One of the Boys: Ammie Wilson’s Challenge to Postwar Ideals of Femininity on the Stock Show Circuit

In January 1953, the men of the Plano, Texas, Rotary Club invited local favorite Ammie Wilson to speak at their meeting. Her experiences the previous fall at the Chicago International Livestock Exposition had piqued their interest. Wilson had raised Hampshire sheep since the 1930s, showing them on the circuit as early as 1941, but in 1952 a ewe she lovingly named Joan Crawford earned her what she had long coveted: the purple ribbon awarded to the grand champion. (Wilson named many of her sheep after celebrities of the day, including Ike Eisenhower, Chester Nimitz, and Doris Day.) She cherished the honor, she told her audience; “[y]ou have to earn what you get at the Chicago show, the best in the nation,” she explained. What stood out for Wilson while in Chicago, however, was the reception she received from many women in attendance at the show. After her ewe took the top honor, “at least 200 of them came by and kissed me,” she said.¹ Although friends and other observers acknowledged Wilson’s elation at the stock show results, her offhand comment about her female spectators indicates that their presence was, at least to her, almost as striking.

It makes sense for her to have seen the situation as noteworthy given the nature of her pursuits. The journalists who pursued Wilson from show to show commented frequently on the woman they called Miss Ammie. For more than a decade, newspapers described Wilson as “the woman who . . . invaded the man’s world” of sheep breeding. Although she went out of her way to garner attention with idiosyncratic western dress and clever banter, her skill in her chosen field left the strongest impression. By 1952 reporters declared her not only to be the sole female sheep breeder in the United States, but one of the best breeders in the country, male or female. (And she had hundreds of ribbons and banners decorating her living room to prove it.)² What makes these facts so noteworthy is that her success coincided with the emergence of what Betty Friedan branded the “feminine mystique” of the post-World War II period. In an era known for encouraging women to express themselves through home and family, Wilson stretched the boundaries of female opportunity by stepping into an arena typically reserved for men and excelling beyond her male peers. At the same time, her devotion to her craft led her to innovations that earned significant recognition by sheep breeders nationwide.

Her exploits came during a challenging, if frequently misunderstood, era. During World War II, many women took the place of husbands, brothers, and fathers in offices and factories while the men fought overseas. In the aftermath, however, society expected them to return to their homes as their men flooded back into the workplace. Concurrently, Cold War tensions accentuated the need for patriotic women who demonstrated the superiority of the American way of life. As Friedan described in her landmark work, The Feminine Mystique, women felt pressured to surrender higher ambitions in exchange for a comforting family life and a secure society. Although more women attended college than ever before, Friedan argued, many neglected their fields of study for a more domestic routine. Women felt trapped in a life not their own as a result, unable to express their inner selves.³

Yet the tale of squelched womanhood provides only a limited perspective. The popular press lauded the feminine homebody, but it also championed those who ventured out of their sphere to make a name for themselves. While younger women, still rearing infants and preschoolers, remained at home with their charges, those with older children remained in the workforce in ever-increasing numbers. Statistics indicated that by 1950 the percentage of women in the workplace had increased steadily since 1920, from 20 percent to 27 percent. Where working women in the postwar period differed is that many of them were much older, freed from the responsibilities of child-rearing and therefore more able to explore avenues...