During, the early years of most mining towns, the largest class of working women were prostitutes. Although I did not run across much evidence of prostitution in Aspen, it did exist.

In Aspen, many women exercised their freedom to work and to become businesswomen, though usually on a small scale. Of course in the early 1880's the population of Aspen consisted almost entirely of men, and single men made up the largest group of people in Aspen for quite awhile. By 1885, however, women made up 27% of the population, or 1,193 compared to 3,239 men. Of those women, 430 were listed as either being a housewife or keeping house, 16 were dressmakers, 12 were seamstresses, 24 were servants, and one was a governess.

Women who did not run or own their own businesses often had limited opportunities to work in Aspen anyway. Wage-earning women, like businesswomen, had job opportunities limited to traditional female labor. An Irish woman called Ute Mary came to Aspen at the request of lames McClure. He wanted her to work at the Clarendon Hotel, but before it was built she helped the miners by sewing, nursing, and washing. The men in Aspen appreciated the work that women like Ute Mary did because women were in such short supply. As a result, finding a wife was important to many men in Aspen. McLaughlin brought women to Aspen to wait tables at the Clarendon by the stage load, but they married off so fast that he had to keep sending for more. Although both married and single women ran their own businesses, women who worked in the service sector were mostly single, albeit temporarily. The Aspen Times advertised for girls "wanted" on numerous occasions through 1896. Most ads were for positions doing general housework. Other ads recorded the need for women to sing and play piano at a beer hall, to work as a cashier at an office, to work for a laundress, to become an apprentice dressmaker, to cook, and to take over a miners' boardinghouse. Most of the want ads were for jobs a woman could fill, which shows that Aspen did have an active population of working women and adequate opportunities for them.

The Aspen Times as well as the directory provides evidence of businesswomen in Aspen. In 1881, its first year, the newspaper portrayed businesswomen respectfully and as having business acumen comparable to that of men. Some women, usually of the upper class, achieved positions of power. Mrs. Gillespie, for example, became the superintendent of public schools in December of 1881, and Mrs. Garretson was appointed postmistress of Texas Creek in the same month. These two women held power in Aspen, though it was limited. Women who ran their own businesses were probably heads of their household, because most women ran businesses to earn money rather than for fun or to hold a position of power.

The Aspen Times mentioned businesswomen every once in a while, and treated them like intelligent business people. One advertisement in June of 1881 said that Mrs. Adair's on Cooper Avenue offered day board at reasonable rates, and also read "This lady sets as fine a table as can be found in the City. The next month, the paper announced that Miss Cook from Denver had reached Aspen, and that "This lady will embark on the millinery business here." Although complimentary, the editors of the paper discussed womens businesses in terms of typically female characteristics. When the Florentine Restaurant opened in July of 1881 under the management of two "ladies," the editors noted that it provided the finest food in town, it was neat, and they complimented the managers on their "obliging manners." On the other hand, these characteristics are important to anyone running a restaurant, be they male or female. Businesswomen needed to manage finances, employees, and advertising, but the public rarely acknowledged these tasks. Nineteenth-century Americans generally expected women to be domestic, whether they stayed in the house or not.

The jobs that women could hold and still stay within the bounds of accepted behavior usually related to their work at home and their supposed concern for morals and education. In the 1889 Aspen City Directory, the business section listed quite a few businesswomen. Of the 25 boardinghouses listed women ran 18. Women also ran 23 of the 27 establishments offering furnished rooms. All 17 of the dressmakers were women, half of the four milliners were women, four of the nine stenographers were women, as were two of the three music teachers. Of all the businesses women were listed as running, none seemed dominated by either single or married women. The 1893 directory listed women as running the same types of businesses as in 1889. There were 16 fewer women listed than in 1889, but the directory listed fewer businesses in general, so probably the same proportion of women ran their own businesses. Of course this account neglected all those women working for wages, like waitresses and servants. Mrs. Harper, a black woman whose occupation was listed in the directory but not in the business section, ran a laundry on 213 West Main. Housewives of the lower classes probably also took in laundry, in addition to their normal duties.

One curious note in the paper pointed to women getting involved in the business of mining. It read: "Ladies are requested to call and get valuable information in regard to mining stock at Conner and Gentry's Mining and Stock Exchange." This could mean that women invested in Aspen mining, or that Conner and Gentry thought they wanted to, or that Conner and Gentry thought that women should know what their husbands were doing. At any rate, the idea that women should be involved in mining at all points to expanded opportunities for women in Aspen.

Though a minority, some women in Aspen were quite active in the business world, though they remained in typically female businesses. Working women in Aspen advertised their work and their businesses, and they provided valuable and popular services.

At age 96, Elizabeth Callahan (in 1993) is the oldest living Aspen businesswoman. Liz owned and operated the Mesa Store at Fourth end Main Streets from 1936 to 1955.