<sod>Most single women came as part of a family group or as an ''"entertainer"''.  Many men did not find their fortune in the gold fields, and having a woman around to earn money with boarding, washing, cooking, sewing, etc. could mean the difference between the family living well and not.<ref>{{Harvnb|Moynihan|Armitage|Fischer Dichamp|1990|pp= xvii, 3}}</ref> A few women even had their own gold mining claims and came out west with the specific intention of panning for gold. As the easy to find placer gold became scarcer or harder to work and mining became more complex than panning for gold as well as capital and labor intensive, women typically moved out of the goldfields and into some other type of work. Most women had many marriage proposals and could get married almost as soon as they found someone they liked.<ref>{{Harvnb|Taniguchi|2000|p=150}}</ref> Some women, like [[Julia Shannon]] and Julia Randolph became well-known professional photographers, a field that was relatively easy for women to enter, though it was still dominated by men. <ref>Thomas Maxwell-Long, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9RODBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT70&lpg=PT70&dq=women+photographers+gold+rush&source=bl&ots=pQLf-MDoyF&sig=KMP3-GRx33uGX61H9jTbvIW8xbA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjn4GcqNvPAhWojFQKHW7lAKcQ6AEIYDAQ#v=onepage&q=women%20photographers%20gold%20rush&f=false Daily Life during the California Gold Rush], ABC-CLIO, Sep 9, 2014</ref> [[Eleanor Dumont]], or Madame Moustache, as she was sometimes known, earned her living as a [[card shark]], moving from town to town, and eventually opened up her own gambling parlor. <ref>Alton Pryor, Fascinating Women in California History, Stagecoach Pub., Apr 1, 2003 </ref><eod>
<sod>Most single women came as part of a family group or as an ''"entertainer"''.  Many men did not find their fortune in the gold fields, and having a woman around to earn money with boarding, washing, cooking, sewing, etc. could mean the difference between the family living well and not.<ref>{{Harvnb|Moynihan|Armitage|Fischer Dichamp|1990|pp= xvii, 3}}</ref> A few women even had their own gold mining claims and came out west with the specific intention of panning for gold. As the easy to find placer gold became scarcer or harder to work and mining became more complex than panning for gold as well as capital and labor intensive, women typically moved out of the goldfields and into some other type of work. Most women had many marriage proposals and could get married almost as soon as they found someone they liked.<ref>{{Harvnb|Taniguchi|2000|p=150}}</ref> <eod>