So Long the Journey: A Study of Women in the American West
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v4i8.792Keywords:
Pioneer Women, Western, Settlers, Diggings, Settlers.Abstract
Prior to the last few decades of the twentieth century, the story of Westward expansion in the United States had centered on the heroic endeavors of men. Women's activities were viewed as peripheral, and scholars largely ignored their contributions in rearing families, and establishing communities and businesses in rural outposts.
This paper will examine a selection of the most influential literature on the subject in order to frame the topic within the larger study of that of the American West. It will argue that despite the assumption of non-traditional roles assumed by women while in the West, they generally always sought to uphold accepted contemporary notions of virtuous womanhood and femininity. These women should not be seen as the pre-cursors to an early feminist movement, but as mothers, wives, and daughters working to adapt to the harsh environment in which they found themselves.
References
Albers, P. and Medicine, B. (1983). The Hidden Half. Lantham, MD: University of America Press.
Armitage, S. H. and Jameson, E., eds. (1987). The Women’s West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Billington, M. L. and Hardaway, R.D., eds. (1998). African Americans on the Western Frontier. Boulder, CO:
University of Colorado Press.
Bouvier, V.M. (2001). Women and the Conquest of California, 1542-1840: Codes of Silence. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Butler, A. M. (2001). Still in Chains: Black Women in Western Prisons, 1865-1910. In M. Billings & R. Hardaway (Eds.), African Americans on the Western Frontier (pp.181-197). Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press.
Butler, A. M. & Siporin, O. (1996). Uncommon Common Women: Ordinary Lives of the West. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
Faragher, J. M. (2000). Women & Men on the Overland Trail. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Holmes, K. L. (1983). Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1890. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Jameson, E. & Armitage, S. (1997). Writing the Rang: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women’s West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Levy, J. (1990). They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush. Norman, OK: Archon Books.
McLeary, A. (1998). Catherine: On Catherine Currie’s Diary, 1873-1908. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne Press.
Moynihan, R. B., Armitage, S. & C. Fischer Dichamp, Eds. (1990). So Much to be done: Women Settlers on the Mining and Ranching Frontier. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Peavy, L. & Smith, U. (1999). Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Riley, G. (1998). American Daughters: Black Women in the West. In M. Billings and R. Hardaway (Eds.), African Americans on the Western Frontier. (pp.160-180). Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press.
Riley, G. (1988). The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.
Schlissel, L. (1982). Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey. New York: Schocken Books.
Smart, E. T. (1997). Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions. Logon, UT: Utah State University Press.
Taylor, Q. & Moore, A.W. Eds. (2003). African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).