Westering Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800-1915

Histories of the American Frontier Series

by Sandra L. Myres

Professor Myres gives frontier women a voice they never had. She uses extensive source material by and about women--letters, journals, and reminiscences from over 400 collections--to study the impact of the frontier on women's lives and the role of women in the West. She offers a major reinterpretation of the experience of pioneer women, including that of Indian, Mexican, French, black, and Anglo-American women. The account recreates in detail the frontier experience of all these women, beginning with their physical and intellectual responses to the trek West, and concluding with their struggle for political suffrage and economic opportunity. Women moved from civilization to the frontier encumbered by more than baggage. They also had to overcome literary and social stereotypes. We learn their views on wilderness, Indians, race, and religion as well as how they reacted to the daily challenges of keeping house, raising a family, and gaining a measure of equality.
"A strikingly original, highly readable, and informative history that will be used by scholars and lay readers alike."--Howard Lamar, from the Foreword

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Womens, Westerns, Womens Studies

387 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the lives of women on the western frontier, from those who were drug along rather reluctantly by their husbands or fathers to those who became great businesswomen, landowners, politicians, authors, poets, doctors, etc. The West seemed to be a rather liberating force for these women as they were freed from the traditions of the past and expectations of “society” and had to learn how to improvise how to live the life they were used to without any of the items and/or equipment they needed. In point of fact, many of the men who choose a life of pioneering in the West didn’t know the first thing about farming, ranching, hunting, fishing, or just general frontier living. Surprisingly, some of these Western States and Territories were downright refreshingly progressive considering their modern incarnations. Wyoming was the first State to grant Women’s Suffrage more than 50 years before it became Federal Law.

Something that I found incredibly oddly amusing was that camping, of all things, was a popular form of recreation and entertainment for those who lived on the frontier. People who were essentially camping in their daily life, as many live in sod houses, dugouts, tents, out of their wagons, etc., just enjoyed doing that very same thing somewhere else for amusement, I guess.

If I had one critique, the book mentions indigenous people and the pre-existing Mexican population a little, but not as much as I think he should – instead focusing on the lives of American women. Although, the book is entitled “Westering Women” so I guess I can accept that.

Overall, if you are interested in the history of the American West, I would definitely recommend it.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been gathering dust in my bookcase for years, and in retirement I finally got around to reading it. I enjoy going back to read older histories or other academic tomes to see how their authors may have gotten it right or erred in their assumptions. What I liked the most about this book was the meticulous research, hours of reading primary sources of frontier women's journals, diaries, and letters. Myres questions and then shows how many feminist historians paint the life pioneering women as bleak, joyless, akin to slavery as these women continued living in the box of sex role conformity as inaccurate. She also shines a light on east coast bias when in comes to historians about their attitude toward the contribution of the western expansion to the success of the developing United States.

I am proud to say, I descend from brave and resourceful westering women.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5 stars from me, were such a thing possible. Some good information pulled together in a way that I'd not seen it before and definitely worth a read. I also appreciated her efforts to bring the voices of Native American and Latina women, which help round out this history of westward expansion. I can't say that all of her analysis overwhelmed me and portions of the book are fairly dry, but this is still a decent introduction to the topic and worth tracking down.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot!!! Many people have thought and even written books about frontier women feeling compelled to go west just because their husbands were set on it but this book shows through letters and diaries that lot of women were just as eager. They often enjoyed the wagon trail and meeting the Native Americans, Spanish and Mexican women and even the work that had to be done once they arrived and had to set up a home, which they helped with. One thing I was astonished at was the incredible amount of work women did daily with child care, cooking, baking, preserving, gardening, sewing, knitting, carding wool, teaching the children, raising chickens, hogs and cows and much more! We know nothing of working that hard every day. Another thing I learned was the actual propaganda printed in magazines , newspapers and books to get people to take this trek. And now that we hear the work immigrant constantly, it was almost amusing but correct to hear these Americans called immigrants since they were traveling through foreign lands that belonged to other countries and then settling in them. Excellent book.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Myres turned to letters, journals, and reminiscences from over 400 collections in writing her study of the impact the frontier had on women's lives during the westward migration. Her work includes accounts of Indian, Mexican, French, black, and Anglo-American women. These accounts are wide ranging in their subject matter from descriptions of the deprivations and obstacles encountered during the trip west, how they managed the loneliness and hard work of creating a new home with neighbors sometimes miles distant and what new life in the west offered to them.

[E.D. Montaigne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the time in which it was written (1982!) it is an early and important book bringing awareness to the women of the west. At the time there was only a dim idea, full of myth and lacking in depth, of the women who came West. This is where the new history of the west began, which brings us to today's better understanding of the multi-ethnic tapestry that was the Western US, the frontier, from 1500 forward.

[Bekah Porter-Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super informational. Certainly not a beach read. More of something to pick up if you're interested in learning more about an incredibly specific subject.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed this one....similar topics as the Iowa’s frontier women.

[David Grassé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explodes the myths about women's lives in the west. Recommended reading for serious students of this period in U.S. history.

[Holly Bea]

Chapter 9: "If All We Did Was to Keep at Home: Women as Frontier Entrepreneurs" (238-270).

for work 2/8/2024

[Dory Estrada · Rating 4 out of 5]

My brain hurt a lot while reading this but I did learn some stuff!

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. Myres is a horrible and monotonous writer. In an effort to pull away from the myths created by social historians in the 1980s, Myres manages to make the experience of women in the west seem tedious and boring. She presents both sides and, as a result, presents no argument. Some like it, some didn't. Some loved being married, some didn't. Some like Indians, some didn't, etc. Every paragraph starts with phrases like, "just as."

The only argument that she upholds is that of Frederick Jackson Turner. One gets the feeling that the problem she has with the new, social Western histories of women is that the discard the Frontier Thesis. In Westering Women, Myres, a disciple of Ray Allen Billington not surprisingly, basically fits the women that Jackson left out into the Frontier Myth. Women, like men, were part of the new democratic opportunities of the West, she argues.

[Crystal]

No can't finish it. This nutty professor has done a grave disservice to the victims of the frontier and is dangerous to the preservation of American history. No stars!