in the early 2000s to follow my calling as artist/activist. And I identify with the women in this thread who have said they have lots of skills but that those skills are not valued in the capitalist economy.
My departure from the “professional middle-class office job” path was a contributing factor in me drifting apart — both geographically and otherwise — from my family of origin for some years. I’m doing my best to plan for an old age which may not include the comforts of family.
It’s been an uncomfortable sensation having one foot in the “old economy” while living a Degrowth activist life to the best of my abilities. Because I chose this path, instead of choosing the more financially well to do “office professional with a retirement fund and health insurance” path that my siblings & I were raised to pursue, I feel an obligation to do everything I can to not be a financial burden on my siblings.
Also I have lifelong mental health issues which were at one time labeled by “authority figures” as being a problem child and being selfish. For most of my life I bought into this myself and just thought of myself as not a very good person. I have largely overcome a lot of the baggage about this, but it still is a factor in some of my interactions.
Financially … One struggle I’ve always had is that many of the things we can do to be frugal and make ends meet on a low income, are disparaged and even made illegal by “the authorities.”
It’s stressful to be trying to implement Degrowth and deep adaptation, but have to be worried that — for example — code enforcement is going to find our yards too messy and write us up and have the right to fine us.
(And of course there is the weight of the social disapproval that comes in addition to any official restrictions. Like, it’s even exhausting dealing with people’s condescending attitudes toward my choice of walking and bicycle and bus as transportation, instead of owning an automobile. I mix with a lot of people in higher economic brackets, as part of my activism, and this can definitely add just an extra layer of emotional wear and tear.) 
Or if we try to share our house with too many people, we could become a target of classist rules and regulations limiting the number of unrelated people who can live together.
I am concerned about housing; there is a homelessness crisis in our area as in many other places. And a lot of xenophobia, so most people aren’t exactly talking about how we’re going to need to open our hearts and our borders to people from deep crisis areas.
I don’t have kids, and only spent a very little time helping a parent who needed care, so I have it a lot easier than a lot of others who have spoken in this thread. Mainly I just have an activist’s sense of responsibility for the well-being of future generations, and also my own older generation.
And I simply love our world and universe, and feel a yearning and an obligation to make it a comfortable and loving place for everybody. All people, and all species.
On a societal/Degrowth/Deep Adaptation note:
Over the past few years, as I’ve been learning about, and attempting to practice, anti-racism and decolonization work, I’ve come to realize that decolonization and antiracism needs to be at the core of Degrowth & Deep Adaptation.
I went to see a film called Origin recently. It explained a lot about the relationship between racism, sexism, and other elements of what is basically a worldwide caste system.
(Following is from the Wikipedia entry for the film):
“Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Over the course of the film, Wilkerson travels throughout Germany, India, and the United States to research the caste systems in each country’s history.”
(The following is from the Amazon listing of the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents; by Dr. Isabel Wilkerson):
“The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions — now with a new Afterword by the author.”
To the men who are feeling defensive about this thread, I can somewhat relate to your feelings. It’s how I felt when I first started tuning in to Black and Indigenous spaces on social media. Where white people are invited to listen, but not to comment. Listening to peoples’ experiences, really taking it in without commenting — and just sitting with the discomfort if it comes up — was and continues to be a huge factor in my growth as an activist and a human.
(In response to one of the men who jumped into the discussion, citing an article that debunks Origin, a film I had recommended he check out, based on a comment he made):
In the article, he claims that Wilkerson likens caste to race. That is not the case. Rather, Dr. Wilkerson came, through her research, to see race as an aspect of a caste-like hierarchy (a hierarchy that she wasn’t suggesting is literally the same as India’s caste system).
Another misunderstanding by the article’s author is that race is binary.
“…no group in India, however low, lacks a group beneath them that lets them feel purer. This is very different from the exclusionary logic of race, which is binary (black versus white) and lacks any cosmological basis for one black person to feel racially superior to another black.”
In fact, there is discrimination among Black people. There is colorism, as well as class discrimination. It’s really a huge thing. All you have to do is listen to the experiences of Black women talking on social media, you will quickly see how colorism (lighter-skinned Black people being seen as higher in the hierarchy than darker-skinned Black people) affects every aspect of life for a Black person, including professional advancement, dating & marriage etc.
Among those of us in what we call the “Caucasian” category, we too always have someone we can look down on. In my dad’s hometown, the Slavic immigrants were looked down on even though we were just as pale As USA born people. Language made a kind of caste; if you couldn’t speak English, you were in a lower class. The Irish spoke English but they spoke it with an accent so they were higher in the hierarchy than the Slavs, but lower than the USA born English speakers. And then in the same town we had the Italian immigrants. They were not Black, and yet they were looked down on both because they spoke a different language and because they were darker skin and dark haired.
Examples of a caste like hierarchy can be seen in terms of profession, accent, body type – tall and thin is considered superior – and many other attributes.
Oh and then let’s get into the hierarchy wherein indigenous ways are viewed as “primitive.” Indigenous ways of building, indigenous ways of growing food, indigenous ways of governance.While industrial colonizer ways are trashing rainforests, waging trillion-dollar warfare, and leading to the extinction of ancient wisdom that may be the biosphere’s only hope.
Basically it all boils down to colonialism.
BTW [OP] I hope you are OK with me bringing this up here, it’s a bit off your thread topic which was to create a women-only discussion. I feel it’s important because it might help raise understanding among some of the men who have chosen to join this thread despite your clear wording of your post. But I will delete if necessary/preferable. And thank you again for starting this thread!
(In regard to hurtful styles of communication that tend to pop up in groups dominated by us Anglo-European people):
There are certain patterns of communication that I associate with patriarchy (not men per se, but PATRIARCHY) and with white-supremacy culture.
One of them is to respond with derision / invalidation to what someone says.
For example, one guy just typed OMG in response to this post. 
Another is to ask for documentation and examples in response to somebody speaking from the heart about what they are feeling or experiencing.
Although most groups have rules against bullying, it’s so woven into the dominant culture that it would be a full-time job trying to really eliminate bullying and invalidation from every comment. It’s like it’s so baked into us that we don’t even hear ourselves.

Hard to eliminate… But I am definitely working on it!
Another pattern is the compulsive need to debate. Not everything has to or should be about debating. It’s not about winning arguments; we are here to shape a culture that is just, equitable, and nurturing. The culture that is killing the biosphere is also killing our souls. We have the option to evolve, and I think it will be more by listening and empathizing rather than by debating and being in our heads.
