Other Forms of Women's Work
A few women came to California with their husbands and children and often help pan for gold or earn wages/cash while the husband tried his luck panning for gold. One of the most popular ways for a woman to earn a living was to run a boarding house. California was about the only place that women could earn wages higher than men for equivalent work because women were scarce, and the men would pay just to be in their company and have them do household tasks the men did not want or know how to do.
Most single women came as part of a family group or as an "entertainer". Many men did not find their fortune in the gold fields, and having a woman around to earn money with boarding, washing, cooking, sewing, etc. could mean the difference between the family living well and not. A few women even had their own gold mining claims and came out west with the specific intention of panning for gold. As the easy to find placer gold became scarcer or harder to work and mining became more complex than panning for gold as well as capital and labor intensive, women typically moved out of the goldfields and into some other type of work. Most women had many marriage proposals and could get married almost as soon as they found someone they liked.
In the mines in the Sierra Nevadas, where there were fewer white women, Mexican and Chilean women gained importance as increased competition caused them to leave the larger towns and cities and go to the smaller gold mining camps. This opportunity for upward economic gain was easier for non-white women than for non-white men.
Read more about this topic: Women In The California Gold Rush
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