women's role in the civil war essay

The Role of Women in the Civil War Essay

The role of women began shifting toward a more socially and politically active one during the nineteenth century. However, the Civil War was a major turning point for women, as they were allowed into new professions and helped the front from both sides of the conflict (Shi, 608). A significant impact was made by women in the field of medicine, as thousands worked directly on the battlefields. Such assistance led to the creation of the American Red Cross and the development of nursing as a profession in general (Shi, 609). The pursuit of social equality became a realistic prospect as the Civil War revealed its possibility and feasibility. Unlike previous armed conflicts, the Civil War was more disrupting for the established way of living, which gave women a chance for greater involvement in it. An active position in life later translated into numerous women’s rights movements that sparked across the United States.

It is apparent that women’s voices became more prominent during the Civil War. From the letters by Mary Abigail Dodge, who posed as Gail Hamilton, Shi and Mayer (2019) highlight how women served as motivational leaders who encouraged”sacrifice of personal comfort for the war” and its causes (p. 409). The selflessness of such acts was praised by Dodge, although her writings remained under a gender-neutral pseudonym. In conclusion, the role of women in the Civil War was so significant that it enabled them to pursue ambitious goals and become less hindered by the societal bonds of that time.

Shi, D. E. (2018). America: A narrative history (11 th ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Shi, D. E., & Mayer, H. A. (2019). For the record: A documentary history (7 th ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

• The American Civil War Period
• Causes of the Civil War: Battle on the Bay
• Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome in Gendered Society
• Abigail Adams in American Revolution
• Mattel’s Gender-Neutral Toys and Their Effects
• The Civil War by K. Burns Film Review
• The American Civil War and Its Main Stages
• Women Who Fought in the American Civil War
• The American Civil War: Pro- & Anti-Slavery Forces
• The Life of the US After the Civil War
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 27). The Role of Women in the Civil War. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-the-civil-war/

"The Role of Women in the Civil War." IvyPanda , 27 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-the-civil-war/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'The Role of Women in the Civil War'. 27 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "The Role of Women in the Civil War." December 27, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-the-civil-war/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Role of Women in the Civil War." December 27, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-the-civil-war/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Role of Women in the Civil War." December 27, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-the-civil-war/.

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

• Basic site functions
• Ensuring secure, safe transactions
• Secure account login
• Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
• Remembering privacy and security settings
• Analyzing site traffic and usage
• Personalized search, content, and recommendations
• Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

• Remembering general and regional preferences
• Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy .

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy .

Women during the Civil War

Written by: catherine clinton, university of texas, san antonio, by the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain the effects of government policy during Reconstruction on society from 1865 to 1877

Suggested Sequencing

Use this Narrative alongside the Mary Chesnut’s War Narrative to allow students to analyze and compare women’s experiences during the Civil War.

Whether black or white, Northern or Southern, rich or poor, women confronted daunting obstacles during the Civil War era. The impulse to overthrow societal constraints and the struggle for equal opportunity were critical concerns for many women in the 1860s.

The abolitionist movement flourished alongside female activism, and during the decades leading up to the Civil War, women increasingly advocated for women’s rights, particularly suffrage. The vote was then a right granted at the state level; New Jersey had briefly allowed some women to vote (who satisfied the same property-ownership qualifications as men), but generally, momentum for suffrage had been lost after the American Revolution. It revived during the 1850s, when many reformers, such as Susan B. Anthony, began their suffrage work after becoming engaged in the temperance, abolitionist, and moral reform movements of the 1830s and 1840s. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated a national women’s rights movement in Seneca Falls, New York, after witnessing male resistance to women’s participation in abolitionism at the World Antislavery Convention in London in 1840. Yet women’s rights campaigns were intertwined with abolitionism. Antislavery activist Angelina Grimke argued that slaves might be emancipated while women were denied equal status, but women could never truly be free until slavery was abolished, suggesting a domino effect.

Pictured are two of the leading suffragists of the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (left) and Susan B. Anthony (right).

When war was declared in spring 1861, women were prepared to launch into action to contribute to the war effort. In the South, they stitched sashes and prepared cockades for their soldiers marching off to defend the newly established Confederacy. In the North, medical pioneers and sisters Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell called a meeting of women in Manhattan to coordinate efforts for soldiers’ aid. On April 29, 1861, between 2,000 and 3,000 responded to the call. They trained nurses for work in the field and established a network of soldiers’ aid societies. The Women’s Central Relief Association’s board of 12 overseers included six women, which was unconventionally egalitarian for the era.

Nurses not only cared for soldiers in wards but some undertook tours of duty on the battlefield. Mary Anne Bickerdyke, or “Mother” Bickerdyke, as she was affectionately known to the troops, attended to the Union wounded on 19 different battle sites. She spent most of her time at the Union’s military hospital in Cairo, Illinois. Even more innovative, female nurses and matrons staffed the war department’s mobile “floating hospitals,” set up near battle sites to rescue the wounded. Mary Edwards Walker was an abolitionist and surgeon who fought for an army appointment and eventually served. She was given the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson and remains the only female recipient of the award to this day. Clara Barton was perhaps the best-known nurse of the Civil War generation and later founded the American Red Cross in 1881.

