Women of the Northern Plains: Gender and Settlement on the Homestead Frontier, 1870-1930

Synopsis

Winner of the 2006 Caroline Bancroft History Prize. "Impressively researched and highly readable, Barbara Handy-Marchello's analysis of North Dakota farm women's roles will become the standard by which other works on the subject will be judged." Paula M. Nelson, author of The Prairie Winnows Out Its Own. In Women of the Northern Plains, Barbara Handy-Marchello tells the stories of the unsung heroes of North Dakota's settlement era: the farm women. As the men struggled to raise and sell wheat, the women focused on barnyard labor-raising chickens and cows and selling eggs and butter-to feed and clothe their families and maintain their households through booms and busts. Handy-Marchello details the hopes and fears, the challenges and successes of these women-from the Great Dakota Boom of the 1870s and '80s to the impending depression and drought of the 1930s. Women of the frontier willingly faced drudgery and loneliness, cramped and unconventional living quarters, the threat of prairie fires and fierce blizzards, and the isolation of homesteads located miles from the nearest neighbor. Despite these daunting realities, Dakota farm women cultivated communities among their distant neighbors, shared food and shelter with travelers, developed varied income sources, and raised large families, always keeping in sight the ultimate goal: to provide the next generation with rich, workable land. Enlivened by interviews with pioneer families as well as diaries, memoirs, and other primary sources, Women of the Northern Plains uncovers the significant and changing roles of Dakota farm women who were true partners to their husbands, their efforts marking the difference between success and failure for their families. Barbara Handy-Marchello is a history professor at the University of North Dakota.

Copyright:

2005

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

206 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780873516044

Publisher:

Minnesota Historical Society Press

Date of Addition:

07/26/10

Copyrighted By:

Minnesota Historical Society.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies, Sociology

Submitted By:

Kari G

Proofread By:

Sue Roberts

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.