Women of Boulder City

The Boulder Dam Hotel was a needed addition to the town of Boulder City as the dam (Boulder/Hoover) was being built. It served the many who came to the dam as tourists, but also provided employment for residents of the town. Naturally, since many of the men worked at the dam, the jobs were filled by women.

Often, the jobs the women took became a bone of contention with the men. Some still believed a woman's place was in the home. Just as some men today believe women should carry the responsibility of a job. Regardless of the times, the forces of the status quo made people question necessity. And necessity is something that can always be questioned.

Nevertheless, Boulder City was known for it's friendliness, cleanliness, near-holiness among its residents and it made it easy for women to move about, establishing businesses, schools, parks and hospitals to again, having a menial job that gave them some economic freedom.

It's here at the Boulder Dam Hotel, comfortable, spacious and immaculate that became a place where some women for the first time in their lives could begin to take responsibility for their own life. Such menial tasks as housekeeping could mean economic freedom for a woman. She could further her education to become a doctor, teacher or architect. She could afford to pay her own way east and visit family. For often time, she had already up and left behind everything on behalf of her husband's last ditch effort for a job working on the dam.

The women of Boulder City, many torn from their past, would keep on choosing to add new life to their future. Like the Colorado River on a course altered by the dam, they were also destined in their direction all along.