Health and Justice for the Environment and Our Communities
WVE was founded in 1995 to fill a much needed role and bring different voices to the environmental health movement. We recognized a failure to address the health impacts of gender oppression, and a structure that did not fully recognize the systemic connections between health, class, race, ability when it comes to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the conditions of our homes, our workplaces and our communities. Studies on toxic exposure and health were almost entirely limited to white men - ignoring the disproportionate and unique impact that exposure has not only on women and girls’ health and fertility, but also on people of color, workers, and the LGBTQ community.
