The story of the westward movement along the Overland Trail has historically been viewed as a male event with the perspective of historian Frederick Jackson Turner setting the tone. When women were discussed, it was in stereotypical terms. Peavy & Smith (1998) identify common stereotypes of women of the West that fall into categories of the good woman and the bad woman. "She could be some variation of the Madonna of the Prairieùthe faithful helpmeet, the 'gentle tamer,'. . .(or) the antithesis of that stereotypeùthe backwoods belle, the soiled dove, the female bandit, a woman of unsavory character" (p. 8).
Standard scholarly thinking superimposed the male experience onto that of the female, and most history books held that the Overland Trail experience was similar to both genders. Until the last third of the 20th Century, the westward migration was seen as a lively and entertaining account of the deeds of men. "Pioneering women, if mentioned at all, were dismissed as bit players in the drama of the ever-expanding frontier" (Peavy & Smith, 1998,p. 8). Attention was not paid to the unique experiences of women on the trail, although in recent years the books of historians John M. Faragher, Lillian Schlissel and Julie R. Jeffrey have brought attention to the women's role as well as that of men. Jeffrey (1998), for example, argues that migration was a family affair and the frontier could not be understood "without considering the experience of the young, married white women who made up the bulk of adult female emigration" (p. 5). This research paper will focus on the character and role of women on the Overland Trail and how they helped shape the American West. The main contention is that the experiences encountered and felt on the westward movement were quite different for women and men, and that the move West was more a family event than a male event.
Pioneer Women of the Overland Trail
The Overland Trail encompassed several...