“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
When manufacturing plants started booming, they found business. Women became valuable factory workers because of their ability to complete complex tasks in the work place. Also, having willingness to labor for an inexpensive pay rate because they were in need boosted their chances of employment. In fact, employers needed them and were happy at the fact that they weren 't too costly to hire. In the document, Morals of Manufactures (1837), it states, “Many of the girls are in the factories because they have too much pride for domestic service.”(Chapter 9 Page 223) As stated before, women were looked over as far being capable of anything else other than a house wife and or mother. Some women worked for pay, as well as to prove that they were more than what society labeled them. This allowed women to make their own money and not be forced to completely live off their husbands. Also, this gave women a freedom and sensibility to become more independent.
The United States during the Civil war was a divided nation and filled with gruesome fighting. It hit all parts of the country and brought the fighting right to the back yards of families. While the men of the nation fought the combat war, woman fought different wars in the shadows. Fighting split millions of families up, and it affected woman in multiple ways. Challenges differed for woman from North and South. While some woman’s homes were turned into hospitals, other woman had to learn how to tend to their plantations while their husbands were away fighting. Many women disguised themselves as men to fight in the war because in the 1860s, a woman fighting in the war was not allowed yet. Numerous enslaved
During the Civil War, women took a unique role in America,by essentially taking the place of the men who went to war. When the men left, home life changed completely. Women now had to do many of the things that the men would have taken care of around the house, as well as the things that the women would normally do themselves. During the war, however, some women got more of a taste for life outside the home than others. They had to reconfigure themselves in the world and find where they belonged without the aid of men.
Women were left behind when their husbands went to war. They were expected to keep the household together. They cooked, cleaned, cared for children and many times did
The American Civil War was a time of great trial and tribulation for the American people. It forced individuals to choose a cause, and many families were torn asunder as they chose opposing sides. As the men marched off to war a small group of women prepared to wage a different kind of warfare. These women became an overlooked but deadly force using espionage and womanly wiles to gather military intelligence for their cause. They used whatever means they had at their disposal to enter into the confidence of men within the opposing side and gain their trust. Women during this period were often overlooked as insignificant and stationary. Women were meant to stay within the home and care for their families needs. However, these extraordinary women rose to answer a more imminent need. These brave women had a profound influence on their cause.
During the civil war women were more important than everyone thinks. The reason this is true is because during the civil war women there were women spies, who men who help people in the war , and some women were in war
Jabour, Anya. “‘I Wanted to Do My Part’: Women as Soldiers in Civil War America.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 13 Feb. 2017, www.pbs.org/mercy-street/blogs/mercy-street-revealed/i-wanted-to-do-my-part-women-as-soldiers-in-civil-war-america/.
It is an accepted convention that the Civil War was a man’s fight, but to the women in that time period, it was not. Many women sacrificed their lives to fight for their family and for their country. The Civil War is symbolic in American history because it shaped society, as we know it today, “Free of slavery”. During the Civil War, women were mostly confined to the domestic sphere and were not allowed to serve in combat. Researchers have noted that women did indeed disguise themselves as men just to fight. During this time period, women felt strongly about staying in their courters
Back in the day, men did not treat women with much respect, and men did not allow women to do anything, other than being a housewife. Men took charge of women, and if women did earn any money their husband would take it away from them. Women did not have any rights, and no one did anything about it for awhile. As women did not have a say, they continued to obey the rules and tasks as told. However, the lives of women did improve during the 1920s and 1930s, as technology improved over time, there was better labour for women, and women were allowed to be a part of the political world.
The time in American history where slavery was at its most popular often overlooks women, as many times in history tend to. In many depictions of women’s roles in slave owning households they are simply depicted as the mistress, the wife of the master. As far as female slaves are concerned, they are often simply lumped in with the tales of the men. I have always personally been interested in what women’s opinions truly were of slavery amongst a world filled with slave owning men who saw their slaves as nothing more than property. Did the women actually feel the same way as the men did? I also wondered how the experiences of female slaves differed from the lives of male slaves, as sometimes slavery is put together as one massive institution and fails to look at the individual lives and experiences that slaves had, particularly female ones. I wondered how the Civil War changed female perspectives on slavery and how the war changed women’s roles in the home during that time while their husbands were away. The readings for week eight about women in the slave regime allowed to view the civil war and the institution of slavery, for the first time, through the eyes of the women rather than the men.
The Civil War was a defining point for the United States. The people of America were forced to step back and reevaluate what defined the American Citizen: a person with the rights and privilege to cast a vote for what or who he believes in. The key word here is “he”. The Civil War brought freedom and rights to African Americans, yet it had no directly positive effect on women’s rights. While African Americans were seeing their lives and futures change, to many observers the women’s rights movement seemed barely impacted by the astounding transformations of the Civil War. This idea is not completely accurate. Women did not accomplish much on the legal front, but fundamentally they were able to make great achievements. By stepping out of
At the time of the Civil War, women had expectations that society put upon them. These expectations revolved around the idea that women had a place, and that place was in the home. They were to cook, clean, and stick to chores that were considered more feminine. This belief is why women were forbade from enlistment in the Civil War. Men felt the
The American civil war (12 Apr. 1861 – 9 May 1865) had placed a significant impact on the lives of American citizens, women in particular, as their roles held important value within the period of the war. As a handful of women disguised themselves as soldiers, whilst others served as nurses and spies, they became significantly more prominent within society, with their positions in these critical occupations benefiting their surrounding society within times of war. As the mid-1800s brought abounding stereotypes for women, being viewed as the weaker sex, fragile and dependant, the coming of the Civil War challenged the ideology of Victorian domesticity that had defined the lives of men and women within the era. In the North and in the South,
Faust clearly states her argument within the first few pages of her book, and later expands on the concept of women’s roles within the context of war in the South by stating, “The upheavals of war created conceptual and emotional as well as social dislocations, compelling southerners to rethink their most fundamental assumptions about their identities and the logic of their places in the world.” (Faust, 4) She however, does not stop there and throughout the book it is evident that class position and a non-feminist versus feminist perspective are integral in considering her thesis as well. As she moves from subject to subject within her book, the author clearly, and sometimes subtly, presents her argument while demonstrating that the Civil War did indeed change the role of women within
Decorating Christmas trees, carving pumpkins, celebrating birthdays, and cooking dinner on thanksgiving, are a few things that people in America call tradition. A tradition to me means something that has been passed on from generation to generation. There are many different things that families or people do every year or every day that is tradition. However, the question is, what is the real meaning behind the traditions that we partake in? We partake in these traditions but do not understand why we do them. Most of the time, as children, we were brought up on these different traditions and never get the true meaning behind them. In “The Lottery”, it shows that they have a tradition, but they do not really know the true meaning behind the tradition. However, in Wilson’s essay, “Under the Guise of Tradition: “The Lottery” and Female Circumcision”, she explains a tradition and the true meaning behind it.