Diné Women Building Community from the Ground Up: Profiles in Leadership

As the stories remind us, women's roles, modeled on those of the female deities who figure so prominently in the Navajo creation narratives, indicate that women are conveyers of Diné beliefs and values. Although Navajo women have experienced changes under colonialism, they look to the roles set down in the traditional stories as guidelines for life. As the stories from Asdzáá Tl'ógí [Juanita, wife of Navajo chief, Manuelito] descendants illustrate, women continue to be held in high regard in their communities, where they exercise authority and enjoy a measure of autonomy through their roles as grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. In many ways, women also link the traditional status of womanhood to their roles outside of the home, in the workplace, in professional settings, and in other public arenas.