In Deborah Lawrence’s introduction to Writing the Trail, we are
introduced to five revolutionary women who turned the
traditional idea of a male dominated western frontier upside
down. Lawrence argues that the literary works these women
produced showcased the “conflicting versions of the American
West” (Lawrence). It is traditionally believed and is
“represented in both academia and popular culture” that males
were the dominant force in the nineteenth century American West”
(Lawrence). However, Deborah Lawrence argues, and Eliza
Farnham’s writings confirm, that this is simply not the case.
The myth of a male dominated West is proved false in Farnham’s
writings and is seen in her interactions both in-doors and out
with her family and her land. Farnham’s writing represents the
“herstory” that is left out of our popular misconceptions of the
American West (Lawrence). The traditional views of the American
West would have women in-doors tending to the children and house
while the males are taming the wild new land