I don’t write historical western romance, I write contemporary romance. But, I was curious about women’s roles in the Old West, particularly seasoned women, and how that compares to women’s roles on ranches and cattle spreads today.
Googling gave me lots of information about older women in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. So did watching a lot of westerns on TV. If old westerns from the fifties and sixties are to be believed, seasoned women in places like Virginia City, Montana, and Denver and San Francisco ran the brothels and dance halls and saloons. Most with feather in their dyed red hair, a quick wit, and an iron hand.
Yet, some well-done films show us women who were resilient, tough and who endured great hardships. Have you ever seen Frank Capra’s 1951 film Westward the Women about a wagon train of women heading West to find husbands? The older women in that movie, Hope Emerson and Renata Vanni, were the glue that held that group of women together. In The Unforgiven, Lillian Gish (at 66) is stellar in the role of a mother who defends her family and her ranch. Helen Mirren in 1923 is a rock the Duttons depend upon and who fights fiercely for her family’s Montana ranch.
The women who came West on wagon trains and helped their husbands/fathers start ranches were the real tough ones though. They might have been living city life before, but once they landed in places like Montana and Wyoming and Colorado, they learned how to build a soddy—a house made of thick layers of prairie sod, how to plough and plant the dry land of the prairies, how to climb the rocky foothills to hunt down a stray calf or sheep, and how to hunt for food. They set snares, fished the rushing rivers and creeks, and even went after wildcats and bears. They plowed and planted so they would have the most basic subsistence foods. Life was hard and very often short with doctors being in short supply, winters hard, and illness and injuries frequently fatal.
Contemporary Western women of all ages fight just as fiercely and work just as hard as their nineteenth-century counterparts, although with a bit more assistance from modern technology. Wells are drilled now with machinery instead of dug by hand, fences are electrified, but they still have to be repaired, tractors beat hand plows all to heck, and 4-wheel-drivetrucks and Gators make getting around the vast acres much easier and faster. Cows still need hay, and calves still need to be birthed but computers make ranch organization much easier. Access to modern medicine, ambulances, and hospitals make live spans much longer; and although most ranch women grow big gardens even today, grocery stores make produce and dairy more readily available.
Today’s ranch women have different challenges than their nineteenth-century sisters, but the goal is the same—to make a success of the family farms and cattle spreads. When I write my contemporary heroines, I try hard to show spunky, tough ladies who can rope a cow, wrangle a herd of horses, and help birth a calf. But they’re also smart, fun, flirty women who can handle the ranch books, dance with skirts a swirlin’, and charm a cowboy right to his knees.
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 52 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
Perfect post for Women’s History Month!
My Tennessee grandma was a farm wife, and she worked very hard with the crops, especially in the tobacco field, and she still cooked, kept house, raised the kids, milked the cow, slopped the pig, fed the chickens, etc… She never learned to drive, but she could do just about anything else. You should see the beautiful quilts she made me.
Aren’t farm wives amazing? Husband’s grandma was a teacher and a dairy farm wife who ran the farm after her husband had a debilitating stroke. She was a rockstar!
Hats off to women who did this historically and to those still pursuing ranching in the western (or elsewhere) U.S. today! As a product of suburbia, I’m in awe of all it takes to pursue this lifestyle.
Oh, me too, Mary! It is a hard life, but I think rewarding.
I admired those women who came west on wagon trains and helped their family establish thrie homesteads, famrs, etc. Having been a ranch wife for a short time (I loved it and hated that we had to leave the farm), I spent my time in the dairy barn, fortunately we had a “short ine” system where we used milking machines and didn’t have to milk by hand. It’s not an easy life in this day and age, but much easier than the days of pioneer women!
Husband’s grandmother and uncle had milking machines by the time I married him, but before that it was all by hand. They also didn’t have running water, plumbing, or central heat.
The women who came west had a lot of grit and determination. In order to survive, they had to be strong physically and mentally.
You betcha, Ann! I can’t even imagine!
Yes growing up on a farm and then marrying a full time farmer – we do everything right along the side of them in the every day duties = NO vacations as the animals have to have food and water every day no matter what the weather – hot or cold!
I’m so impressed at the hard work ethic! I remember the first winter we had our horses, we had to help the boarding stable owner keep water buckets thawed and horses blanketed. The bar was freezing!
