The primary objective of this study is to find, statistically, how the women of Portland lived out their lives. By exploring the role of ethnicity, work and family, and the inter-relationships of these variables, upon their life choices, it is hoped a picture of women will result that can be used as a base for further interpretations on the community of women and the role they play in society. The study is based on data gathered from the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Federal Manuscript Census Schedules for the city of Portland and East Portland and utilizes a sample of 8,012 women, aged fifteen years or older, comprising the entire adult female population of the city during the census years of 1860, 1870 and 1880. The information coded for each woman includes age, marital status, ethnicity, occupation, whether or not she was head of a household, the number of children present in the home, her husband's ethnicity and a rough categorization of his occupation, the type of family residence. The data was then interpreted using a simple cross-variable program. The introduction sets the theoretical framework for the study and places it in the historiography of women and the family. Chapter I is a brief survey of the community of Portland and the development of its various institutions to use as a backdrop for the general statistical picture of women developed in Chapter II. The differences apparent in the various ethnic groups and changes over the three census periods for marital status, and intermarriage tendencies are investigated in Chapter III, and Chapter IV deals with family structure. Chapter V covers general work trends for women, cites several of the larger occupational cohorts and compares Portland's female labor force to several other urban areas for 1880. Appendix A is an explanation of the methodology employed and some of the problems encountered in the study. Appendix B is the entire collection of charts extrapolated from the data by the program used. It should be noted that all of the data was not utilized in this study, and even more information can be gotten from the data by the use of a more sophisticated program. The author hopes to rework the data at a later date for a more in-depth study.

This thesis tells the stories of five Oregon women who transcended the customary roles of their era. Active during the waning years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, each woman made a difference in the world around them. Their stories have either not been told or just given a passing glance. These tales are important because they inform us about our society on the cusp of the twentieth century. Hattie Crawford Redmond was the daughter of a freed slave who devoted herself to the fight for women's suffrage. Minnie Mossman Hill was the first woman steamboat pilot west of the Mississippi. Mary Francis Isom was a local librarian who went to France to deliver books to American soldiers. Ann and May Shogren were sisters who brought high fashion to Portland and defied the gender and social rules in both their business and personal lives. These women were not the only ones who accomplished extraordinary things during their lives. They are a tiny sample of Oregon women who pushed beyond discrimination, hardship and gender limits to earn their place in Oregon's history.