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?

^Laura was silent again. Then she summoned all her courage and said, “Almanzo, I must ask you something. Do you want me to promise to obey you?”

Soberly he answered, “Of course not. I know it is in the wedding ceremony, but it is only something that women say. I never knew one that did it, nor any decent man that wanted her to.”

“Well, I am not going to say I will obey you,” said Laura.

“Are you for woman’s rights, like Eliza?” Almanzo asked in surprise.

“No,” Laura replied. “I do not want to vote. But I cannot make a promise that I will not keep, and, Almanzo, even if I tried, I do not think I could obey anybody against my better judgement.”

“I’d never expect you to,” he told her. “And there will be no difficulty about the ceremony, because Reverend Brown does not believe in using the word ‘obey.’”^

laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/did-laura-really-refuse-to-use-the-word-obey-when-she-married-almanzo/

What strikes me is how seriously they take the vows, they are devout Christians standing before God, that is much more of a concern to Laura than Women's Rights. These are people who truly believe they will one day be judged by God and that takes precedent. The simplicity of the line "I do not think I could obey anybody against my better judgement" is absolutely superb.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams turning sheets sides to middle was common practise! When we cleared out my gran’s linen cupboard we found several old sheets turned sides to middle.

turning sheets sides to middle was common practise!

Yes, even in my childhood! (I'm in my 40s.)

I also read and enjoyed the books, and have re-read quite a few times, but not in the last 20 years or so. I definitely have a much better understanding of why Ma was like she was, the terror of the Indians, the fear of being left a widow, the hatred of sewing and other domestic chores but no options but to get on with them, etc. LIke others, I saw her as a bit of a killjoy when I first read them, and Pa as the nicer one that Laura adored. But as an adult, it's much easier to see where she is coming from.

The Long Winter also reminds me of lockdown, and a scene that always stood out to me that came back during the times of panic buying was when Pa was in town, and notices that the inside wall of a shop was deeper than it should have been, and he worked out that they have built a fake wall that is hiding supplies of wheat. He essentially forces them to share what they have with everyone. I remember as a child thinking that he must of course be right, as Laura says so, but also thinking that maybe they had just been sensible in preparing for the winter, the way all the fables recommended! I can't remember now whether it was really like panic buying - i.e., if one family hoarding wheat actually reduced access to food for the others by preventing them from buying it to start with, or whether that family had just taken the warnings more seriously and had stocked up on what they had by being careful, and then the other families were pissed off that they weren't sharing their savings to help everyone else when they needed it.

Thimbleberries no, iIRC it was seed wheat Almanzo had brought with him from out east, and wanted to keep for spring planting. Instead Almanzo & Cap Garland went out to find a settler to sell them wheat for the town.

ah ok, I knew I couldn't remember the details. I just remember Pa discovering this wall full of wheat, and getting a bucket from it somehow

Thank you for starting this thread. I'm another that read the children's series when I was younger & my DD has been enjoying them more recently. Going to order the long Winter and Prairie Fires & borrow DDs books!

Almanzo wouldn't have let everyone in town starve so he would have given away the seed wheat if he had to but doing so would have crippled his next year on the farm and that was a big incentive for him to go out with Cap and look for the homesteader.

I think the Ingalls were probably the hardest off family in town as they had spent the previous winter in the surveyors house and just had what they had managed to grow their first year breaking the soul which wasn't very much. Most of the rest of the town had come from the east on the train and had more provisions so I don't think that people realised at first how hard off some people were.

There is a passage in one of the later ones, These Happy Golden Years I think, in which Laura, aged 15, has to go and teach at an isolated rural school to pay for Mary's College (for the blind) fees. First time away from home, lodging with an unfriendly couple whose marriage is failing, sleeping on a freezing cold sofa whilst listening to them argue, totally isolated on the snowy prairie. She is leaving the lodgings on her first day at work, fearful of the new job, but unable to go back into the hideous house. I have often thought of Laura's courage when I've had a wobble moment.

Political decisions made in distant cities are unlikely to have had much daily relevance to isolated settlements on the frontier, so I'm not much surprised Laura wasn't interested in voting. The everyday realities of surviving must have been all-consuming.

Pa did rumble the Wilders boys

onlinereadfreenovel.com/laura-ingalls-wilder/page,16,33880-the_long_winter.amp

and Almanzo and Cap went for wheat

Pa wanted to go but Ma would not let him and Almanzo says it is a job for a single man

@JellySlice

Absolutely to the sons thing -- I mean, having children was partly an economic decision, balancing mouths to feed against extra bodies to labour, and one of the gambles was girls vs boys, of whom much more economically-productive farm labour could be expected.

There wasn't a heck of a lot of choice whether or not you had children.

The differences in the labour expected from women appeared to be based on context . Eg whether you were a townie with aspirations (Nellie Olson) or trying to prove a claim, in which case women's and girls' labour was assumed. Also whether you worked on or off your farm would make a difference it what was acceptable: women were expected to do manual labour on their/their husband's property, but it was disapproved of for a woman to do manual labour for someone else. OTOH an unmarried woman could do skilled work such as teaching or dressmaking on someone else's land.

