History Main / DeterminedHomesteadersWife

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16672552050.58567600 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.
[[quoteright:258:[[Literature/SarahPlainAndTall https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarah_plain_and_tall.jpg]]]]

->''"Travelers in the backcountry often reported that women and men routinely shared the heaviest manual labor. Both sexes worked together in the fields, not merely at harvest time but through the entire growing season. Women not only tended the livestock but did the slaughtering of even the largest animals. Travelers were often startled to observe delicate females knock down beef cattle with a felling ax, and then roll down their sleeves, remove their bloody aprons, tidy their hair, and invite their visitors to tea."''
-->-- '''''Albion's Seed'' by David Hackett Fischer'''

A DeterminedHomesteader can't [[SettlingTheFrontier Settle the Frontier]] alone, no matter how stubborn he may be. He needs an equally determined wife. At least in fiction, the Determined Homesteader's Wife is usually a strong-willed woman who's handy around the cabin and fields and probably knows how to [[ActionGirl load and shoot a gun]]. And if she doesn't have those capabilities at the beginning of the story, she soon will have, especially to act as a MamaBear to her kids.

The "prairie romance" subgenre of RomanceNovel will often have the protagonist becoming one of these, either from the beginning of the homestead or as a mail-order bride.

Has a tendency to become the DeterminedWidow if the main character of the story is TheDrifter or TheGunslinger.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Zig-zagged in ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma1957'' in the case of Dan's wife Alice. In the beginning, she isn't determined at all, and this trope is clearly averted. Alice complains about how hard life has been and how much they've had to struggle and pesters Dan to get a loan which might help save their foundering cattle ranch. Later, when Dan is about to go out on what seems likely to be a fatal march with Ben Wade, this trope is played more straight. Alice intercepts Dan, begging him to stop, telling him not to risk his life over anything she said the day before. She insists that she's loved their life, even with the hardships and struggles.
* Mrs. Dance in ''Film/CanyonPassage''. She refuses to give up and move to town even after her husband and eldest son are killed in an Indian raid.
* Sabra Cravat of the Edna Ferber novel ''Film/{{Cimarron}}'' and its 2 subsequent film adaptations. She settles in Oklahoma with her husband during the land rush and toughs out many years on the frontier, then takes over the family newspaper business when her husband leaves her due to wanderlust. She ends up becoming an important frontier figure in her own right.
* ''Film/DestryRidesAgain'': Mrs. Claggett, who reacts to Kent trying to take her farm by taking a shot at him with her rifle--just barely missing--and yelling "Come and get it!"
* ''Film/FirstWinter'': The mother of the frontier family newly arrived in the Canadian wilderness, hacking firewood and feeding the children while their father spends the winter at a remote logging camp earning money. The mother's teenaged daughter Moira becomes the Determined Homesteader's Daughter after her mother dies.
* There's Nell [=McLaughlin=] of ''Film/{{Flicka}}'' who talks some sense into her stubborn, horse rancher husband.
* ''Film/ThePurchasePrice'' has Joan go to rugged North Dakota. She manages to keep her head up by being fiercely determined to win Jim's affection and be a good farmer.
* Mrs. Jorgensen in ''Film/TheSearchers''. Her husband is not only not the DeterminedHomesteader, but he's given way to despair, blaming the country for the death of his son. His wife responds with a rousing speech of how this country will become a good place to live, even if it may take their bones in the ground to achieve it.
--> '''Mrs. Jorgensen''': It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Let's Play]]
* ''LetsPlay/PlagueAndTreacheryOnTheOregonTrail'' has Susan Neckebard, who was not that determined to follow manifest destiny as her husband at first, but his incompetence forced her to show off her phenomenal survival skills.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AngleOfRepose'': Susan Ward is an Eastern girl who's used to the finer things; she's even received post-secondary education. But after she marries Oliver, an engineer who works in mining out West, she finds herself with little money in a hostile environment. She makes the best of it, writes of her adventures for magazines back at home and keeps up with her art.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein loved the uber version of this trope for female leads in space frontier settings. The ideal frontier wife, to roughly paraphrase, "should be able to fire a gun, pilot a ship, navigate by stars in space and on planets, skin and gut animals, build cabins and solve quadratic equations in her head while raising children." See, for example, ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''.
* Some of the women in Literature/TheIcelandicSagas seem to have been like this.
* Marianne in ''Literature/CloudOfSparrows'' was one of these before [[PosthumousCharacter dying]].
* Kristina in ''Literature/TheEmigrants'' downplays and deconstructs this trope. She has trouble rooting in America, gets medical troubles from repeated childbirths and miscarriages, but is determined to create a good home for her family.
* Women of Lancre in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' are modelled off the British version of this, the Determined Hillfarmer's Wife. Thinly fictionalised versions of the real thing turn up in James Herriot's Series/{{All Creatures Great And Small|1978}} series.
