“In The Line Of Fire, Eight Women War Spies” by George Sullivan
Whom might one expect to take on the dangerous life as spy? Most people would not suspect the typical housewife or woman to fulfill such a duty. Contrary to popular belief, in the book “In The Line of Fire, Eight Women War Spies” George Sullivan utilizes the non-fictional tales of eight different women who played dominant roles in wars throughout history. These memorable women portrayed themselves as average housewives, but behind closed doors they were intelligent war spies. These women exhibited mass bravery and completed duties that to many would seem unattainable. In writing this, the author’s purpose was to reveal the important roles that women played in history, and open
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T. Beauregard. Despising the life she lives after being caught as an undercover spy she writes to a friend stating that, “Soldiers tramping, looking at her leisurely by way of amusement” (29). Although having to go through these troubling times, Rose O’Neal Greenhow never gave in to the Union officials. And the third brave female spy that Sullivan educates us about, Mrs. Belle Boyd. She has the most action packed tale of the three mentioned thus far. At the young age of 17, Belle “pulled a revolver from her dress and shot him” (36), meaning one of the Northern soldiers. Many described her as “one of the most active and reliable of the many secret women agents of the Confederacy”(37). Boyd was also one of the most fearless spies known in history, which is the reason that Sullivan chose to tell Belle’s story in his …show more content…
Compared to the other women the this particular book, Sarah Emma Edmonds had the most creative and elaborate disguise. She not only changed her name and hair color, but also her race and gender. Most could not succeed in fulfilling a duty such as elaborate as this one. How should one even begin to change their race and gender? Sarah Emma Edmonds was just the right women to complete this difficult task. Sullivan stated in the book that she first disguised herself going “to a barber who cropped her hair close to her head” (53). The next step for Emma was to change her race. She did this by obtaining “a vile of silver nitrate, a powder that her head, neck, face, and hands “black as any African.” The intellect that a person would need to pull of such a disguise was beyond many. Mata Hari, was known as a legend to many as a female spy. Unlike many other spies that were women, Mata Hari was known as one of the best, and influence many other women to do as she did. She was the most beautiful and mysterious spy of all time, and her story has been “romanticized and popularized in countless articles and books and by a Hollywood feature film starring the fables Greta Garbo.” (62). By including Mata Hari, the author is helping to express his purpose of the book showing that even an average housewive can alter the lives of many. Although Ruth Kuehn did not work alone,
Her espionage career continued when in 1862, a Union troop gathered in her local hotel. Boyd hid upstairs, eavesdropping through a hole on the floorboards where clandestine Union information was revealed. Late that night, Belle rode out acting and bluffing her way past the Union sentries and conveyed this information to Col. Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates.
The spies of the civil war worked hard and did what they could to help their side. The Union spies were not just made of the women this essay talked about. There were often men and other types of women working to gain information. The job of being a spy can be risky and tough. Most of the spies were behind their enemies lines. The overall goal of their job is to obtain knowledge of what the Confederate Army’s strategy was in order to protect the Union Army. The four spies that played a tremendous aspect during the Civil War were Elizabeth Van Lew, Pauline Cushman, Sarah Thompson, and Sarah Emma Edmonds.
Female spies were a great help in the war. Men did not expect innocent women to be involved in such dangerous activities so they often were not found out at first. Men easily trusted the women spies and told them important military secrets. The spies would get information then write it on paper or material and sew it into their clothes or put it in their hair. With bigger stuff they would attach it to the hoops on their skirts and hide the stuff in dolls. People started to suspicious when the women spies started to do “inappropriate” actions “such as allowing men into their homes at all hours of the night, arranging meetings with men in various locations and riding on horses and in buggies unaccompanied.”
