Home on the Range: How Women Sustained and Enriched Their Lives on Ranches

Abstract

This study describes and analyzes the perspectives and attitudes of elder ranch women from the central part of Arizona, specifically, Yavapai County. These women's sense of place and role as working ranch women is described in rich narrative and compared to contemporary ranch women's roles. The primary methods used to gather the data included in-depth interviews, family history, and photos. The participants were chosen as they were all acquainted with my mother and had led similar lifestyles. The ranch stories revealed a lifestyle that modeled sustainability within an agricultural mileu and could possibly serve as examples of sustainability to others.