When Laura Ingalls Wilder first published "Little House in the Big Woods," things had begun to change slowly for women at the time. The 19th amendment was 12 years old, and Hattie Caraway had become the first woman elected to the Senate, but vocations were still limited for women. Trying to make ends meet during the financial hardships of the Great Depression, Wilder reluctantly wrote the books detailing her early life on the plains. Her first book was a hit, which led her to write more, which together eventually served as the basis for the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series, which ran for nine seasons from 1974 to 1983.