During the time of 1940-1945 a big whole opened up in the industrial labor force because of the men enlisting. World War II was a hard time for the United States and knowing that it would be hard on their work force, they realized they needed the woman to do their part and help in any way they can. Whether it is in the armed forces or at home the women showed they could help out. In the United States armed forces about 350,000 women served at home and abroad. The woman’s work force in the United States increased from 27 percent to nearly 37percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married woman worked outside the home. This paper will show the way the United States got the woman into these positions was through propaganda from
Do you believe all women are smart enough to get an education or strong enough to go to war? In countries like Afghanistan and even America, there is a preconceived notion that women are simply best for bearing children, raising them, cleaning, and cooking for their husbands. From a young age, many women are given gendered roles, such as being taught by society to find husbands and care for children. For instance, girls are given baby dolls and kitchen sets for their birthdays instead of books. In Flashes of War, by Katey Schultz, the two stories “Deuce Out” and “Aaseya and Rahim” the protagonists Stephanie and Aaseya may live in different worlds, but they share much more than we think. Because of predetermined expectations that society has imposed upon women, Schultz’s book comes to a surprise since it defies pre-conceived notions of women.
The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.
"...I am other than my appearance indicates": Women as Soldiers and Spies." Women on the Border: Maryland Perspectives of the Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.
Howatt, Megan. "Sniper Girls and Fearless Heroines: Wartime Representations of Foreign Women In English Canadian Press, 1941-1943." A Companion to Women's Military History. By Dorotea Gucciardo. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the few narratives depicting the degradation’s endured by female slaves at the hand of brutal masters. Jacobs’ narrative is sending a message to women to come together and end the unfair treatment all women are subjected to. By bringing images of slavery and the message of unity of women to the forefront, Jacobs is attempting to end the tyranny over women perpetrated by men and the tyranny over blacks perpetrated by whites. Integrity and agency are ideals that Americans have fought for over the years. Jacobs reshapes these ideas and makes decisions and takes full reposibilities for her actions to become the ideal and representative image of womanhood.
World War I is remembered as a soldier's conflict for the six million men who
Zeinert, Karen. Those Incredible Women of World War 2: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1994
When the war began men had to leave their families and jobs behind. World War I was a complete war because all of the world’s assets had to be used and the entire nation’s population was involved. Anyone that had the ability to work had to work. The women had to take up jobs and went through a lot changes in order to support their families during the war. World War I gave women with the chance to have a significant part in the victory of the war which had an impact them and changed the lives of all women forever.
The war brought challenges, new jobs, new skills and lots of opportunities for women. Women were needed for jobs that were traditionally deemed for males only. According to Mathis (1994), government propaganda was responsible for much of the change in society’s acceptance of women in
Historically, women have been excluded from combat roles. On the surface, it is because men, who have always thought of themselves better and stronger than women, believed that females could not handle the responsibility of holding a combat position and women are rupturing the socially constructed gender norms that were set in place. According to Nicole Dombrowski, “no other topic concerning women’s role in war creates as great a debate as the question of women’s active participation in combat units.” The benefits for the expansion of women’s roles in the military advantage not only the women but the military as well. In comparison, the drawbacks of expansion of women’s roles are usually disadvantages to the men within the military.
As female slaves such as Harriet Jacob continually were fighting to protect their self respect, and purity. Harriet Jacob in her narrative, the readers get an understanding of she was trying to rebel against her aggressive master, who sexually harassed her at young age. She wasn’t protected by the law, and the slaveholders did as they pleased and were left unpunished. Jacobs knew that the social group,who were“the white women”, would see her not as a virtuous woman but hypersexual. She states “I wanted to keep myself pure, - and I tried hard to preserve my self-respect, but I was struggling alone in the grasp of the demon slavery.” (Harriet 290)The majority of the white women seemed to criticize her, but failed to understand her conditions and she did not have the free will. She simply did not have that freedom of choice. It was the institution of slavery that failed to recognize her and give her the basic freedoms of individual rights and basic protection. Harriet Jacobs was determined to reveal to the white Americans the sexual exploitations that female slaves constantly fa...