What Counted as Environmentalism? Gender, Power, and Conservation in the United States
Location
Ponderosa Room B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Presentation Topic
history, gender studies, sustainability
Start Date
6-3-2026 10:10 AM
Event Sort Order
6
Abstract
This presentation argues that early American environmentalism (c. 1890–1950) was built upon a masculinized framework of conservation and preservation that systematically erased women’s environmental labor. While male reformers such as John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Theodore Roosevelt defined environmentalism through wilderness protection, scientific management, and state authority, women’s ecological work—embedded in households, food systems, sanitation, and community care—was rendered apolitical and invisible. Using an ecofeminist lens, this study demonstrates that the exclusion of women’s labor was not incidental but foundational to the movement’s authority. Reframing environmental history in this way reveals how gendered power shaped what counted as legitimate environmental action.
What Counted as Environmentalism? Gender, Power, and Conservation in the United States
Ponderosa Room B
This presentation argues that early American environmentalism (c. 1890–1950) was built upon a masculinized framework of conservation and preservation that systematically erased women’s environmental labor. While male reformers such as John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Theodore Roosevelt defined environmentalism through wilderness protection, scientific management, and state authority, women’s ecological work—embedded in households, food systems, sanitation, and community care—was rendered apolitical and invisible. Using an ecofeminist lens, this study demonstrates that the exclusion of women’s labor was not incidental but foundational to the movement’s authority. Reframing environmental history in this way reveals how gendered power shaped what counted as legitimate environmental action.
Presenter Bio
Presenter: Aidan Ross (she/her). I am a senior at the University of Central Oklahoma majoring History and Minoring in Women's/Gender/Sexuality Studies, and Sustainability.