Chilkoot Pass - Women On The Trails

Women On The Trails

Men and women viewed the Gold Rush as an opportunity to make vast amounts of money and to break out of poverty. It was estimated through investigating the steam ship passenger lists that approximately 1500 women made the trek through the Chilkoot and White trails. This would account for seven percent of all the travelers between December 1898 and September 1900. At the beginnings of the gold rush stampede it is estimated there were only a few hundred women (non-natives) involved in the rush. Some of these women were wives of the stampeders, while others had traveled in order to gain employment as clerks, teachers, cooks, nurses, and prostitutes. It was also written that at camp Linderman the doctor was a woman. The trip through the trails and across the passes was very difficult because of the style of dress that was in style at the time. The skirts which had been popular at the time were ill suited for any physical labour. The skirts were often made with five yards (or more) of material and were very heavy and cumbersome. The use of corsets and petticoats limited mobility and the high collars of the time required women to hold their heads high and, depending on the outfit, tilt their heads back. There had been a women’s movement during this time which allowed women more freedom in the way they dressed. In order to climb the Chilkoot Pass and travel the trails, women began to wear bloomers or knickers. These were long billowing pants which were collected at the ankle or even just below the knees. This allowed the women to shorten their skirts and have a safer trip than those who were forced to remain in their long billowing skirts. The skirts were generally shortened to knee length as this was considered controversial, but more acceptable. Some of the women who traveled to the Klondike had left their children behind as there were few people willing to subject their children to the difficulties of the trails and passes.