Women’s risk and well-being at the intersection of dowry, patriarchy, and conservation: The gendering of human–wildlife conflict

Abstract

Drawing on work in feminist political ecologies and employing a grounded theory approach, this article examines the socio-spatial links between the patriarchal tradition of dowry, tigers, and women’s well-being. It shows how a landscape governed for conservation purposes can produce embodied and material harm for women living under a patriarchal system. Focus groups conducted in eastern Rajasthan, India, reveal how human–tiger interaction, even if primarily potential rather than actual, initiates a chain of social impacts that presents severe risks to women’s well-being, mental health, and life itself. Analysis connecting the pressures of dowry (financial, physical, and psychological) to tiger presence helps expose the presumptions of unfairness, intra-household power dynamics, and hidden costs of human–wildlife cohabitation while supporting calls for the inclusion of women’s perspectives in environmental theory and management.