Ecofeminist Visions: Exploring the Exploitation of Women and Nature in Cook's The New Wilderness and Sterling's Camp Zero

Abstract

Ecofeminism is a holistic approach that incorporates the issues of gender inequality and ecological crisis. Ecofeminist theorists have particularly focused on the alarming rate of environmental degradation and female subjugation which are having shared roots in patriarchal domination. The present study investigates the intersection of ecological crisis and subjugation of women through a focused ecofeminist conceptual framework of Mies and Shiva (2014). Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness (2020) and Michelle Min Sterling’s Camp Zero (2023) are selected texts for exploring the women’s role in the preservation of biodiversity. Both novels are set in climate- ravaged and post- apocalyptic dystopian worlds where female characters confront environmental crisis and patriarchal oppression at the same time. By using qualitative descriptive methodology the current study explores the oppressive strategies of capitalist patriarchy. The main purpose behind this research was to navigate the links between gender, capitalism and ecological destruction in the selected contemporary dystopian fiction. The findings show that through the character of female protagonists like Bea, Agnes and Rose, the writers of selected works  have highlighted the ways of male oppression against women and nature. The findings also reveals how both writers have exposed the hidden agendas of capitalist patriarchy by subjugating female bodies and exploiting natural resources. Thus, the present research highlights the pressing need to challenge gender inequality and climate crisis in real life in order to secure a just and sustainable future for all beings.