The Interconnection between Ecofeminist Theory and Gaian Hypothesis: Women Saving the Earth

The Nobel prize winner (2007), Doris May Lessing (1919-2013) shows special attention to the injustice that is inflicted by men upon both women and nature. Women have always been linked to nature and men to civilization due to gendered divisions attributing to females the roles of nurturers and caretakers while classifying men as those who stand for reason. Throughout her novels, Lessing associates ecological concerns with feminist issues by referring to major global environmental calamities and their impact on her female protagonists. Her dystopian worlds shed light on the destruction of nature, and consequently, women at the hands of men. This article focuses on three novels by Lessing namely, The Golden Notebook (1962), The Four-Gated City (1969) and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) that are to be tackled within the theoretical frame of ecofeminism and Gaia hypothesis. The methodology used in this paper is based on ecofeminist and Gaian approaches that perceive earth as a community of beings, in which all living organisms are equal. This article detects ecofeminist tendencies in Lessing’s selected novels that are associated with Gaia hypothesis, which suggests a new way to look at life on earth and a subversion of patriarchy. This research will rely on primary sources such as Lessing’s selected novels, interviews, and related writings. Major books on ecofeminism by Françoise D’Euabonne (1974), Greta Gaard (2017), Carolyn Merchant (1980, 1995), Maria Mies (2014), Ariel Salleh (1997), and Rosemary Radford Ruether (1994) among others, and on Gaia by James Lovelock (2000). It also relies on articles published in databases and academic journals based on the primary sources.