First, thanks to everyone who listened to my first official radio interview. It was an interesting experience, and I appreciated an interviewer who’d obviously read the book first! Thanks to Sandra, too, for posting the link to the recording of the show.
The interviewer made me think about Laura again, in the context of her work as a farm activist and a farm woman. Many of you reading probably know that Laura was well into her sixties before she began writing the Little House books, but she also wrote for numerous farming publications in the years preceding that work, most notably Missouri Ruralist. She started out by contributing to the newspaper as other farm women did, sending in notes and letters about her own farm work and expertise, particularly with poultry. As her audience grew, so did her role at the paper, and eventually, Laura wrote a regular column called “As a Farm Woman Thinks.”
Statistics of the period show us that farm women were as literate as city women, and that they were more literate than the male farmers with whom they were partnered. It’s apparent from all of their writing at this time that farm women truly knew their businesses, and as part of their roles, kept up with farming politics, methods and progress. The image that appears over and over again in all their writings is that of man and woman, partnered, sitting over the kitchen table to read and discuss the news, or of the farm woman reading out loud after dinner. Mass media was essential to successful farming, as was literacy.
Laura raised a number of issues in her columns, in a variety of contexts, but always advocating for farm living and farm life. She advocated investing in education for farm youth; actively participating in farming organizations; and investing in maternal health in numerous fashions. Laura also discussed methods of earning additional income on the farm, and offered a solid voice of reason, from the feminine perspective, for other farming women in the area.
Of course, her wisdom shines on in her works of fiction, also. Ma’s relentless pursuit of education for her daughters, the family’s participation in community activities when they were able, and the pursuit of additional work–sewing, teaching, boarding–by the women in the family to contribute to the family’s circumstances all underscore the centrality and importance of women in the community, family, and nation.
Is it any wonder we respect her so much?