Women on the Gold Field
Life on the goldfields was a strange and new time for everyone involved, in particular, for women. Women would be brought over with their husbands from their hometown; sometimes they would be left in Melbourne, sometimes they would have to endure the harsh conditions of a Gold Rush site. Women were very involved in various aspects of the Gold Rush. They were involved commercially and economically; they ran shops and some of them mined for alluvial and deep reef gold. They were involved culturally; they became part of performances, others became domestic housewives and servants. They were also part of the Eureka Rebellion; they organised petitions, attended meetings, they also helped give an idea of men’s motivation.
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Some women who were left in Melbourne or came to Melbourne on their own; started shops that sold various important items for the miners, Ellen Clacy, in 1852, described shops on the diggings as places where ‘everything required by a digger can be obtained for money, from sugar-candy to potted anchovies; from East India pickles to Bass’s pale ale.’ Some women decided to make the trip from Melbourne to Ballarat to set up a shop, Like Martha Clendinning and her sister, their husbands left them in Melbourne and they made the journey on their own carrying a number of things to stock in the store. Other women decided to pan for gold themselves, they would work beside the men panning for alluvial gold with just as much energy and vigor as men. The protagonist in the fiction book Bridie’s Fire that is based on the Australian Gold Rush: is taken to Australia as a servant girl, she then runs away, binds her chest, wears boy’s clothes, cuts her hair and adopts a fake boys name, just to mine for some gold. Although women weren’t accepted as part of the gold rush, some still rejected the societal pressures and became successful gold miners and businesswomen and were an important part of the commercial aspects of …show more content…
The number of men heavily outweighed the number of women so there was a lot of single men (or men whose wives were back home), because of this many women became exoitic dancers. Lola Montez was one such dancer, her most famous dance is called the spider dance and it included the removal of several layers of her clothing, she would frequently be showered in small gold nuggets for her performances. Other women turned to straight prostitution, they would go back with men to their tents or houses for money. Although some women did things like this most women were domestic housewives or servants, they were important in settling and culturalizing the town, although societal norms weren’t as apparent in Australia, women were still expected to be the fairer gender. A general day for a domestic housewife would be all the cooking, cleaning and basic farm duties, they would probably be the first up and the last to bed. Women were very important in creating culture and settling the people and towns during the Australian gold
The book begins by explaining the roles that women in this time were known to have as this helps the reader get a background understanding of a woman’s life pre-war. This is done because later in the book women begin to break the standards that they are expected to have. It shows just how determined and motivated these revolutionary women and mothers were for independence. First and foremost, many people believed that a “woman’s truth was that God had created her to be a helpmate to a man” (p.4). Women focused on the domain of their households and families, and left the intellectual issues of the time and education to the men. Legally, women had almost no rights. Oppressed by law and tradition, women were restricted their choice of professions regardless of their identity or economic status. As a result, many women were left with few choices and were cornered into marriage or spinsterhood, which also had its limitations. As a spinster, you were deemed as unmarried who was past the usual age of marriage. Patronized by society, these women were left and stamped as “rejected”. On the other side, If the woman became married, all that she owned belonged to her husband, even her own existence. In exchange to her commitment, if a woman’s husband was away serving in the military or if she became a widower, she could use but not own, one-third of her husband’s property. This left her to manage the land and serve as a surrogate laborer in her husband’s absence. Needless to say, a day in a woman’s life then was filled with a full day of multi-tasking and as circumstances changed, more women had to adapt to their urban
Women of the nineteenth century had very set expectations. There were only two types of women: upper class bourgeoisie and lower class farmer’s wives or daughters. Women were considered physically weaker to men, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic sphere while the men workers and made the money. The mill girls defied all of this, and created their own class of women: wage earning middle class women. These women were not like farmers’ wives that were typically uneducated, nor like the bourgeoisie women that were educated, by mostly in domestic and “womanly” skills. The mill girls went to college if they so desired, most of the time doing that in the stead of getting married and becoming a housewife. The mill girls were a
In the testimony Women Miners in the English Coal Pits written in 1842, the writer,
After listening to “Gold Rush Brides” by Natalie Merchant and reading its lyrics, I have come to a conclusion that this song is about the suffering of women who weren’t white during the Gold Rush era. She sings, “Who were the homestead wives? Who were the gold rush brides? Does anybody know? Do their works survive, their yellow fever lives in the pages they wrote?” This shows how women’s effort and work (excluding white women) during that time wasn’t as recognized as it should be. She also sings. “Dakota on the wall is a white-robed woman, broad yet maidenly. Such power in her hand as she hails the wagon man's family. I see Indians that crawl through this mural that recalls our history. Women at that time were insufficient in California. Men
During the Gilded Age, industrial capitalism (known as the 2nd industrial revolution) became the driving force to transforming the economies in Europe and in the United States. Industrial capitalism was also the foundation for creating a global economy. Many of the business practices and profits derived from commercial capitalism and industrial capitalism. These profits came from machinery, technology, large factories and processing plants. Even though progress and profits came with the Gilded Age, it also brought tensions, conflicts and misery. It also sparked an unbalance social and economic order for workers’ wages and working conditions. This period in history brought heavy masses of immigration to the country. In addition, continuous struggles and ongoing between labor, capital and increased growth in urbanization. Today, we see these similarities and
The Colonial Period was partially a "golden age" for women, for, although it did possess some qualities of a golden age, it also had aspects that held it back from fully being a time of prosperity for women. As the Colonial period progress changes in population, lifestyles, and opportunities had effects that opened new doors for women as well as held them back from reaching their full potential.
