Women During the California Gold Rush

Women During the California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush was an era in which people sought opportunity, and not just men, but women. In a sea of men, women had to adapt to the good and bad attention they received during this time. It was difficult for them to earn the creditability as a laborer and it was especially difficult for them to escape the stereotypes that go along with being a woman. Throughout the Gold rush, women strove for wealth and success, just as the men did, yet their journey had much more tribulations than a man would have had. The identity crisis these Gold Rush women endured was a difficult one, but they managed to exceed in their goals and established a foundation for future rights of women.

The arrival of migrants was massive, with men being the larger population, women were set on a pedestal when surrounded by a crowd of men. An article, Gold Rush Women, by Betty Sederquist states that "women were in much demand in those early days. Steamboat agents would cry out, "Ladies on board" to draw customers. Men conspired with relatives at home to bring out women who had not found husbands. A mercenary groom in Shasta advertised admission to his wedding, charging $5.00 a ticket, enough to set up a fine household." The rarity of women had such a strain on men, so the first sight of one overwhelmed the men with joy. Don Baumgart writes in his article, Women Miners Shared Gold Rush Hardships, that "men in the camp were polite and considerate toward the woman and one day a miner stopped as he passed the tent. "Excuse me madam, may I speak to the little girl? We see so few ladies and children in California, and she is about the size of a little sister I left at home." This yearning for a piece of home was an open opportunity for women to grasp.

Women began to realize that they were in demand and that they were needed to help these

migrants feel as if they were home. For instance, in an article titled Gold Rush Women by Betty Sederquist, discovered a woman by the name of Sarah Royce who became an essential asset to the miners that lived in a boarding house. A "man who kept the boarding house had offered her a hundred dollars a month to cook three meals a day for his boarders, that she was to do no dishwashing and was to have someone help her all the time she was cooking." Sarah Royce fulfilled the needs of men by becoming their piece of home, as did a woman named Margaret Frink. As Bee Staff Writer, Steve Wiegand, noted in his article The California Gold Rush: An era remembered, "Margaret Frink opened a hotel with her husband on K street in Sacramento in 1850, complete with a distinctive gimmick-free, fresh milk. "This was a great attraction to men," she wrote, "many of whom had not tasted milk for one or two years." Both women portrayed the loving and caring characteristic that helped men keep sane in a place where women were practically obsolete.

Not only did women feel obligated to depict a nurturing trait while being surrounded by men, but they also felt the need to degrade themselves by hiding their femininity by becoming a man or becoming a prostitute. In the article, Women Miners Shared Gold Rush Hardships, Don Baumgart illustrates that "some of the Gold Rush women found life easier if they his their femininity. Elsa Jane Guerin led the life of "Mountain Charley" and became a prospector. She/he eventually did well enough in the gold fields to buy a ranch in Shasta Valley, where pack mule trading became a money-maker. After collecting a sizeable bankroll Mountain Charley disappeared and Elsa Guerin returned to St. Louis, her children and a life as a woman." Not only did hardships come from trying to fit in as a man, but from trying to fit in with a man. Betty Sederquist reports in her article, Gold Rush Women, that women "began to flock in from all parts of the world-the Marquesas, Peru, Australia- and they were the first women to go to the river camps in any number, and they prospered wherever they settled; one noted prostitute claimed to have earned $50,000 in a few months. Native American women were victimized, freely passed around at camps." In order to be accepted, women felt as though they needed to transform their identity, in obedience to men, to ultimately gain fortune in California.

Though the time of the Gold Rush consisted of many trials and tribulations, women surpassed the them all and sought the beauty in their struggle. Bee Staff Writer, Kathryn Dore Perkins wrote in her article 'Real Women' who defied stereotype, that "life was exhilarating for women cut loose from the social constraints of the East. One wrote: "A smart woman can do very well in this country. True, there are not many comforts and one must work all the time and work hard,