* Ma Ingalls of the ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' series.
** Her daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, becomes this in ''The First Four Years'' and the sequel series about her own daughter.
** Ma Ingall's mother took it a step further and was a ''DeterminedWidow'' alone, with a mass of children, on the western frontier.
* Claire Fraser becomes one of these (while retaining her status of ginormous badass) in the later books in the ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' series. 18th Century American wilderness? Pssh, it can be beaten. (It helps that she has [[PortalToThePast all the medical expertise of a 20th-century medical doctor]] and a good set of vaccinations.)
* British Sea Captains in the Napoleonic Wars would have their wives with them, as the Admiral and Mrs Croft show in ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}''.
* ''Literature/SarahPlainAndTall'' was the mail order bride subtype.
* Emily "Auntie Em" Gale of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' book.
* ''Literature/PatienceAndSarah'' has Patience in the role, with her tomboyish unofficial wife Sarah as the DeterminedHomesteader. The two move to New York and start a farm together.
* ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'': In ''The Man Who Stared at the Sun'', the farmer's wife only finds out about the contest when the farmer doesn't come home for dinner and the sun doesn't set. After failing to convince him to come home, she leaves and the sun tries to get the farmer to look away by observing how upset she is. However, the wife takes that as a challenge, brings food to the farmer, and then takes over running the farm. Thanks to her work and the help of the children, the farm thrives, which allows the farmer to concentrate solely on the sun.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Alma Garrett of ''{{Series/Deadwood}}'' was one of these -- for a very short time. When her husband died, however, she used her newfound freedom to pursue the life she'd always wanted for herself but that staid Eastern civilization wouldn't have allowed.
* Lisa Douglas of ''Series/GreenAcres'' is a subversion of the type, being not at all interested in helping her husband make a success of the farm. Then again, he's something of a parody of the DeterminedHomesteader type himself.
* Mrs Onedin is the last variation of the "determined captain's wife" (see real-life section) in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth-century English IntrepidMerchant. Like her husband, she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general, she is pretty awesome.
* The cooking show ''The Pioneer Woman'' leans heavily on this imagery, or at least a modern take on it. Ree Drummond cooks up hearty meals on camera to keep her husband and sons fueled up for working on the family farm.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} volume ''Sword Worlds'' contains in a sidenote in which a soldier returns from the Fifth Frontier War to see his [[DownerEnding home wrecked by the war]]. Then he sees his wife, Ilja, gallantly rebuilding the house and after [[GladToBeAliveSex a suitable reunion]] joins her in rebuilding their family home to prove that nothing can break the spirit of a true Sword Worlder or a true Sword Worlder's wife.
** At the end of the book his brother comes along asking him to go on an [[TheEpic epic]] [[TheMigration voyage]] [[SpaceCossacks to save the sword worlder people]]. The returned soldier agrees that it is a worthy goal but not for him. He wants to take care of the homestead with his brave wife because TheresNoPlaceLikeHome.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, epitomized by her solo song "When The World's At Stake". However, she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic, making her more of a DeadpanSnarker than the trope usually calls for. In "Speendrun" she goes full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]
--> ''When the world's at stake\\
And there lives to save\\
And even though I shake my hands at God I pray\\
Let her have a better life than I can provide\\
Lord have mercy on my soul\\
As I try to do her right.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* An old record of Alaska songs that tells of one sourdough's idea of a dream mail order bride: "If she can mush through ice and snow when it's 45 below, hurry up and send me the lady...If she can pitch a tent at night, don't need matches for a light when howling winds do blow...if she's like her photo looks... hurry up and send me the lady."
* A variation of this which may be called "determined captain's wife" existed along the Atlantic coast. The wives of America's old [[ProudMerchantRace nautical aristocracy]] would have [[IronLady influential posts]] in seaports because their husbands were away at sea. Some went to sea with their husbands and became [[TheMedic medics]] or [[TheLancer de facto ships' officers]]. They had the same sort of determination and resilience as their Western sisters though they didn't have homesteads per se and even though at first glance they often seemed [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye prim and delicate]] from their high breeding. West or East, they raised 'em tough then.
* It's not just homesteaders. As an OlderThanFeudalism example, Literature/TheBible contains a long monologue [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+31 praising the virtuous wife]] of a sage busy with statecraft, and it's basically the same picture.
* In Russia, the equivalent of this trope is ''zheny dekabristov'' - "Decemberists' wives", spouses of the participants of the failed December uprising of 1825 who voluntarily decided to share their husbands' exile to Siberia. Expect any film or book on Decemberists in exile paying a great deal of attention to their wives.
[[/folder]]

