Women in the West- Eva Freedman, Period 5

Women During the Gold Rush

Women played an equally large part in forging western societies during the gold rush without ever mining as male miners did. In fact, women were often responsible for creating stability for their families out of nothing, as very few gold miners actually struck it rich. Women had to bear and raise children with extremely limited resources and oftentimes without a husband at all, as men traveled frequently in search of untapped gold reserves. Additionally, women were scarce in California, as men traveled ahead and sent for their wives later. In 1850, the population of California reached 100,000, nearly all of them men, and ninety percent in search of gold. However, some women traveled to California alone, or had husbands who died, and were forced to become independent. Most independent women turned to prostitution for money, but many also found that everyday household chores, such as washing and mending and cooking, were in high demand as most miners were accustomed to having wives and mothers do these things for them and did not know how to do them themselves. And these jobs were highly paid. Women from the East who were tired of inhospitably low wages risked the transnational journey after hearing tell of women who made up to thirty dollars a day cooking and washing clothes. Some women were also professional gamblers. Gambling tables were present in every mining town, where men gambled the gold dust they had found that day playing the popular game Monte. Oftentimes women made more money selling homemade food than men in the town would make mining. California was one of the only states where women could earn as much as or more than a man for work. 

More and more women came to join their men or find independent lives for themselves as transportation to the West became cheaper and more efficient. Once travelers started using Panama to reach California, the traveling time was reduced to around 40 days instead of several months.

But before that time, women who had no money for the trip oftentimes had the fare paid for them by saloons and brothels that hired them upon their arrival. These women were known as "entertainers." However, most of these women eventually married miners who were either single or had decided to forget about their families back East and start a new life in California. Marriage rules were skewed in California as well. Traditions that were important in the East were disregarded in the West, such as parental approval for matches, and the stigma against mixed race marriages was less. Additionally, married women had the right to retain their property as stipulated in the first California state Constitution, created in 1849.

Not only white women gained an advantage from the gender imbalance in California. Since women in general were scarce, many South American and Indian women also found work and a decent living equal to that of the white women. In fact, non-white women had more social mobility than non-white men.

Works Cited

"Gold Rush Stories of Women Pioneers." Editorial. The Chronicle [San Francisco] 09 Sept. 1900. Museum of the City of San Francisco. Web. 04 Nov. 2011.

Marcello, Patricia Cronin. "No Place for a Woman?" Malakoff & Co. Web. 04 Nov. 2011.

US. Library of Congress. California as I Saw It. National Digital Library Program, 1997. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.