Ranch Wives

In the early days, ranch women played vital roles as business partners, wives, mothers, nurses and teachers. Women often married into the cattle industry but the commonly held belief that it was solely men who drove cattle to market, dealt with the details of a family business, and worked the ranch alone while their wives watched after the children, is refuted by the lives of historical and contemporary ranch women. According to Jessica Nierad in Making a Living and Building a Life, "In actuality a ranch woman made the cattle industry, not just her husband’s business, but "their" business."

Women ranchers have to deal with the reality of loneliness which is part of the ranch lifestyle and "a home on the range" while at the same time assuming leadership roles in community development.