According to the lyrics in the Old West song entitled the Wagoneer’s Lad by Charles Neely, the life of a pioneer woman was something to be lamented. Some of the lyrics were as follows: “always controlled, they’re always confined. Controlled by their family until they are wives, then slaves to their husbands the rest of their lives.” Women played no public roles in the early life of pioneering (1846-1860) but remained in their domestic spaces. I hate to admit it but the relative inequality of the sexes during the start of the rush west was the basis of patriarchy and masculine power beyond the Mississippi. In all agricultural societies women were more or less excluded from the public world. The overall status of women in agriculture was one of institutionalized dependency, subordination and political immaturity.
Farm women’s ills were exacerbated by the growth of the market, for under commercial pressures gender divisions were widened, men’s economic activity was further divorced from the household, and family economic unity shattered; for farm women there was, in consequence, a further devaluation of their already questionable status. Lacking in public roles, women were dependent upon men, while men enjoyed considerable responsibility and latitude in their social relations. The presence of children provided male privilege with a natural cover: women were viewed as inherently responsible for domestic society, while men were free to work or wander.
The majority of the people coming west in the mid-1840s were farmers from Missouri. The average age of the pioneer wife was 20-22 and the average of the pioneer male was 34-44. I know these statics might be boring for some but for those educators who visit the site hoping to find out information about the role of pioneer women it might serve as useful. Happy teaching and if you get this far in reading this entry take a moment to watch the newest video posted on the introductory page of this site. It’s the short tale of what one western woman did to change her circumstances.
