Women as Sole Traders in Gold Rush San Francisco: Finding Relevance in Long-Silenced Points of View

Jonathan Swift reflected, 'laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.' Married women operating boardinghouses in San Francisco during the Gold Rush became caught in legal wrangles over land and were called to court. Cases that reached the California Supreme Court involving married women related to their fundamental ability of to contract to develop land and improve buildings. These cases set precedents throughout the state because San Francisco's problematic approaches to land allocation. Women who operated boardinghouses between 1849 and 1855 were plunged into an unregulated local climate of fierce real estate speculation. The balance of justice during the 1850s favored white American males who shaped laws to foster speculation while women quietly developed enterprises in the private sector to help make ends meet.1 Whether women operated family boardinghouses in their homes; commercial boardinghouses and small hotels; or conducted other type of businesses laws written during California's formative years shaped their experiences.