From One Woman to Another: Transforming Gender through Wilderness in Female Travel Narratives

Abstract

The Wilderness Act of 1964 defined wilderness through what is absent from its landscape: man. A space devoid of humans and thus, devoid of community, the wilderness initially emerges as a space without the social expectations accompanying community. A particular social expectation, however, remains: gender. The wilderness appears as a space that is not merely characterized as devoid of humans but more specifically, as one devoid of women. Considering these expectations of wilderness, this article poses the question: how does gender operate in this space? How does gender differ from its operations within society? When a woman travels into the wilderness, how does this influence her relationship to gender? Or quite simply: what does it mean to be the only woman in the wild? Conducting comparative readings of the travel memoirs Wild by Cheryl Strayed (2013) and Tracks by Robyn Davidson (2012), this article explores how the wilderness as a traditionally male space can become a space of resistance against societal gender roles for the female solo traveller through physical challenge and emotional healing. The investigation addresses how the authors succeeded in this resistance by engaging with the wilderness, along with the challenges presented to the female travellers by the barren landscapes. Finally, the article considers how Davidson and Strayed ultimately struggle to reconcile the new self formed in the wilderness with the old self of society once they complete their solo journeys.