Southern Arizona: Lives that Shaped the Frontier Experience :: Essays Papers

Ordinary Women in Early Twentieth Century southerly Arizona Lives that Shaped the Frontier Experience Some historians have argued that womens roles in early 20th century Arizona centered altogether around the domestic sphere and typified values of femininity such as passivity, motherhood, and loyalty to marriage. Their journeys to the West ar likewise portrayed as voluntary and life on the frontier a hated struggle. For example, Christiane Fischer states, Frontier conditions tended to reenforce women in their traditional roles and did not open up any in the buff possibilities for them (Fischer, 46). Although this may have been true for some, womens overall experiences and contributions to Arizonas history were much to a greater extent complex. Although historically important figures are a lot over-represented in the stories we tell about our past, it is essential to remember that social deepen cannot occur without the involvement of thousands of ordinary folks. Acco rding to E.D. Branch, If there is a virtuous to the history of the westward movement, it is this the transcendent importance of small things and of unimportant concourse (Branch in Poling-Kempes, xii). This is especially relevant to womens history in that womens experiences are often ignored in dominant discourse and their achievements are relegated to the invisible sphere of domesticity. This essay will explore the ways in which ordinary women influenced the development of the Arizona frontier and to what extent the conditions of this lifestyle modify their roles and opportunities. At the turn of the century, women in the West enjoyed greater freedom than their sisters in other parts of the country. Various social and economic necessities both allowed and agonistic women into situations that were traditionally reserved for men. Lesley Poling-Kempes states, Liberation may have been a brass effect, rather than a motivating force or premeditated goal, for women in the new society of the American West (Poling-Kempes, 49). Women in this region chiefly had a better economic status, more job opportunities, and higher sanctioned status than women in other regions (Rothschild and Hronek, xx). Historians have presented several hypotheses to explain this geographic distinction. One such theory is that the biased sex ratio (many more men were present than women) required men to be tolerant of women pencil lead unconventional lifestyles. Another possibility is that, overall, the frontier embraced a more participatory way of life than settled areas, which in turn affected womens rights (Rothschild and Hronek, xx).