“Women of Broad Vision”: Nature and Gender in the Environmental Activism of Australia's ‘Women in Agriculture’ Movement

Abstract

The author examines the construction of nature and gendered subjectivities occurring in environmental activism. The paper follows recent thinking in rural geography in attending to the discourses and agency of activists. Such an approach enables a reading of Australian agricultural women's environmental activism. Initially it is shown how the ‘women in agriculture’ movement engages with the range of discourses that contextualise the agri-environmental arena. This is then followed by a critical reading of the gendered subjectivities the movement employed. No specific environmental issues galvanised the movement. Instead, it is argued, particular constructions of nature and women's place in rural space are assembled as activists canvassed their broad environmental concerns.