While recently watching the Coen brothers' new movie, "True Grit," I thought of how the story of a 14-year-old girl functioning in a world of rough and ruthless men conforms to the longstanding American myth of the pioneer woman - a myth that is especially relevant today, in the wake of congressional legislation that would have perished without a woman's strong leadership. American women were central to pushing the country westward and managing frontier towns of men who would've been happy drinking, shooting and killing each other if the female desire for order and tranquility had not been imposed upon...