Women in Eureka and Gold Rush- Felicity Searle
In the early years of the gold rush, there weren't many women present on the goldfields. Most women stayed home to cater for their families and look after the children, and some worked at small shops at the digging site. They made very little earnings, so their husbands went to live and work at the diggings. Women's work included cooking, washing, ironing and looking after the children. They made staple food items like bread, butter and jam, as well as making clothing for their family. A typical day for a woman living in Australia in the 1850's would start with an early rise at dawn to re-stoke the fire, make breakfast and milk the cows. They also worked in the veggie patches, knitting and sewing items for the house and washing all the clothes. They were the main support system for the family and their husbands who worked six days every week on the goldfields, often not finding much gold. When it came to democracy women did not get to contribute because men outnumbered the women. Men did most the work digging and finding gold, men thought women were not capable of working on the gold fields so they didn't contribute to that. A lady named Caroline Chisholm helped the women on the goldfields find work and get their lives together while their husbands worked in the goldfields. Without her, most of the young women would only have prostitution and crime to get by day by day. Significant figures like Caroline and Anastasia Withers made women an important part of democracy. Anastasia withers, she started off as a convict who came to live Victoria. Anastasia and her husband wanted to put that criminal life behind them and start a new beginning in Australia. Her convict record included theft of a property. She was one of the most significant women in Australia during this time because she wasn't just the first woman on the goldfields, but she also sewed the Eureka Flag, which flew over the Eureka Stockade throughout the famous battle. Authorities were going after her because she was one of the people who helped create the "rebel flag", her and family fled to Ararat and opened up a fruit shop. The flag is massive symbol of democracy that occurred in the 1850s because it is used as a sign of rebellion against authority by people at different ends of the political line in Australia.
Anastasia Withers Caroline Chisholm
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