The Pioneer Woman

In the frontier, the pioneer woman saw a chance to raise a family in God's country. Leaving civilization and family for the desolate wilderness, pioneer women took heart in their (usually Protestant) faith, and the sense of freedom, destiny, and opportunity that the plains promised.

As per the tradition of the nineteenth century and before, women were first expected to manage the home, be it the raising of children, managing illness, cooking, cleaning, laundering, and sewing, which women accomplished with a not inconsiderable amount of skill and knowledge, from complicated herbal teas to combat fevers, to sheep-shearing and dyeing of their own wools and making of their own soap. However, many women, due to the very existence of frontier families on the knife-edge of survival and starvation, were thrust into traditionally male roles, from helping on the farm to hunting.

In a largeer community sense, women...