Was the "Frontier" Good for Women?: Historical Approaches to Women and Agricultural Settlement in the Prairie West, 1870-1925

Authors

  • Kathryn McPherson

Abstract

How do we interpret the experiences of women in the agricultural settlement of the prairie west, 1870-1925? Historians traditionally have focused either on the region's "frontier equality" or, conversely, on its distinctive gender inequities. This article reviews those two interpretive frameworks, then considers how new research on women's involvement in the market economy and in the colonization process provides a new lens through which to evaluate gender relations in the region.

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Author Biography

Kathryn McPherson

Kathryn McPherson is an associate professor of history and Director of Undergraduate Programmes in the School of Women's Studies, at York University. She is author of Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900-1990 (Oxford University Press, 1996) and has co-edited several volumes, including Gendered Pasts: Historical Essays in Femininity and Masculinity in Canada.

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Published

2000-10-01

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2000): Special Issue: Feminism and Canadian History (25th anniversary volume part one)

Section

Original Research

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