1 Million Voices

Women in Ecology

Celebrating women’s ecological wisdom

Women across the world hold generational knowledge about growing, healing, conserving, and caring for land and community. Their practical, experience-based wisdom supports everyday survival and long-term stewardship. Yet it is rarely documented, recognised, or invited into decision-making spaces.

1 Million Voices of Women in Ecology is a participatory repository celebrating this everyday ecological wisdom, making it visible so it can guide how we learn, act, and imagine better futures.

This initiative has been co-created with Improving Lives Foundation.

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Stories we are looking for

  • Intergenerational wisdom

    Wisdom that travels across time: a grandmother’s hacks, a mother’s memory of the fields, or a young girl’s inventive way of saving water.

  • Local adaptations and innovations

    Everyday experiments that show how women reimagine farming, resource use, and care for the land in changing climates.

  • Artistic expressions

    Songs, rituals, crafts, and dances that hold ecological knowledge in their rhythm and form.

  • Human and more-than-human well-being

    Stories that remind us of our kinship with the world — people, animals, plants, rivers, and winds alike.

  • Women leaders

    Voices of those who guide communities toward balance, nurture resilience, and model care as a way of leading.

Hear some of the voices of women in ecology

Urmila Raturi, a retired Hindi teacher, shares about how a punishment taught her to relook at her relationship with ecology.

Remya Sasindran shares her reflections on what a pet dog teaches about space, boundaries, and the power of giving as much as you take.

Hear more stories

Experience these stories as creative learning activities

Using wisdom-based methodology, we have designed life lessons drawn from women's ecological wisdom into interactive modules for teaching and training purposes.

Each module transforms the lived experiences of women into meaningful and engaging learning experiences. Using play, arts, and creative writing, we turn intangible ecological wisdom into tangible skills that extend well beyond the classroom.

While the stories are rooted in ecology, the lessons are transferable to every area of life — how to observe, how to adapt, how to care, and how to belong to something larger than yourself. Whether you are a teacher, a facilitator, or a practitioner working with young people, these modules are designed to spark curiosity, build empathy, and open up new ways of seeing the world.

Download the modules

Featuring voices of…

A techie in Bengaluru. A farmer in the Terai. A homemaker in Rajasthan. A weaver in Madurai. A vendor in Meghalaya. An educator in Ladakh. Each carries ecological wisdom shaped by daily contact with soil, water, plants, and weather.

They notice shifting seasons, rising heat, polluted air, sudden floods, and uncertain rains. They share seeds, tend saplings, teach children to care for plants, and hold everyday knowledge of living gently with the earth.

From trekking guides and potters to the neighbourhood “plant lady,” our wisdom keepers come from every walk of life, reminding us how to listen to the land and nurture what sustains us.

At the centre of our planet’s future stand its women.

Let’s learn from their wisdom.

Be a part of this growing initiative~

Together, let’s create an open ecological commons that supports communities and the planet.

  • If you or your organization works with women or ecology, let’s connect and bring their wisdom forward. Share your details to begin the conversation.

  • If you identify as a woman and have a story about how you connect with the natural world, through your work or in everyday moments with food, plants, water, or changing weather, we’d love to hear from you. Schedule a 30-minute call with us here.

  • If you would like to help build the repository and collect the stories from your community or of women around you, join us as a Wisdom Catalyst. Sign up here to know more.