I love the way you have spotlighted these very capable women, even way back in our history. So much strength, then as well as today. Since I grew up on a farm, I can attest to the fact of my mother’s strength and her mother’s as well. Being a farmer’s wife is not an easy task and it is hard. Remember, they are also raising a family while planting a garden, washing clothes in somewhat antiquated ways, processing food such as the chickens for their supper. And back then the washing was not done in a nice warm room, with all new fangled equipment. Most of the time, if not all, the washing was hung out on the clothes line, all seasons. Mom used to bring in the jeans which had frozen so stiff they could stand up by themselves in the corner, until they finished drying. No, it was far from easy. I almost left out all the canning to preserve our vegetables and sometimes chicken also.
So much work! I love these strong farm and ranch wives and how they just do what needs to be done.
Yes, a lot of seasoned women in TV westerns were portrayed as brothel owners, but then there was Victoria Barkley on Big Valley. Played by Barbara Stanwick, she ruled over her ranch and her children with grit and determination.
Oh, I forgot Barbara Stanwick! The Big Valley was excellent and really portrayed her as a strong determined woman.
My grandmother may have not been raised on a farm, but she raised her children in a time when money was tight and there was no running hot water in the house and she had to work just as hard day to day to raise her four kids. I admire any women who had to live with out the amenity’s that women raising family’s do today. We are just as strong but in different ways.
I agree, Kathleen! After my dad abandoned us, my mom worked full time and went to school full time to get her nursing degree. If it weren’t for my grandparents, we would’ve been in a world of hurt. I have no idea when Mom slept for three years… she was a wonder!
I agree, the women that came in wagon trains were the toughest ladies. I love watching Little House On The Prairie , Big Valley and other movies, where the ladies are tough and do just about anything a guy can do and help alot in their farms. Ranching and Farming is alot of hard work and it needs to be taken care of by the whole family. I enjoyed reading this post, Thank you.
Thanks, Alicia. I can’t even fathom the amount of work ranch and farm life is even today with modern amenities. Way back in history, it had to be brutal.
I almost laughed about today’s farm wives having “assistance from modern technology”. My computer wouldn’t open yesterday and I really wanted to print out the annual summary of farm accounts to have ready for the accountant next week. Guess I’ll have to use pen and paper like my mother did. Fortunately my tech savvy daughter is here for another day or two and we may get the computer figured out.
My mom did all of the bookwork for the dairy farm I grew up on, drove tractor when extra help was needed, pitched in during haying, raised a big garden and made sure all five of us kids got to all of the places we needed to go to. Like a lot of farm wives she worked at home before they were considered working wives and mothers. I just say I work at home not in town.
Women’s contributions to operating independent businesses, farms and ranches, no matter where they were located, have long been overlooked.
Oh, Alice, what a hoot! Farm wives/working wives/mothers–they are all just amazing!
I love your term “seasoned women.” When many people think of the West, it is the cowboys, bad guys, prospectors, or sheriffs & marshals they think of. The women who stay “home” with the children, the garden, the livestock, the housework are what holds it all together making it possible for the men to run around doing their thing. It was a hard life and must have been a bit of a shock for some women who came from the cities or even farms back East. They had to learn quickly and toughen up. When comparing their life to today, their stamina is impressive. That doesn’t mean that today’s farm women have it that easy. It is hard work and the days are long. The farm families do not get the recognition they deserve.
My grandmother was a young wife and mother during the Depression. She wasn’t a farmer and didn’t come from a farming family, but I know she always had a garden and did everything she could to get all she could for her family. You use what you have in those situations, even things we wouldn’t consider today. Food that was starting to spoil was trimmed to salvage what was still useable. She worked her garden well into her 80’s and canned her beans and tomatoes that long, too. She made quilts for her growing family from scrap fabric from the local shirt mill. I still have a couple of them. Nothing fancy, just serviceable. There was no time to be fancy. The exception to that was the embroidery she did on a baby quilt, a doll, and the pillow cases and doilies she did. I think many of those things were done when the children were grown and she actually had some time to herself. I learned a lot from her when I spent time with her and helped in her garden. Thanks for the post. It reminded me of some fond memories.
I agree that the women had to be tough back then. If they didn’t help out many would have starved. It was a hard life but they survived because they were strong and resilient .
Yup x 1000, Linda.