Women-owned businesses are taking over towns once dominated by truckers and oil workers. Five years ago, Williston, North Dakota, was a hedonistic mess. Busloads of oil workers who’d moved here to work on Bakken oil rigs revived by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, would clear supermarket shelves in minutes. Strippers were flown in from Las Vegas to meet demand in the male-dominated town. In March 2013, one man was shot dead following an argument outside a club. Today, ground zero of North Dakota’s oil patch is a very different place. In late 2014, the price of oil dropped by half, prompting most transient, single male workers to pack up and leave. Families of professionals on long-term contracts in the local energy sector moved to Williston, creating a demand for services female entrepreneurs have since successfully filled. |