other hand, argued that difficult frontier conditions enlarged
“the scope of women’s place” and in so doing undermined
traditional gender roles. Cynthia Culver Prescott (2007) used
a generational model to reconcile these different interpreta-
tions: The first generation of pioneering husbands and wives,
confronted with extreme and unusual situations, had no
choice but to pitch in, performing whatever task presented
itself. But the more settled next generation of pioneers
reacted against the flexible gender relations of their parents.
Husbands in particular attempted to establish themselves as
“manly providers.”
Source: Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American
History” (1893); John Mack Faragher, Women and Men on the Overland Trail
(1979); Julie Roy Jeffrey, Frontier Women(1979); Sandra L. Myres, Westering
Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800–1915(1982); Cynthia Culver Prescott,
Gender and Generation on the Far Western Frontier(2007).H
ere, Ada McColl gathers buffalo chips to be burned for
fuel. How the frontier affected women received scant
attention in the accounts of nineteenth-century historians.
Frederick Jackson Turner’s famous essay (1893) on the cen-
trality of the frontier to American history made no mention
of women. Subsequent scholars provided anecdotal
accounts of women on the frontier, but it was not until the
1970s that scholars flocked to the subject. John Mack
Faragher (1979) concluded that women had been exploited
on the overland trail. They worked ceaselessly—preparing
meals, caring for children, cleaning clothes—in nearly impos-
sible conditions. That same year Julie Roy Jeffrey added that
husbands made the “major decisions.” Equally important, she
cited letters and diaries indicating that frontier women
themselves endorsed the “cult of true womanhood”: They
sought to civilize the frontier. Sandra L. Myres (1982), on the
DEBATING THE PAST
Did the Frontier Change
Women’s Roles?
303Source: Kansas State Historical Society.