Women in the American West are often described as great civilizers, their importance and usefulness stemming from their ability to make the West better and more comfortable for men. The Harvey Girls are no exception in most literature. The Harvey Girls were a group of young women brought West as waitresses and were one of the first organized female labor forces in the U.S. The Harvey Girls were not just waitresses; by working in a job that was typically considered immoral, the Harvey Girls unintentionally opened the doors to the workplace to many more women by showing a working woman could still be a lady. They also provide an interesting transitional step from the 19th century ideal of a True Woman to the New Woman of the early 20th. By maintaining their virtue and the 19th century ideal of niceness (with the help of the paternalistic owner Fred Harvey) and exploring their independence, financially as employees and socially by moving away from their families, the Harvey Girls provide an example of the transition from the True to a New woman.