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In her Pulitzer Prize winning novel 'Lamb in His Bosom,' Caroline Miller focuses on the history of a middle class pioneer woman in Georgia and avoids the historical stereotype of white Southerners as being either downtrodden poor or wealthy slave-owners. Her strong female protagonist, Cean Carver also breaks stereotypes of Southern women.

The feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s inspired many women historians to write about women and their role in frontier development in America. Although, the main activity of these women was domestic, during later stages of frontier development, many were involved in commercial activity including prostitution. These recovered histories provide places for white, African American and Chinese women who played important roles in frontier development. Traditionally, women have been either ignored by frontier history or described in male-defined ways, a pattern established by Frederick Jackson Turner.

The novels of Zane Grey dispel the stereotypical portrayal of women as insipid and passive creatures in Western literature. Grey's portrayals are deemed closer to the roles of women in the real West. Against a land characterized by hardship amidst triumphs, Grey's heroines exhibit tenacity, loyalty and bravery. However, their feminine qualities of sensitivity, beauty and adherence to an honor code, are not overshadowed by the adaptibility they show toward a harsh and sometimes violent life in the West.