Women in The California Gold Rush - Marriage

Marriage

Due to the very low number of women in Gold Rush California, the marriage market was in women’s favor. While parental approval and economic concerns still occasionally played a role in engagements, they decreased in importance. Mixed marriages, while still stigmatized, were more common in California due to the diverse pool of women in which white women were a small minority. Women also found it easier to get a divorce in California than elsewhere as the judges seemed to want to increase the number of women in the marriageable pool. As divorcees, these women did not receive the negative public scrutiny sometimes evident elsewhere because divorce was often part of the new Californian culture. Eligible women usually had several proposals for marriage in a short time.

Starting in the mid-1850s, people began to “civilize” the Gold Rush population by settling into their traditional roles, mores and economic classes and abandoning non-traditional gender roles. Many lone men sent for their families and middle class American morality re-emerged as the number of middle class wives and families increased. It is estimated that about 30% of the male miners were married men who had left their families to try their luck in California. Many men returned back to their homes but many more decided get their family to California and stay. The influx of more white women, who were seen as symbols of purity and morality in the typical Victorian view, often changed the "accepted" morality and mores. In some Societies and communities with large populations of non-white immigrants some non-white male groups were assigned formerly “feminine” roles(e.g., the Chinese laundry and cooks).