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Historically, women have always worked, whether it was paid or unpaid labor. In the work force the public initially accepted women as teachers. Therefore, pioneering Oklahoma women worked as educators in Indian and Oklahoma territories. Representative of these women were missionary Ann Eliza (Worcester) Robertson, who taught at Park Hill and at Tullahassee, and Ann Wilson, who served as principal teacher of the Cherokee Female Seminary. Around the turn of the twentieth century Isabel Crawford worked with the Kiowa in southwestern Oklahoma Territory. Before public schools opened, women operated subscription schools, earning approximately one dollar per child per month.

Oklahoma women have also held leadership roles in education. Before statehood women accounted for 26 percent and 20 percent of the county superintendents of public instruction in Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, respectively. By the twentieth century Emily Smith was dean of Altus Junior College, and Kate Zaneis was president of Southeastern Oklahoma State Teachers College. An African American, Judith Ann Horton, served on the board of regents for the State Training School for Negro Boys at Taft. When Sandy Garrett took office in 1991, she became the first woman to be elected as state superintendent of public instruction. By the twenty-first century Joe Anna Hibler, Janet Cunningham, JoAnn Haysbert, and Cynthia Ross served as presidents of Oklahoma universities.

In addition to teaching, early-day Oklahoma women were accepted as photographers, authors, and journalists. Ada Garside, Annette Ross Hume, and Emma Coleman represent three of approximately one hundred women performing photography work in the Twin Territories. Journalist Ora Eddleman Reed served as editor of the Twin Territories: The Indian Magazine. In 1902 twenty-one-year-old Maude Thomas bought the Beaver Herald after having worked as a typesetter. She was the first woman member of the Oklahoma Press Association. Edith Johnson worked as society editor for the Daily Oklahoman from 1908 to 1958, and from 1892 onward Elva Ferguson helped her husband publish the Watonga Republican. Club woman Lola Pearson started her journalistic career in the 1920s as associate editor for the Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman magazine. Nonfiction writers garnered recognition in the early twentieth century and have included Angie Debo, Carolyn Thomas Foreman, Margaret Morse Nice, and Edith Force Kassing. Authors of fiction included Jennie Oliver, Vingie Roe, Blanche Hunt, Aletha Conner, Alice Covert, and Oklahoma’s first poet laureate, Violet McDougal.

As women became more visible in the public sphere and as more educational opportunities opened for them, women found a greater variety of work options. A December 11, 1904, Daily Oklahoman article, “The Woman Who Toils,” stated that a woman could assume many occupations previously barred to her. She could become a pilot, an architect, or a roofer. Women were entering the professional fields of law, medicine, and dentistry. Representative of these new women were Theresa Tyler, who had a dental practice in Watonga, and Margaret McVean, the first lawyer sworn in on statehood day. Ella Mooney received her pharmacist license in 1901. After gaining a medical degree in 1892, Isabell Cobb practiced medicine in rural Indian Territory, and Winonah Sanger began her medical practice in Oklahoma City in 1904. In 1920 Sallie Sturgeon was appointed as inspector for the Oklahoma State Health Department, and Clara Waters became warden of the Oklahoma State Reformatory in 1927.