Mark Megahan
More of today’s ranches not only have women working on them, they’re running the show. Modern cowgirls aren’t afraid to get down and dirty but they also have “new ideas about technology, ecology and the land.” They’re not shy about being looked at, either. These buckaroo’s are so hot they need a cold shower.
Cowgirls of America
Female ranchers have always roamed the American frontier, beginning with indigenous, Navajo, Cheyenne and other tribes. Then came Spanish-Mexican rancheras, “who tended and tamed vast fields, traversed rugged landscapes with their dogs, hunted, and raised livestock.”
These cowgirls were there to welcome European stock settlers when they appeared from nowhere with brand new ideas “about the roles of men and women.”
While the first settlers carved out new territory in what was only beginning to be called the western United States, “family farms and ranches were handed down to men.” That doesn’t mean cowgirls disappeared, they just weren’t talked or written about. There were notable exceptions though.
Annie Oakley could shoot a cigar out of your mouth. Calamity Jane led a life “peppered with wild tales that still inspire filmmakers and writers to this day.” Belle Star “mastered the arts of fencing, rustling, bootlegging, thievery, and bribery, to name a few.” Amazingly, they say “her involvement with criminals and murderers didn’t deter her from looking like a highborn lady at all times.”
Thanks to modern technology, the ranching industry is less a job for cowboys and provides cowgirls with more and more opportunity to excel.
There are more female ranchers running the business end, managing animal husbandry and protecting the environment for future generations. By doing this, “women have reclaimed their connection to the land.”
