Women in the Western

Explores the changing roles of women to the Western and offers new approaches to what has been a male-centred genre

• Pioneers new avenues for research on the Western and includes a bibliography of the extant criticism on women and Western to encourage further scholarship
• Charts significant shifts in Hollywood’s transmission of American gender values and expectations
• Examines the common Western tropes of women homesteaders, soiled doves, masculinised and erotically dangerous women and female characters bent on revenge
• Traditional and intertextual representations of women in the Western are considered

As the Western matured, women’s roles became more complex and modern – transmitting a subtle cultural coding about the nature of westward expansionism, heroism, family life, manliness and American femininity. In Women in the Western, a range of international scholars explores the changing roles of women in the genre through case studies of classic films like Broken Arrow (1950) and The Searchers (1956), and contemporary films and TV series like Wind River (2017) and Justified (2010–15). Considering traditional and intertextual representations of women in the Western, the book charts the significant shifts in Hollywood’s transmission of gender values and expectations.