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Breaking Tradition Analysis

Decent Essays

“The Civil War, and the absence from home of so many men, brought profound challenges and opportunities to all women.” That was a quote from the passage “Breaking Tradition” by Kathleen Ernst. That quote starts the discussion of what of the Civil War changed women's lives. Throughout the passage the reader can see how the author supported the claim that war transformed women's lives. Before the war some women had laws and traditions that restricted their choices, and for the polite society people demanded that ladies live under the guidance and protection of their fathers, husbands or other male relatives, as said in the passage. Women had other things that they could not do as well such as vote, have control over their property and their wages. All of those thing were done usually done by men and that was the law. What the women were expected to do was “...to keep busy at home and church and avoid heavy, labor, business, and politics.” Eventually all that changed. …show more content…

This would be, because the absence from home of so many men. With the men being absent it also bought new opportunities for women. Women started pursuing “...respectable careers like becoming schoolteachers, seamstresses, or hat makers, or gave private lessons in art, music, or French.” Some women also managed boarding houses, working in small shops, worked as launderers, domestic servants, or even cooks. Along with those things women became writers, they entered new occupations created by the Industrial Revolution, and they began rallies for the right to vote and pursuing new

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