“Woman Poses as Cowboy in Idaho for 25 Years” ... read headlines all over the country when Josephine Monaghan’s death in 1903 revealed her well-kept secret. This diminutive rancher, homesteader, miner, and sheep-wrangler, who stood a mere 5’2” in her cowboy boots, had lived successfully as a man since she’d headed west in 1867. Born into a prominent Buffalo family in 1843, Josephine had run away to New York City to give birth to her illegitimate child. At the tender age of 24, she left Laddie in the care of her sister and supported him from afar, sending money back east every month until her death.

Monaghan’s life tantalizes history buffs, cross-dressers, feminists, and ranchers alike! In a time when size matters, and speculations on genetic propensities have refueled the gender war, a tiny woman cowboy succeeding at things she would have undoubtedly been considered absolutely incapable of doing had her gender been known seems like a fantastic, feminist triumph. But of course economic and social positions, as well as violence, are vital feminist concerns, too—and Monaghan’s story hints at them in less triumphant ways. The combination of intrigue and food for thought has proven to be a source of inspiration for artists: in addition to Lebow’s play, Monaghan’s life was imagined by filmmaker Maggie Greenwald in The Ballad of Little Jo and by Sarah Schlesinger and Mike Reid in a play of the same name (which is scheduled for an Off-Broadway revival later this year).

Barbara Lebow was born in Brooklyn, New York, but has resided in Atlanta since 1962. Following her degree from Vassar, she became the playwright-in-residence at Academy Theatre in Georgia, where she still serves as playwriting consultant and teacher training facilitator. Over the years she has received numerous awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a TCG/Pew Theatre Artists Residency, and an NEA/TCG Residency. Of the thirty-plus plays she’s had produced, A Shayna Maidel (which was produced Off-Broadway in the 1980s) continues to be the most popular. Her focus of late has been on theatre in human service, creating plays with women in homeless shelters, prisons, addiction rehab centers, and the developmentally disabled.

[April 2005]

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