Article content continued

Even though, in today’s world, gold digger is a term most often associated with women, it was traditionally men who sought plentiful dowries upon marriage. This saw groups of men target daughters of wealthy families to increase their standing. Female gold diggers didn’t take centre stage until The Great Depression. Women who weren’t married were in a precarious position: there was no work to be found, and many still lived at home and were burdens on their parents.

And so, romance took a backseat to survival instincts, as young women began working in burlesque clubs as a way to meet men with means. If a man could afford to be hanging around such an establishment in the 1930s, chances were he was wealthy. Many of these women used their newfound riches to support basic needs rather than buy themselves expensive jewellery or furs. The gold diggers of the 1930s weren’t driven by greed or vanity, but rather the need for food, shelter and security.

As a result, the gold digger became a sympathetic character known for her street smarts and willingness to make the most out of what she was given. The classic films Gold Diggers of 1933 and 42nd Street centred around such characters and were eventually selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

In The Gold Digger as Icon: Exposing Inequity in the Great Depression, Clarence R. Stevens writes that gold diggers “also pushed forward inequities between men and women in an economic situation that only allowed limited job access to women… exposing flaws in a system that forces her to circumvent acceptable avenues in order to survive.” In this sense, Depression-era gold diggers can be seen as torchbearers for feminism, pushing issues of class, gender and morality forward. The rise of the street-smart gold digger directly correlated with a decline in favourable attitudes towards society women and industry titans. They were the era’s Robin Hoods, redistributing income and bridging inequality.