Was Laura Ingalls Wilder a feminist?

[WeAreJackieWeaver]

Having read absolutely everything on my reading list this year, I’m re-reading the Little House on the Prairie books.
I loved these books as a child, now reading them as an adult I’m struck how fiercely Laura fought to be allowed outside her gender box. She’s fiesty, loves being physical, running and riding horses and hates the expectations placed on her by society just because she’s a girl. Girls should sit quietly and do womanly tasks like sewing.
Her sister Mary is the complete opposite and loves being feminine and embraces the expectations of her.
Both girls were highly intelligent and their education was encouraged by very progressive (for the time) parents.

During this never-ending winter lockdown the books have helped give me some perspective on the hardship of lives past but I’m loving reading about Laura’s gender non-conforming escapades.

Has anyone else read the books?

Her sister in law Eliza Jane Wilder was an interesting character, she was also Laura's teacher but made a homestead claim in her own right as a single woman. It is also mentioned that she endured hostility and mockery, Laura discovers that Eliza had been known as Lazy, Lousy, Lizzie Jane.

Rose Wilder Lane said her aunt had been a socialist and greatly influenced her early political thinking. Rose was later to travel to Russia after the revolution, where she grew disenchanted with socialism. When she returned to the USA, she became one of the 'founding mothers' of American libertarianism along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Patterson.

Just finished reading ‘little house in the big woods’ to my daughter which I used to read and re-read as a child. She loved it too even though some of the concepts needed lots of explaining.

I’m a bit reluctant to go on with the rest of the books due to the attitudes to Native Americans which I don’t want to have to explain to her as yet... might have a read myself though, it’s been a very long time since I read them all.

On the back of this thread I've just ordered the books for my 8yr old niece. I've not read the books but loved the tv series when I was young. Loved Laura's attitude to life!
Are the books suitable for and 8yr old? She's a good reader and enjoys reading for fun.

I can recommend this lovely annotated version of Pioneer Girl

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Girl-Laura-Ingalls-Wilder/dp/0984504176/ref=ascdff_0984504176/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310815845917&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18396101289320425504&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045999&hvtargid=pla-434008900506&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

I think what stuck me was how much she cleaned up the books to make them appropriate for children- adding the little lessons and morals and changing some details (like knocking 10 years of almanzo's age) to make it more palatable.

The other thing you get from the biographies is how bleak things were when she started writing the books in the 1930s. De Smit where her parents settled was the heart of the dust bowl, all of those pioneers were facing ruin that had been caused by their own attempts to farm. They had managed to lose all their money through bad investments and she was trying to write books that would sell, she was totally prepared to change things to suit the market.

In the end I think she was a strong woman who was the main driver for pushing her family forward but I'm not sure she was really a feminist as we would understand it today. She was of her place, time and upbringing- she didn't agree with women's suffrage for example, but she was a very impressive woman nevertheless.

Agree with the above posters who recommend Prairie Fires. It fills in a LOT of gaps, and explains that a lot a things were left out because the books were published as children’s fiction and so weren’t appropriate. Laura herself said something like “ everything in the books is true but it’s not the full story.”

I remember in the book 'Little House on The Prairie' that there are quite a few discussions about native Americans as they move to Indian country illegally. Pa is convinced the government will move them on and Lara asks where they will go. Despite wanting to steal their land, Pa is one of the more moderate settlers, others regard them simply as savages or simply argue that land should belong to people prepared to farm it and not to nomads.

My favourite books ever !! I also loved Prairie Fires (Rose was certainly an interesting person) and I have also read Pioneer Girl which was the original draft of the books and very very different. I've read another book - unfortunately can't remember the title - which is written by a fan. She goes to various events that are held yearly in the various places Laura and her family lived. It seems bizarre now that places in the books were such a distance from one another and took days in the covered wagon now are just a couple of hours in car ! The train journey in 'Silver Lake' was a really short journey - something like barely 5 miles but to Laura is was an incredible adventure.

Her sister Carrie sounded awesome too. She lived alone in a cabin and ran (possibly single handily) the town newspaper. She didn't marry until in her 40s.

I loved these as a child. My daughter bought me Pioneer Girl a couple of years ago and there was a lot of information on the realities of their life on the internet (haven't looked recently so it may not be there since more books have been published). The books were written to be commercially viable and palatable for 1930s children, but fortunately people became interested in the original.

It is definitely fascinating to read about.

I would love to know what happened to all the cousins. Laura was the only one of the four sisters to have a child (and Rose only had one who died) but there was a massive amount of cousins so there should be lots of Ingalls descendents out there.

Two things that I remember from the books:

• the part in maybe Silver Lake where Laura realises that Ma hates sewing too. And thinking back over all the parts of the earlier books where Ma had been sewing. And hating it. But doing it. Because it has to be done.

• The part where Pa buys a stove on credit (in Plum Creek?). I didn't really understand why as a child, but Ma's anxiety really dominates the scene. The brittleness of her smile with all the stress underneath that she doesn't trust her husband's choices, but is powerless to do anything about it.

Yeah that sewing bit further me is where Laura starts to see the flaws in her father and begins to properly understand and respect her mother. She realises that great as Pa he is perhaps not the most reliable provider and she sees how much Ma has managed to do for them with so little.

