What was the Australian gold rush like for women?

Answer 1

A lot of women lost their husbands to the gold rush, temporarily or permanently. Men abandoned their jobs and their families to travel to the diggings in order to strike it rich. This meant that women had to shoulder a lot more responsibility, including farm labour, and children also took on more responsibilities. Early in the gold rushes, very few women joined the men on the diggings. After a few years, conditions improved enough on the goldfields for women to take their children and join their husbands there. Naturally, with fewer amenities, women were more likely to suffer ill-effects from childbirth, or their children were stillborn. The goldfields were ripe for the spread of diseases such as diptheria, whooping cough, measles, typhoid and scarlet fever. Some women made the most of the male-dominated society, and made their own fortune entertaining the men. Dancers (and women of other occupations) were often paid in gold nuggets.