Presenter(s): Mira Cohen − History
Faculty Mentor(s): Jamie Bufalino, Marsha Weisiger
Oral Session 3SW
Research Area: History
The popular history of the American Frontier West is replete with stereotypical characters: miners, farmers, ranchers, railroad workers, and even prostitutes. While women were brought out west so the men could marry and have a family, many women travelled out to the West to seek their fortune and escape the restrictive Victorian American culture of the East. Some women, already prostitutes, went west planning to continue their trade, free of the judgments of Eastern morality. Other women went west and eventually resorted to prostitution in order to provide for themselves. Both types discovered financial advantages along with more social and political freedom compared to any other women in the country. While some historians overlooked the influence women had in shaping the Old west, my research suggests that women played a significant role, as women accumulated property and therefore became influential members of cities and towns. My research project focuses on the gendered nature of economic and politic power in the United States during the 19th century, using evidence from research papers and book other scholars have done on prostitution and women in the Old west, diary entries, personal accounts, and books written about sexual morality. Based on these sources and personal narratives, readers and other scholars can learn that women during this time period had the most personal freedom in the entire country.