Women dominate grassroots environmentalism because they have readier access to legitimate civic language

Evidence

The standard explanation is that women care more about their children and communities, and experience the effects of environmental degradation more directly — when their children get sick, for example. But I offer a different explanation for women’s predominance: women have easier access to the Mom discourse, a more legitimate-sounding language for citizen involvement than the Expert discourse. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1449

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Bourdieu-inspired analysis of who is authorized to speak; resonates with Eliasoph’s earlier chapters on how civic talk is channeled into acceptable registers. — connects to: Grassroots environmentalism grew through local groups led by women and minorities — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 549
• DEFINE: Introduces ‘Mom discourse’ vs ‘Expert discourse’ as competing authorized civic languages.