How will these resources help you?

The 1800s saw the steady flow of colonisers into the American West. This period often focuses on the men who settled there and shaped America as we know it today. However, the impact that women had also needs to be recognised. Women played an important role in shaping everyday lives in the American West across the racial divide. They also often had opportunities open to them that were not available to women ‘back East’ including the right to vote, holding places in public office, owning their own property and even commanding equal pay in some jobs.

It is against this backdrop that we can focus not only on how women’s roles changed more generally in the American West, but also on a number of ‘celebrity’ women who took the opportunity to carve a niche for themselves in a way that women elsewhere in the States were unable to.

Many people have heard of Calamity Jane in the context of the Wild West. Other women were less infamous and chose the path of being female ‘frontiers people’, like their husbands and other male relatives. All made history with their courage and tenacity.

These resources aim to help students understand the varied roles women had in the building of modern America, and they allow us to rewrite the narrative around their contribution.