What Has
Alaska
to Offer Postwar Pioneers?
Women in Alaska
The comparatively few women in Alaska enjoy the special place of respect which frontier America has always accorded its women. Woman suffrage came in Alaska as a matter of course—a bill establishing it was the first one passed by the Alaska Legislature. The ladies known as Lou who followed the gold stampeders at the end of the last century have departed or grown into respectability. They were succeeded by hard-working women—for like the men, Alaskan women scorn idleness.
Alaskan women can and do rival their men in many fields of business and the professions. They prospect, trap and hunt, drive taxis, and repair machinery—wearing dungarees and boots like the men. That does not mean that they are any the less feminine—the woman settler in Alaska who fails to bring evening dress and slippers will regret the lack. And as in the United States, Alaskan women take an especial responsibility for community and social betterment, and are foremost in forming cultural groups, 4-H Clubs, Parent Teachers Associations, Red Cross chapters, church societies, and the like.