I do wonder what would have happened if they had all stayed at the farm in the Big Woods with family all around, although I guess most of their aunts and uncles ended up as pioneers too.

Totally agree as well that the long winter was my go to lockdown book. Whenever I was bored or frustrated I would try and remember how bad it was for Laura!

In one of the later books, I forget which, Laura is expressly asked whether she is one of those women fighting for the to vote. She replies "I don't want to vote". It might be the book in which she marries Almanzo - maybe the same conversation in which she tells him she will not obey him.

I don't think Laura was a feminist by any means. I think she was a strong-willed woman who thought for herself, but entirely within the framework of the society she lived in. In her books she showed no interest in changing society, nor awareness that she might have any ability to do so.

I've got to confess to never having read any of the books - which I now feel I ought to remedy - but last summer I heard a fascinating Great Lives episode about her. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a long running radio programme in which a famous person nominates a life and then a biographer, historian or other expert is invited to add some details.

You might like this episode WeAreJackieWeaver as, from what I remember, Samira Ahmed and Tracy Chevalier say pretty much the same as SallyMcNally about how she was very much a strong woman and in advance of her time:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001f0y

The books are so much better than the TV series.
I’m not sure if she could be described as a feminist but Laura was certainly an extraordinary woman, as were others including her sister Carrie and sister in law, as pp have said.
Ma was herself, for that matter - she had come from “civilised” New York, I think it was, and had been a teacher, but had a hard life with Pa in the back of beyond, and his never ending yearning to move on every time they got settled.
The Long Winter is one of my favourites too.

@zanahoria

Her sister in law Eliza Jane Wilder was an interesting character, she was also Laura's teacher but made a homestead claim in her own right as a single woman. It is also mentioned that she endured hostility and mockery, Laura discovers that Eliza had been known as Lazy, Lousy, Lizzie Jane.

Rose Wilder Lane said her aunt had been a socialist and greatly influenced her early political thinking. Rose was later to travel to Russia after the revolution, where she grew disenchanted with socialism. When she returned to the USA, she became one of the 'founding mothers' of American libertarianism along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Patterson.

Have you read 'Wilder in the West: Eliza Jane's Story of a Lady Homesteader' zanahoria? It covers some of the things you have mentioned about Eliza Jane Wilder and gives a different idea to the way she was portrayed by her sister in law and in the TV series. I think it was based in part on an autobiography that her grandchildren discovered she had written after her death:

amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0961008849/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1]]

@Tooearlyforsquats

HAVE YOU READ PRAIRIE FIRES?????

you SHOULD!!!

One of the best history books I’ve ever read. Traces Laura’s life from her parents to her daughter, all about the writing and the publishing, also reflecting American history. I’ve read it three times, it won a national book award.

It's fantastic, and not just on her life, her writing, and her relationship with her daughter but also that historical period.

It has locusts (a lot of them).

Loved reading these books to my daughter's. We were talking about the Little House in the Big Woods yesterday, and how it was quite like lockdown. They were very isolated and far from other people, and closer as family as a result. I loved all the detail of survival.

As for feminism, I think she was in terms of a view that women are as able and capable as men. But both Laura and especially her daughter were involved in libertarian politics I think. They didn't believe much in the state or redistribution. Which makes sense in terms of her experience as an early survivalist. But doesn't fit with a feminism that views women as oppressed by patriarchal capitalism.

Ma was herself, for that matter - she had come from “civilised” New York, I think it was, and had been a teacher, but had a hard life with Pa in the back of beyond, and his never ending yearning to move on every time they got settled.

Pa was from New York

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ingalls

Ma was from Wisconsin - the big woods

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Ingalls

Have you read 'Wilder in the West: Eliza Jane's Story of a Lady Homesteader' zanahoria? It covers some of the things

no but thanks, I will check it out

I think believing in the education of girls, the right of women to choose if and when they marry, and to determine their own lot in life, is in itself a type of feminism.

I'm now going to have to re-read these books thanks to this thread!

There's also an interesting book called "the Ghost in the Little House" which addresses Rose Wilder Lane's role co-authoring the books.

I know what you mean about the depiction of Native Americans, but you could see the books as a jumping off point for discussing the difficult issues they raise about prejudice and colonialism. Kids can learn a lot from realising that Ma and Pa have different attitudes towards the Indians and that adults aren't infallible.

I’ve ordered Prairie Fires on the back of this thread-can’t wait. I agree about her libertarian stance in later life but her conversation with Almanzo about the wedding-where she says Iwon’t obey but of COURSE I don’t want to vote!! is more a product of the times/place than a refutation of what we would now recognise as feminism.

Also the discussion about Indians is fascinating: I reread it with trepidation, expecting some wholly unacceptable racism throughout but it’s a lot more nuanced-it’s racist, all right, but there’s a real difference in perception of Indians from Ma and Pa and an implicit rejection of Ma’s resolute racism. I can’t wait to see if it’s addressed more in Prairie Fires.

I’ve just ordered Prairie Fires too.
Whilst Laura may have not been a feminist, I feel her discomfort when being forced into the strict gender boxes of the times. There’s a tension which is released at times by acts of rebellion.