----

A DeterminedHomesteader can't [[SettlingTheFrontier Settle the Frontier]] alone, no matter how stubborn he may be. He needs an equally determined wife. At least in fiction, the Determined Homesteader's Wife is usually a strong-willed woman who's handy around the cabin and fields and probably knows how to [[ActionGirl load and shoot a gun]]. And if she doesn't have those capabilities at the beginning of the story, she soon will have. Especially when those skills are required [[MamaBear to protect]] the DeterminedHomesteadersChildren.

* ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'': In ''The Man Who Stared at the Sun'', the farmer's wife only finds out about the contest when the farmer doesn't come home for dinner and the sun doesn't set. After failing to convince him to come home, she leaves and the sun tries to get the farmer to look away by observing how upset she is. However, the wife takes that as a challenge, brings food to the farmer, and then takes over running the farm. Thanks to her work and the help of the DeterminedHomesteadersChildren, the farm thrives, which allows the farmer to concentrate solely on the sun.

* ''Sarah (Plain and Tall)'' was the mail order bride subtype.

* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, epitomized by her solo song "When The World's At Stake". However, she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic, making her more of a DeadpanSnarker than the trope usually calls for. Her determination is taken UpToEleven in "Speendrun" when she goes full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]

* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, epitomized by her solo song "When The World's At Stake". However, she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic, making her the more determined of the pair. This is taken UpToEleven in "Speendrun" when she goes full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]

* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, though she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic. Her determination is taken UpToEleven in "Speendrun" when she goes full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]

* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, though she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic. Her determination is taken UpToEleven in "Speendrun" when she does full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]

* ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon'': In an otherwise parody of ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', Mother is perhaps the only one who plays their role mostly straight, though she is stuck in a FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife dynamic. Her determination is taken UpToEleven in "Speendrun" when she does full-on MamaBear to catch up to the bandits who kidnapped her daughter. [[note:]] Due to the AudienceParticipation element of the show, she gets renamed in each performance. The version on Youtube named her "Slippery When Wet". [[/note]]

->''Travelers in the backcountry often reported that women and men routinely shared the heaviest manual labor. Both sexes worked together in the fields, not merely at harvest time but through the entire growing season. Women not only tended the livestock but did the slaughtering of even the largest animals. Travelers were often startled to observe delicate females knock down beef cattle with a felling ax, and then roll down their sleeves, remove their bloody aprons, tidy their hair, and invite their visitors to tea.

* Women of Lancre in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' are modelled off the British version of this, the Determined Hillfarmer's Wife. Thinly fictionalised versions of the real thing turn up in James Herriot's Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall series.

* ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'': The farmer's wife only finds out about the contest when the farmer doesn't come home for dinner and the sun doesn't set. After failing to convince him to come home, she leaves and the sun tries to get the farmer to look away by observing how upset she is. However, the wife takes that as a challenge, brings food to the farmer, and then takes over running the farm. Thanks to her work and the help of the DeterminedHomesteadersChildren, the farm thrives, which allows the farmer to concentrate solely on the sun.

* Alma Garrett of ''{{Series/Deadwood}}'' was one of these -- for a very short time. When her husband died, however, she used her new-found freedom to pursue the life she'd always wanted for herself but that staid Eastern civilization wouldn't have allowed.

* Mrs Onedin is the last variation of the "determined captain's wife" (see real life section) in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth-century English IntrepidMerchant. Like her husband, she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general, she is pretty awesome.

* A variation of this which may be called "determined captain's wife" existed along the Atlantic coast. The wives of Americas old [[ProudMerchantRace nautical aristocracy]] would have [[IronLady influential posts]] in seaports because their husbands were away at sea. Some went to sea with their husbands and became [[TheMedic medics]] or [[TheLancer de facto ships' officers]]. They had the same sort of determination and resilience as their Western sisters though they didn't have homesteads per se and even though at first glance they often seemed [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye prim and delicate]] from their high breeding. West or East, they raised 'em tough then.

* Mrs Onedin is the last variation of the "determined captain's wife" (see real life section) in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth-century English IntrepidMerchant s. Like her husband, she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general, she is pretty awesome.

A DeterminedHomesteader can't [[SettlingTheFrontier Settle the Frontier]] alone, no matter how stubborn he may be. He needs an equally determined wife. At least in fiction, the Determined Homesteader's Wife is usually a strong-willed woman who's handy around the cabin and fields, and probably knows how to [[ActionGirl load and shoot a gun]]. And if she doesn't have those capabilities at the beginning of the story, she soon will have. Especially when those skills are required [[MamaBear to protect]] the DeterminedHomesteadersChildren.