Couples often stopped having sex, if they knew they couldn't afford to feed more children, or if there was considered to be a significant risk to the woman's life in having more, or for other reasons. Especially given the total lack of privacy often Ma and Pa are sharing a one-roomed space or a wagon with their children the relationship between what you did in bed and the production of more of the dependent little people who were lying just across the room, or possibly on the other side of a blanket.

And it didn't even need to mean that the man was a 'considerate' husband, as any homesteader was well aware of the economic value of his wife's work -- it simply wouldn't have been possible for him to raise his children alone while homesteading, if his wife died before there was a daughter old enough to raise the others and cook and run the house. He would need to hire a housekeeper, or break up the family and send his children to relatives. Or of course, marry again quickly to provide his children with a stepmother.

If the Ingallses family planned in this way, they would have probably factored in the fact that they had a blind daughter who was likely to remain economically dependent or at least to need to be cared for by family throughout her life, and also Carrie, who was 'sickly' throughout her life (possibly in response to the privations of the Long Winter), often sought other climates to see if they helped, and who may have seemed as if she was likely to remain living at home -- in fact only she married a much older man at 41.

And Ma isn't even keen on Laura doing heavier farm work on the privacy of the claim, and she's very uneasy about Laura going to sew at the shirtmakers; in De Smet, though I imagine part of her unwillingness was because the town was so rough and lawless, as well as the idea that 'respectable' girls laboured at home, not for cash among strangers.

thanks for that, was good to re-read and see which bits were familiar and which bits I had kept in my memory rather inaccurately

This blog is pretty old but it’s very funny, someone reading the LIW books for the first time as an adult

psychedontheprairie.blogspot.com/?m=1

Re Mary, I seem to remember she spent SEVEN YEARS at the College for the Blind, mostly paid for by Laura’s working outside the home and then came back home and made hay nets for the rest of her life . Pretty sure that doesn’t take seven years to learn even if you’re blind!

I loved Mr Edwards too! Although sadly, on doing research he doesn't seem to have been a real person.

I also loved Cap Garland, who was a real person, and who died tragically young and single.
capgarland.freewebspace.com/

I always hated the way Ma spoke about the native Americans. I remember her quoted as saying the only good injun is a dead injun in one of the books. We all read them when I was a child and my father was very vocal about the terrible way they were treated by the settlers.

Cap Garland is a cool name

@SydneyCarton

Re Mary, I seem to remember she spent SEVEN YEARS at the College for the Blind, mostly paid for by Laura’s working outside the home and then came back home and made hay nets for the rest of her life . Pretty sure that doesn’t take seven years to learn even if you’re blind!

I think the full course of study was seven years, though. And apparently in the early years of the school, they had students aged between 7 and 22, and also people aged up to 35 learning only handcraft 'trades' with the idea they could contribute to their household income -- beadwork, cane chair making, netting etc. Apparently they only taught piano-tuning to male students, as it was thought that blind women would not be able to travel about doing that sort of job.

According to this, the schedule at the school in the early years was 6 am till 8 pm. It also says that almost everything was taught by rote learning facts off by heart because even though the students were taught Braille, schoolbooks in Braille were too expensive and scarce.

So I suppose that contributed to how long the full course of study took.

blind.iowa.gov/blindhistory/education-iowa-braille-school-vinton

I am sure I remember reading that 'Cap' wasn't his real name but I can't remember what it was.
I also remember reading once that the last time Laura returned to De Smet (possibly Pa's funeral) that while she was there she visited Cap's grave.

Although sadly, on doing research he doesn't seem to have been a real person

you have just ruined my day

I think Mr Edwards was an mix of various people as was Nellie (she was based on 3 different people).

Nellie was a composite character, always thought it was odd how she managed to show up in De Smets

@Ilovemaisie

I think Mr Edwards was an mix of various people as was Nellie (she was based on 3 different people).

I read another book about LIW by some chap who seemed convinced that everything in the books was actual historical fact and really happened, and the book is basically him researching and researching and getting more and more stressed and upset that things don’t match up, before eventually deciding that it doesn’t matter because it’s such a good story . The whole “fictionalised memoir” thing seemed to totally passed him by despite being a mega fan

Read all the books numerous times and associated Pioneer Girl etc.

I too thought about The Long Winter recently. It must have been beyond grim.

@Beowulfa - that’s my worst episode in all the books ! The horror of staying with that couple. No wonder she grabbed Almanzo with both hands when he turned up. To add insult to injury Pa spent her earnings on an organ for Mary, who didn’t even like it as she was peeved about Laura’s freedom whilst her own life was curved.

Laura a feminist? I guess some of this was a result of there being no sons, so she was allowed out of her box to a greater degree. I now think Pa was selfish pursuing his homesteading when he had no brawn as back up. He did have a number of office jobs but he dreamed of the farming life, which really wasn’t practicable in his situation. Ma was certainly either a saint or secretly grinding her teeth.

Own life curved ? I meant curbed .