Silverbacks, black mambas and deadly women: Gender identity and transformation in South African and Australian biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity conservation in the Global South has traditionally been viewed as a ‘silverback’ or ‘alpha-male’ dominated, settler-colonial activity – but this is changing.

A global movement aims to diversify, decolonize and transform conservation, with gender diversity and inclusivity seen as central to more holistic and just visions of life on Earth.

Gender mainstreaming programs have brought more women into conservation, evident in all-women anti-poaching units in South Africa (‘black mambas’) and Indigenous women ranger groups in Australia (‘deadly women’).

Yet there has been little empirical research on the lived experiences of conservationists involved in these shifts, and the interplay between changing gender roles and conservation practices.

This project will adopt a novel and interdisciplinary combination of interpretive methods to explore changing gender identities and their intersections with race, class and political identities in South African and Australian conservation.

We will use critical discourse analysis to trace the production of gendered conservation identities in the media, and participatory photography (‘photovoice’) to explore how individuals accept, contest or transform these identities in their daily practices.

We will also produce a global conceptual synthesis that will extend research on gender and conservation, and nurture reflexivity in conservation practice as a step towards transformation and more effective management of biodiversity.