Women’s bodies serving environmental/social (in)- justice

Abstract

The environment and injustice are part of the concerns that are located within the fields of Eco-feminism and Eco-criticism. These concerns are universal.  Sarah Ray Jaquette, a University of Oregon professor, in a seminal publication in 2009, came up with the concept of "The Ecological Other" by which she  sought to highlight issues of social injustice 'embedded' in U.S. environmental policy and practice against the "ecological others" whom she identified as,  Native Indians, People with Disabilities and Migrants. In this paper, we examine the works of two Nigerian female writers, both of them reputable and  versatile as feminists who are also environmentally conscious and concerned about issues of injustice against women in our societies. In other words,  they are eco-feminists. Eco-feminism describes a feminist approach to understanding ecology. Eco-feminists usually draw on the concept of gender to  theorise on the relationship between humans and the natural environment. This paper attempts to reflect both the natural environments and the  psychological domains under which injustice is meted out towards women and how these women respond to these situations in their lives. The women  as represented through the chosen texts are thus considered the environmental/psychological 'others' whose 'bodies' have become the objects of social  injustice in our own social domains of Nigeria. However, some of these women have been shown to have overcome victim-hood to become agents of  positive change; negotiating and promoting social justice".