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?

Yes, pie plant is rhubarb.

I love these books, and also the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. A very different lifestyle from Laura Ingalls' but "Betsy" (a stand-in for the author) achieved her lifelong goal of becoming a professional writer and living life on her own terms, which is lovely.

Loved Betsy-Tacey!!!

My copy of Prairie Fires has arrived! Lovely looking book and can’t wait to settle down with it - thanks again...

@Austriana

What age group would you say the books are suitable for? (I've never read them)

That’s the nice thing about them...the age is appropriate to the age of Laura in each book. So, little house in woods - 3-4 years, house on prairie 5 or 6 up to golden years as 11-13... took me all the way through my childhood

I would definitely describe Silver Lake, Little Town, Golden Happy Years and First Four Years as 'Young Adult' books.

Ok, thanks to everyone who recommended prairie fires.💐
Downloaded last night- just finished 🤣
I learnt so much - very well researched . Thought I already knew a fair amount about the background-i didn’t !
Thanks all for my enjoyable sunday

Ma’s life must have been so hard, Pa’s choices put them in danger so many times.

But Pa didn't have any other choices. They were poor - both he and ma came from abject poverty - and they lived in cruel times. Pa was resourceful, enterprising and incredibly hard working. There was no such thing as job security, and Pa turned his hand to whatever he could, from butchering to carpentry to working for a railroad company. After a while, all of these jobs came to an end and they had to move on. It wasn't Pa's fault. He worked tirelessly to keep a roof over his family's head and provide an education for his girls (and died prematurely, worn out).

And I agree with pp - Prairie Fires is an absolutely superb book.

I am loving 'Prairie Fires'. It is so well documented and written, with a wealth of material that the 'Little House on the Prairie' books miss out. It is completely fascinating, and I am finding it quite emotional.

I also found it very emotional. After you've finished, I recommend the annotated and illustrated version of Pioneer Girl, if you haven't already read it. It's Laura's earliest draft of her story.

The parts that made me cry were when Laura wrote about Mary going blind; and when Laura wanted to keep playing childish games but was told by Ma and Mary that she had to stop playing and start acting more ladylike.

Thank you Wildswim, it will be on my reading list.

Let me second Pioneer Girl! Also, you learn how Laura was groped while working at a hotel and ma said she never had to go back.

I’ve loved Prairie Fires and also ‘Caroline: little house revisited’. Such hardship. Off to find Pioneer Girl now!

I've really enjoyed reading this thread, thank you! Also on what a dangerous life it could be, there is an episode in Little House when a 'cowboy' rides alongside the wagon for a bit and Ma is worried for their safety but Pa seems to play this down. Also, later, might be in Silver Lake, Ma does not want the girls mixing with the 'rough men' who work for the railroad company. Again, I seem to remember Pa playing that down. As a child I thought Ma was being a bit snooty - but now I realise what she was frightened of!

Do you remember Ma's shepherdess? The only ornament they possessed which was reverently unwrapped and placed on the mantle every time they finally completed a new house? Beautifully written books.

In the TV mini-serie when, they're choosing horses for their wagon, Ma says "I think she's a good one" and Laura points out that the horse is a 'he'.
In answer to Ma's quizzical look, Pa says "Would you rather she couldn't tell male from female?"
That'll need a pre-broadcast apology!

What a lovely thread, OP. Love LIW!

Totally had a crush on Cap Garland

Re LIW’s “I don’t want to vote” comment, compared to Eliza Jane Wilder’s view: there was an early wave of suffragism in the US in the 1860s which included women’s voting rights as well as campaigning to remove restrictions on black Americans and working class Americans (who didn’t own property) voting. All these groups campaigned together (none of them had any institutional power). When the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution took effect in 1870, giving black male US citizens the right to vote if they fit the other existing suffrage criteria, it was a victory and a move toward justice but there was a lot of disappointment from women that they were not included.

It took another 50 years, until 1920, for women to be guaranteed the vote via the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution (although some states allowed women the vote in selected elections earlier).

In 1870, Laura would have been 3, but Eliza would have been 20. It’s very possible that Eliza was “radicalised” in (or at least influenced by) the early wave and then continued campaigning, while Laura grew up in the lull between campaigns. I’d take “I don’t want to vote” to mean that Laura wasn’t going to make it a priority to campaign for women’s suffrage, rather than that she’d be upset if women did get the vote or that she would refuse/decline to vote. She was politically active later in life, as PPs have noted.

Throughout her public life Laura had a focus on women’s experiences and perspectives and recognised that they were different and distinct from men’s and should be heard and considered in the public sphere (her first writing job was a newspaper column about the experiences and perspectives of farm women in Missouri). I think she saw the roles of men and women separately, but thought women’s roles were equally important and not sufficiently considered - and could/should be expanded. She was certainly supportive of Rose, who took on some roles Laura or Caroline would never have considered.

On another note - this thread has some great book recs! I know someone upthread said no more, but I still want to add one for anyone fascinated by The Long Winter - Cindy Wilson’s The Beautiful Snow (2020) takes that book as a starting point to explore the experiences of the real-life Ingalls family and others during the winter of 1880-81 in historical context. Really does a good job of trying to parse out the push from the US government for people to “go west” and the popular amplification of that push - and how it resulted in a large population in the midwest territories that the US infrastructure - mainly the railways - couldn’t support.

www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Snow-Ingalls-Railroads-1880-81-ebook/dp/B084ZW194M/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+beautiful+snow&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1613710559&sr=8-1

@JaninaDuszejko

This thread is worse than the fifty bookers threads for recommendations. Taken The Long Winter from the playroom and ordered Praire Fires.

Prairie fires- just read on recommendation here..excellent ...right choice

Apparently there is a new TV version in the planning.....

I wonder what the Mumsnet Baby Names thread would have made of Mr and Mrs Wilder's choice of names for their sons?
Royal
Almanzo
Perley
What were they thinking? (Their sisters had normal names - Laura, Eliza and Alice!)

Almanzo was named after an Arab who had saved the life of one of his ancestors.

if this hasn't been mentioned can I suggest you might try the Australian book "Seven Little Australian's" by Ethel Turner ? I read this when I was a young girl living there -

zanahoria yes I remember 'Manly' telling Laura the background behind his name. I wonder if it was actually true and if any of his siblings ever used the name for any of their children. Is there a current Almanzo out there I wonder!
Where did they get Royal and Perley from though!!
Eliza had a son she who she named 'Wilder' so using a surname as a first name isn't as new as people often think.

According to Prairie Fires, Almanzo's name actually came from a romantic fiction series that was popular at the time he was born. "Almanzor" was the name given to the Arab suitor of a virtuous Christian woman! However, any real Arab etymological derivation is very uncertain. But some parents thought it sounded exotic and romantic, I guess the same kind of parents who use Daenerys or Kylo nowadays.