Abstract

This study illustrates how, despite the diversity of women environmental defenders and their movements around the world, there are near-universal patterns of violence threatening their survival. Violence against women environmental defenders, often perpetrated by government-backed corporations, remains overlooked. Research on this issue importantly contributes to discussions about environmental justice because women defenders make up a large proportion of those at the front lines of ecological distribution conflicts. Through comparative political ecology, this research analyzes cases from the Environmental Justice Atlas, an online open-access inventory of environmental distribution conflicts, in which one or more women were assassinated while fighting a diverse array of extractive and polluting projects. Although the stories showcase a breadth of places, conflicts, social-class backgrounds, and other circumstances between women defenders, most cases featured multinational large-scale extractive companies supported by governments violently targeting women defenders with impunity.

Keywords: comparative political ecology, EJAtlas, women environmental defenders, murder, violence

How to Cite:

Tran, D., Martinez-Alier, J., Navas, G. & Mingorria, S., (2020) “Gendered geographies of violence: a multiple case study analysis of murdered women environmental defenders”, Journal of Political Ecology 27(1), 1189-1212. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23760