In the West, at many ranch, farm, and rodeo businesses, it is women who run the office, taking care of all the correspondence and the finances of the operation. Andy Russell was an Albertan cowboy, author, and conservationist known for his adventurous life in the wilderness and writings about the Rocky Mountains and rural life in the West. Here is what he said about his grandmother, who ran his family’s ranch in the mid-20th century:
“My grandmother was a tough lady but the paramount quality in her character was dignity. She had a retentive mind with a marvellous memory for things she read as well as for times, places, and figures. She kept the books for the growing business and did it with her usual attention to detail. As a boy I recall her getting into an argument over some figures with her lawyer, which she won without any fuss, in a quiet way that was very final and left him red-faced.”
from Andy Russell, The Canadian Cowboy: Stories of Cows, Cowboys, and Cayuses (1993).