The "prairie romance" subgenre of RomanceNovel will often have the protagonist becoming one of these, either from the beginning of the homestead, or as a mail order bride.

* Zig-zagged in ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma1957'' in the case of Dan's wife Alice. At the beginning she isn't determined at all, and this trope is clearly averted. Alice complains about how hard life has been and how much they've had to struggle and pesters Dan to get a loan which might help save their foundering cattle ranch. Later, when Dan is about to go out on what seems likely to be a fatal march with Ben Wade, this trope is played more straight. Alice intercepts Dan, begging him to stop, telling him not to risk his life over anything she said the day before. She insists that she's loved their life, even with the hardships and struggles.

* There's Nell [=McLaughlin=] of ''Film/{{Flicka}}'' who talks some some sense into her stubborn, horse rancher husband.

* Kristina in ''Literature/TheEmigrants'' downplays and deconstructs this trope. She has trouble rooting in America, gets medical troubles from repeated child births and miscarriages, but is determined to create a good home for her family.

* Claire Fraser becomes one of these (while retaining her status of ginormous badass) in the later books in the ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' series. 18th Century American wilderness? Pssh, it can be beaten. (It helps that she has [[PortalToThePast all the medical expertise of a 20th century medical doctor]] and a good set of vaccinations.)

* Mrs Onedin is the last variation of the "determined captain's wife" (see real life section) in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth century English IntrepidMerchant s. Like her husband she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general she is pretty awesome.

* An old record of Alaska songs that tells of one sourdough's idea of a dream mail order bride: "If she can mush through ice and snow when its 45 below, hurry up and send me the lady...If she can pitch a tent at night, don't need matches for a light when howling winds do blow...if she's like her photo looks... hurry up and send me the lady."

* Women of Lancre in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' are modelled off the British version of this, the Determined Hillfarmer's Wife. Thinly fictionalised versions of the real thing turn up in James Herriot's Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall series. * Ma Ingalls of the ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' series.

* ''Literature/PatienceAndSarah'' has Patience in the role, with her tomboyish unofficial wife Sarah as the DeterminedHomesteader. The two move to New York and start a farm together.

[[/foldercontrol]]

* Ma Ingalls of the ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' series.
** Her daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, becomes this in ''The First Four Years'' and the sequel series about her own daughter.
** Ma Ingall's mother took it a step further and was a ''DeterminedWidow'' alone, with a mass of children, on the western frontier.
* Emily "Auntie Em" Gale of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' book.
* ''Sarah (Plain and Tall)'' was the mail order bride subtype.
* Alma Garrett of ''{{Series/Deadwood}}'' was one of these -- for a very short time. When her husband died, however, she used her new-found freedom to pursue the life she'd always wanted for herself but that staid Eastern civilization wouldn't have allowed.
* Lisa Douglas of ''Series/GreenAcres'' is a subversion of the type, being not at all interested in helping her husband make a success of the farm. Then again, he's something of a parody of the DeterminedHomesteader type himself.
* Some of the women in Literature/TheIcelandicSagas seem to have been like this.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein loved the uber version of this trope for female leads in space frontier settings. The ideal frontier wife, to roughly paraphrase, "should be able to fire a gun, pilot a ship, navigate by stars in space and on planets, skin and gut animals, build cabins and solve quadratic equations in her head while raising children." See, for example, ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''.
* The TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} volume ''Sword Worlds'' contains in a sidenote in which a soldier returns from the Fifth Frontier War to see his [[DownerEnding home wrecked by the war]]. Then he sees his wife, Ilja, gallantly rebuilding the house and after [[GladToBeAliveSex a suitable reunion]] joins her in rebuilding their family home to prove that nothing can break the spirit of a true Sword Worlder or a true Sword Worlder's wife.
** At the end of the book his brother comes along asking him to go on an [[TheEpic epic]] [[TheMigration voyage]] [[SpaceCossacks to save the sword worlder people]]. The returned soldier agrees that it is a worthy goal but not for him. He wants to take care of the homestead with his brave wife because TheresNoPlaceLikeHome.
* Claire Fraser becomes one of these (while retaining her status of ginormous badass) in the later books in the ''Outlander'' series. 18th Century American wilderness? Pssh, it can be beaten. (It helps that she has [[PortalToThePast all the medical expertise of a 20th century medical doctor]] and a good set of vaccinations.)
* An old record of Alaska songs that tells of one sourdough's idea of a dream mail order bride: "If she can mush through ice and snow when its 45 below, hurry up and send me the lady...If she can pitch a tent at night, don't need matches for a light when howling winds do blow...if she's like her photo looks... hurry up and send me the lady."
* A variation of this which may be called "determined captain's wife" existed along the Atlantic coast. The wives of Americas old [[ProudMerchantRace nautical aristocracy]] would have [[IronLady influential posts]] in seaports because their husbands were away at sea. Some went to sea with their husbands and became [[TheMedic medics]] or [[TheLancer de facto ships' officers]]. They had the same sort of determination and resilience as their Western sisters though they didn't have homesteads per se and even though at first glance they often seemed [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye prim and delicate]] from their high breeding. West or East, they raised 'em tough then.
** British Sea Captains in the Napoleonic Wars would have their wives with them, as the Admiral and Mrs Croft show in ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}''.
** Mrs Onedin is the last variation of this trope in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth century English IntrepidMerchant s. Like her husband she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general she is pretty awesome.
* ''LetsPlay/PlagueAndTreacheryOnTheOregonTrail'' has Susan Neckebard, who was not that determined to follow manifest destiny as her husband at first, but his incompetence forced her to show off her phenomenal survival skills.

