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Category: US History
Date Submitted: 11/09/2014 05:51 PM
THE ROLE WOMEN PLAYED DURING THE CIVIL WAR
Brendan Kyek HIS223X2297: Modern War & Society Final Narrative Paper December 10, 2014
Throughout the centuries the role of women have been primarily the same. Most were homemakers or housewives and kept up the house, cleaned, cooked, gave birth to and raised children and did things like sowing. During the American Civil War, however, we can look back and see that women stepped out of this traditional role and put themselves in harms way to support either the Union or the Confederacy. Many served as battlefield nurses and some served as soldiers and spies. This, even though unconventional for the time, showed that women can do the same things and serve in the same capacity as men. During the American Civil War era, the women's place was mainly in the home. They were generally thought of as substandard to men and were expected to keep house and do as they were told. They had no right to vote or hold public offices and certainly had no right to serve as a soldier in the military. Women were mostly responsible for cooking the meals, cleaning the house, tending to the children including educating them. They also did crafts such as sewing, quilting and needle point. These are the types of task that women were commonly associated with. Because of these typical associations and the time period the American Civil War occurred in, most people don’t realize how many women served in nontraditional roles. One such nontraditional role was that of a spy. Several women served as spies during the American Civil War for both the North and South. The nature of the American Civil war made espionage easy, common and very difficult to stop. Women of both sides proved to be very adept at the second oldest ...