Women of the Klondike

Joseph Leydon teaches geography at the University of Toronto.

The Klondike gold rush is a well-documented period of Canadian history
that continues to fascinate. As with most historical accounts,
treatments of the Klondike generally have a male-dominated subject
matter. Frances Backhouse’s book is an attempt to correct this
situation by focusing on the women of the Klondike.

There are many interesting aspects to this book, but overall
Backhouse’s treatment of the topic is very uneven. The best chapters
deal with the dancehall girls, prostitution, the nurses, and the
religious orders, topics on which considerable information already
exists. The author’s attempts to explore the lives of other females in
Klondike society—such as the wives, mothers, and housekeepers—is
less successful. Most of these women make brief cameo appearances
through extracts from diaries, letters, and travel accounts. There is no
attempt to knit this information together to provide an integrated
picture of the life of women during the gold rush. Likewise, even a
general account of Klondike society, politics, and organization would
have provided a badly needed context for the book.

In his foreword, Pierre Berton argues that the women of the Klondike
“marched to a different drum,” that they were unique. However, as we
read the book we discover that they were not that dissimilar to women
all over North America. The majority were wives fulfilling the roles of
housekeeper, cook, washerwoman, and mother; unmarried women were
teachers, nurses, barmaids, waitresses, dancehall girls, and
prostitutes. Few were directly involved in the gold rush, either in
staking claims or in mining gold. There seems to be little in
Backhouse’s book to support

Berton’s claim. Unfortunately, the search for the unique contribution
tends to undermine the important role played by all women in history.