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The role of women
Contributions Of Women In The Civil War
Role of women in military combat roles
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As most of us know the women of the Civil War were a lot different I believe than the way they show them in movies like “Gone With the Wind.” The movies portray them as helpless, useless, and lazy like all they cared about was themselves. Yes, while some of them had the luxury of having servants to take care of them, and tend to everything they could possibly need, there were some that did not have that. There were different areas of women in the war we had the Southern Confederate Women and we had the Northern Union Women. Regardless the side they were on during this war all they wanted was for their boys to win and come home safe! A “True Women’s” life before the war was to make a clean, comfortable, nurturing home for her husband and her children. ("History.Com"). While the men went away to work the home became a private, feminized domestic sphere, a “haven in a heartless world.” ("History.Com"). The women of the Civil War Confederacy side and the women of the Civil War Union side did have a lot in common based on their ways of life and based on their ways of helping during this tragic war. Thousands from both the Confederacy and the Union joined volunteer brigades and signed up to be nurses. This war forced woman of both sides into the public life. ("History.Com"). And this happened to be the first time in American History that women were involved with the war plus it expanded the thought of “True womanhood.” ("History.Com"). The women of the Confederacy gained many new duties and responsibilities even the wealthiest of the Southern woman got involved. ("History.Com"). These women cooked, sewed, provided uniforms, blankets, sandbags, and other supplies to the men that were in the war. They ... ... middle of paper ... ...together for their troops or fighting in the war alongside the men these women did make an impact on the war. Works Cited "Women in the Civil War." History.Com. A&E Television Networks, 2011. Web. 13 Nov 2011. . Blanton, DeAnne. "Women Soldiers of the Civil War ." National Archives. N.p., 1993. Web. 10 Nov 2011. . Paul, Linda. "In Civil War, Woman Fought Like A Man For Freedom." npr. npr, 2011. Web. 12 Nov 2011. . Nofi, Albert A. Civil War Treasury : Being A Miscellany Of Arms And Artillery, Facts And Figures, Legends And Lore, Muses And Minstrels, Personalities And People. Combined Publishing, 1992. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 3 Dec. 2011.
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
Kerber uses research from legal records, diaries, memoirs, and letters to demonstrate how the war affected the lives of women and the new responsibilities that fell to them as a result. When the American Revolution began, men and women did not know what role women would play. It was certainly evident that someone would have to tend the farms and run the men’s property. No man would want to leave their estate without knowing it would be taken care of, leaving women to become leaders on the home front. Men left their property with the ...
Prior to the Civil War, the South was a society based on strict racial and gender hierarchies. Seemingly, elite southern women did not advocate for social and political change because they were content not to disrupt the gender hierarchy of their society. Their subordinacy to elite southern men and their society's view of ladylike characteristics was central to how southern women defined themselves. In order to advocate for change, elite southern women would have had to become unladylike and willing to give up a lifestyle that made them comfortable. Ultimately, since these women were not comfortable changing or giving up their lifestyle, most did nothing to aid social and political change.
Some women enlisted in the army to fight on the battlefield. Their reasons varied as some fought for money and
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1974. ISBN 0-394-74913-8.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
Kimble, Lionel, Jr. "I Too Serve America: African American Women War Workers in Chicago." Lib.niu.edu. Northern Illinois University, n.d. Web.
During the war, women played a vital role in the workforce because all of the men had to go fight overseas and left their jobs. This forced women to work in factories and volunteer for war time measures.
In World War 1, British women broke through traditional roles and worked as nurses on
In a 1944 magazine article, Eleanor Roosevelt claimed that American “women are serving actively in many ways in this war [World War II], and they are doing a grand job on both the fighting front and the home front.”1 While many women did indeed join the workforce in the 1940s, the extent and effects of their involvement were as contested during that time as they are today. Eleanor Roosevelt was correct, however, in her evaluation of the women who served on the fighting front. Although small in number due to inadequate recruitment, the women who left behind their homes and loved ones in order to enlist in the newly established Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), and later the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), were deemed invaluable to the war effort.
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
"Women in WWII at a Glance." The National WWII Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
The women during the war felt an obligation to assist in one form or another. Many stayed at home to watch over the children, while others felt a more direct or indirect approach was necessary. Amongst the most common path women took to support the war, many "served as clerks...filled the ammunition cartridges and artillery shells with powder at armories, laboring at this dangerous and exacting task for low wages. Both sides utilized women in these capacities (Volo 170)." Women that stayed away from battlefields supported their respected armies by taking the jobs that men left behind. They were the grease in the gears of war, the individuals working behind the scenes so that the men would be prepared, ready to fight with functioning weapons and operational gear.
The fight for women’s rights began long before the Civil War, but the most prominent issue began after the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments joined the Constitution. The rights to all “citizens” of the United States identified all true “citizens” as men and therefore incited a revolution in civil rights for women (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The National Women’s Suffrage Convention of 1868
...any of the benefits or rank that was usually awarded to the male officers because they were women. Women helped every way they could by taking on various important roles in the military and at the home front. These women get any training and went started working as soon as they were accepted. When the war ended most of them went back to their normal life at home with their families. Women’s roles in the military have changed greatly and now a lot of women serve in the military.