In this dissertation, I explore the construction and negotiation of identity of women actors involved in environmental justice action from two separate Rocky Mountain West locales; the first a small community near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the second, three contiguous and primarily Latino neighborhoods outside of Denver, Colorado. Using the oral histories of women (n=10) involved in these projects, and a framework of hegemonic femininity and intersectionality, I demonstrate how gender interlocks with other identities (such as femininity, citizenship subjectivities, and place) to frame environmental realities, experiences of injustice, and claims for recognition and remediation (Whyte, 2014). This work is centered on three primary research aims. First, to examine how hegemonic conceptions of femininity and masculinity (Connell 1987; Collins, 2004; Schippers, 2007) operate within communities of residence. Second, to explore how these hegemonic constructions shape women's engagement and resistance strategies as it relates to their environmental justice work. Last, to investigate to what degree the congruence or contestation of these hegemonic femininities and masculinities by actors determines the distribution of environmental, social, political, and economic resources (power). Very simply, hegemonic cultural characteristics are normative values that are used to legitimate power over others, to maintain institutions, and construct hierarchies that determine exclusion and inclusion of socio-material benefits (Connell, 1987). By locating this work within an examination of environmental justice activism, I contribute to the literature that problematizes the feminization of this movement, and suggest new ways to look at the frequent association between women actors and environmental justice issues. Further, I explore hegemonic femininity outside of normalized Western, white middle-class culture in my work with Latina community activists in Colorado. Empirical investigations of hegemonic femininity must include examinations that illuminate the intersections of race, class, and gender hegemonies. Which social practices empower or disempower actors in raced and classed femininities/masculinities may differ greatly from the 'white middle class' experience (Collins and Bilge, 2016; Yuval Davis, 1994).My findings suggest that motivations to advocacy do not neatly fit previously observed affiliations with activist mother identities and environmental justice engagement (Bell and Braun 2010; Kurtz, 2007), and support the work of Hercus (1999) and Carli (1999) by illustrating that women who display assertiveness, or fail to use referent forms of power, are sanctioned. The women within this study described experiences of discrimination or rebuke in relationship to their community advocacy from family members, extended community networks, and/or in public political spaces. Moreover, for the Latina women in Colorado, failing to meet local or cultural expectations of hegemonic femininity, within the community and against the universal yardstick (Collins, 2004), had a direct impact on this group's ability to access networks of resources. I argue that contextualized investigations of hegemonic femininities are needed to allow us to examine the persistence of local level gender inequalities, how these identities create or diminish space for women's engagement, and how these varying forms of engagement support or disrupt hegemonic masculinity.
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