Evidence can be gleaned from the remaining copies of newspapers from this time period as to the types of jobs that women were pursuing. There were three types of ads offering work for them. The first, which comprised about 43% of the total, was for those who had involved herself in some kind of economic activity ad was seeking to market her product. The second type was for women who were ot presently employed, but seeking to find a particular type of work. This could include nurses, seamstresses and domestic help. The third ad category was seeking to employ a female as a wet nurse, housekeeper, and even plantation and dairy managers, shopkeepers or teachers.11.
They were mostly in charge of raising children and keeping the house clean and properly functioning. They were mostly financially dependent on their husbands because it was it was considered odd for them to earn money themselves. When factories and new machines begin to revolutionize the American economy, women's roles were changed entirely. The Marketing Revolution creates opportunities for women to earn their own wages and buy things, like clothes and food, which they may not have been able to buy previously themselves without the permission of their husbands to use their money. Women were trying to change the views of gender roles that was implied in society. Most of these women had left their families and worked to achieve a future for themselves while only a small portion of them decided to stay with family back
They took on responsibilities traditionally associated with men. For a time, they were the ones at the heads of families, managing land and businesses. They were the ones using intellect to manage finances and physical strength in both the farm fields and battlefields. At times they weren’t being portrayed as the “weaker sex,” and even when they were, they used it to their advantage to obtain key information needed to win battles. These women were determined and dependable, assisting in countless ways, many even risked their own lives in doing their “patriotic
Clara Barton’s ‘The Women Who Went to the Field’ describes the work of women and the contribution they made on the civil war battlefield in 1861. Barton highlights the fact that when the American Civil War broke out women turned their attention to the conflict and played a key role throughout as nurses. Therefore, at first glance this poem could in fact be seen as a commemoration of the women who served in the American Civil War as its publications in newspapers and magazines in 1892 ensured that all Civil War veterans were honoured and remembered, including the women. However, when reading this poem from a feminist perspective it can be seen instead as a statement on the changing roles of women; gender roles became malleable as women had the
Many women came to California to work as prostitutes or entertainers during the 1850s. They did this because there were so few women to satisfy all of the men mining in the gold fields. During this time women who chose to be prostitutes were not looked down upon because they were so desirable. Many women also came to take advantage of the possibility of marrying a rich miner and getting out of the prostitution business. Not all women however came to California to prostitute and eventually find themselves a husband. Some came along with their husbands and would earn a living by running boarding homes while their husbands would pan for gold (Wikipedia). There were many influential women that came to California during this time period. They were able to make a name for themselves, and some left an everlasting impression on San Francisco.
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
They were left to juggle raising small children, rising prices, shortages of medicines and the possibility of the loo of loved ones. Women stepped in and tilled fields, manages shops or worked docks. Supplies ran short, conditions were not ideal and life was tougher than it ever has been. Women improvised and became resourceful. Farm wives were no stranger to working on the farm, but doing the day to day jobs that were typically men 's tasks were uncharted territory. Jobs like mending fences, cutting and storing firewood were ones that women adapted to. In addition to their more stereotypical roles like mothering, cooking, weeding, and sewing. Women evolved into negotiators in their new role. Wives has never bargained the sale of crops, bought farm equipment, or paid laborers. Women has a renewed cal d
The Gold Rush was one of the most influential times in California History. During the four years from 1848-1852, 400,000 new people flooded into the state. People from many countries and social classes moved to California, and many of them settled in San Francisco. All this diversity in one place created a very interesting dynamic. California during the Gold Rush, was a place of colliding ideals. The 49ers came from a very structured kind of life to a place where one was free to make up her own rules.
Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so.