* Marianne in ''Literature/CloudOfSparrows'' was one of these before [[PosthumousCharacter dying]].

* Women of Lancre in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' are modelled off the British version of this, the Determined Hillfarmer's Wife. Thinly fictionalised versions of the real thing turn up in James Herriot's Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall series.
* Kristina in ''Literature/TheEmigrants'' downplays and deconstructs this trope. She has trouble rooting in America, gets medical troubles from repeated child births and miscarriages, but is determined to create a good home for her family.
* Zig-zagged in ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma1957'' in the case of Dan's wife Alice. At the beginning she isn't determined at all, and this trope is clearly averted. Alice complains about how hard life has been and how much they've had to struggle and pesters Dan to get a loan which might help save their foundering cattle ranch. Later, when Dan is about to go out on what seems likely to be a fatal march with Ben Wade, this trope is played more straight. Alice intercepts Dan, begging him to stop, telling him not to risk his life over anything she said the day before. She insists that she's loved their life, even with the hardships and struggles.

* ''Film/DestryRidesAgain'': Mrs. Claggett, who reacts to Kent trying to take her farm by taking a shot at him with her rifle--just barely missing--and yelling "Come and get it!"
* ''Film/ThePurchasePrice'' has Joan go to rugged North Dakota. She manages to keep her head up by being fiercely determined to win Jim's affection and be a good farmer.

* In Russia, the equivalent of this trope is ''zheny dekabristov'' - "Decembrists' wives", spouses of the participants of the failed December uprising of 1825 who voluntarily decided to share their husbands' exile to Siberia. Expect any film or book on Decembrists in exile paying a great deal of attention to their wives.
* Mrs. Dance in ''Film/CanyonPassage''. She refuses to give up and move to town even after her husband and eldest son are killed in an Indian raid.
* ''Film/FirstWinter'': The mother of the frontier family newly arrived in the Canadian wilderness, hacking firewood and feeding the children while their father spends the winter at a remote logging camp earning money. The mother's teenaged daughter Moira becomes the Determined Homesteader's Daughter after her mother dies.
* ''Literature/PatienceAndSarah'' has Patience in the role, with her tomboyish unofficial wife Sarah as the DeterminedHomesteader. The two move to New York and start a farm together.

* ''Literature/PatienceAndSarah'' has Patience in the role, with her tomboyish unofficial wife as the DeterminedHomesteader. The two move to New York and start a farm together.

* The TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} volume ''Sword Worlds'' contains in a sidenote, a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} in which a soldier returns from the Fifth Frontier War to see his [[DownerEnding home wrecked by the war]]. Then he sees his wife, Ilja, gallantly rebuilding the house and after [[GladToBeAliveSex a suitable reunion]] joins her in rebuilding their family home to prove that nothing can break the spirit of a true Sword Worlder or a true Sword Worlder's wife.

** Mrs Onedin is the last variation of this trope in the old British series ''Series/TheOnedinLine'' about a FamilyBusiness of nineteenth century English IntrepidMerchant s. Like her husband she seems a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold grim old sourpuss, until you know her better]]. But she is also a tough ApronMatron, and GoodWithNumbers and knows well how to [[IronLady berate rebellious underlings]]. She is tough and [[TheStoic stoical]] and [[MamaBear remarkably brave]]. She is almost the Onedin Line's [[ManBehindTheMan Woman Behind the Man]]. And in general she is a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Character of Awesome]].