Golf Rush Gender Roles
Gold Rush Gender Roles During the 1840s men and women of the United States heard of money making opportunities in California known as the California Gold Rush. Learning of the fortune to be had middle class families packed up their things in wooden wagons and trekked across the Overland Trail. This decision not only changed the gender roles of men and women but also caused them to share the different chores of day-to-day life.
The reason behind the shift in gender roles was the vicinity in which they were practiced. Before families took to the wagons, where they would live within close quarters, gender roles could be distinguished by locality. In other words, the home was strictly feminine and the market, or outside world, was masculine. Women stayed home to do the cooking and cleaning whereas men went out into the work place to earn the money.1 This division disappeared on the Overland Trail, which is what lead to the sharing of a once divided workload.
One of the roles that men and women shared occasionally was cooking. Even though this was seen as woman’s job, men would cook when the women were not on the trip or they were busy carrying out other tasks. Some, like John A. Johnson, were eager to take up the role of cooking, he wrote home to his wife, “ yesterday our mess… proposed that if I would act as cook on the road I would be relieved from and every other kind of work.”2 The way Johnson writes about his new job makes it sound like he is excited that he will not have to work as hard, and that cooking for his group will be easier. But, a few days later he writes again, admitting that the work was slavish and he would be going back to doing a man’s work.3
Another chore that was even more frequently divided was driving the wagons and the stock. Peter Burnett even recalled in his journal, “ Mrs. Burnett and myself drove and slept alternately during the day.”4 Even so, men were less likely to admit that their wife was doing their work. Only one fifth of
The reason behind the shift in gender roles was the vicinity in which they were practiced. Before families took to the wagons, where they would live within close quarters, gender roles could be distinguished by locality. In other words, the home was strictly feminine and the market, or outside world, was masculine. Women stayed home to do the cooking and cleaning whereas men went out into the work place to earn the money.1 This division disappeared on the Overland Trail, which is what lead to the sharing of a once divided workload.
One of the roles that men and women shared occasionally was cooking. Even though this was seen as woman’s job, men would cook when the women were not on the trip or they were busy carrying out other tasks. Some, like John A. Johnson, were eager to take up the role of cooking, he wrote home to his wife, “ yesterday our mess… proposed that if I would act as cook on the road I would be relieved from and every other kind of work.”2 The way Johnson writes about his new job makes it sound like he is excited that he will not have to work as hard, and that cooking for his group will be easier. But, a few days later he writes again, admitting that the work was slavish and he would be going back to doing a man’s work.3
Another chore that was even more frequently divided was driving the wagons and the stock. Peter Burnett even recalled in his journal, “ Mrs. Burnett and myself drove and slept alternately during the day.”4 Even so, men were less likely to admit that their wife was doing their work. Only one fifth of