The female frontier

by Glenda Riley

Until the mid 1970s, frontierswomen appeared in histories of the American West only as one-dimensional stereotypes or not at all. The intention of this study is to demonstrate not only that women did play highly significant and multifaceted roles in the development of the American West but also that their lives as settlers displayed fairly consistent patterns which transcended geographic sections of the frontier. Further, the author maintains that these shared experiences and responses of frontierswomen constituted a "female frontier." In other words, frontierswomen's responsibilities, life styles, and sensibilities were shaped more by gender considerations than by region.