Before the war, Dorothea Dix travelled the world to investigate treatment of the mentally ill, and she campaigned from Maine to Louisiana to try to build humane facilities to care for those diagnosed with insanity. Dix helped establish the Harrisburg State Hospital in Pennsylvania, one of America’s first asylums, in 1851. During the war, she worked independently of the federal army, organizing wartime care of soldiers in the state of Massachusetts. Through her personal appeals, thousands of dollars were donated to supply Massachusetts soldiers with food and medicine. Dix was eventually appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses and provided “care, succor [assistance] and relief” to hundreds of Union soldiers.

More than 3,000 women served as military nurses, the majority in the North. Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches depicted a nurse’s life, describing times when “legless, armless occupants entering my ward admonished me that I was there to work, not to wonder or weep.” Confederate women organized private facilities; Sally Tompkins founded a hospital in Richmond and was given the rank of captain by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Phoebe Pember, a former Charleston socialite working in a Confederate hospital, wrote of rats that “ate all the poultices applied during the night to the sick, and dragged away the pads stuffed with bran from under the arms and legs of the wounded.”

A new generation of women leaders began to emerge. With the help of the U.S. Christian Commission, Annie Wittenmyer developed a “dietary kitchen system” in which patients were each given a diet tailored to their medical condition. This system is still in use in hospitals today. Because three of every five soldiers who died in uniform succumbed to disease unrelated to combat or wounds, superior care was important to keeping the ranks full. None other than Ulysses S. Grant said of Wittenmyer that “no soldier on the firing line gave more heroic service than she did.”

An intrepid cadre of women embarked on even more dangerous but heroic journeys. A small group served as spies, including the infamous Washington, DC, society widow Rose Greenhow, who drowned while trying to evade the blockade off the coast of North Carolina, smuggling gold and documents back into the Confederacy from her mission in Europe. Young women often worked as saboteurs and scouts during military operations in occupied territories.

Rose Greenhow, pictured here with her daughter in a Washington, DC, prison in 1862, was part of a small group of female Confederate spies.

Scores of women disguised themselves as male soldiers to serve in combat. Two such women were Irish immigrants Jennie Hodges and Rosetta Wakeman. Both fought in the 1864 Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Hodges was born female but lived as a male most of her adult life, enlisting as Albert Cashier. Wakeman enlisted in the 153rd New York volunteers as Private Edwin Wakeman. Wakeman wrote home to her family about her experience on the battlefield: “I was not in the first day’s fight but the next day I had to face the enemy bullets with my regiment. I was under fire about four hours and laid on the field of battle all night. There was three wounded in my Co. and one killed.”

In 1863, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organized the Women’s Loyal National League, the first national women’s political organization, which advocated an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery that was more expansive than Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (the League shifted its focus to women’s suffrage after the war). The abolition of slavery became a top priority for northern women activists, who poured their talent and energy into political organizing. Most wanted to secure freedom for blacks before women’s suffrage, but black women were even more outspoken. At their first national convention, African American activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper said, “You white women speak here of rights. I speak of wrongs.” Harper and other free black women in the North advocated on behalf of enslaved southern women, noting that more than half the black population of four million was still in bondage. Black women joined white women in the fight to end slavery and pushed for autonomy for all women, not just white women. Many explicitly raised awareness about the connection between discrimination on the basis of race and of sex.

Harriet Tubman continued her dangerous career behind enemy lines. She had served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, and then began to work with the Union army as a nurse, scout, and spy in occupied South Carolina. Self-liberated ex-slave Susie King Taylor moved into Union-occupied territory along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, where she served as a nurse and also as a teacher for illiterate black Union soldiers serving near her Sea Island encampment.

Harriet Tubman, photographed here soon after the end of the Civil War, helped the Union army during the Civil War and was a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Women of color had a special stake in the struggle, rightly perceiving the Civil War as a battle for black liberation. With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, women within the Loyal League, which pledged to win equal rights within the scope of the U.S. Constitution, could claim victory. With the Fourteenth Amendment, however, the situation became critical: this amendment specified “due process” and “equal protection,” essential foundations upon which rights might be constructed. But Section Two of the amendment specified rights were to be accorded to “the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States.” The question of who should be granted these rights produced a split within the movement, and Susan B. Anthony, for one, challenged the notion that only men could vote.

In the wake of Southern surrender and the enormous task of binding the nation’s wounds and rebuilding the country, women put their shoulders to the wheel. Yet those who had taken over men’s positions during wartime in the U.S. Treasury Department, for example, and in the munitions factories in Confederate Richmond were encouraged to retire and, in some cases, were even expelled. Women suffered the consequences of war because they lost their fathers, sons, and husbands and thus their primary means of financial support. The provision for female pensioners and protective labor legislation helped to shape late nineteenth-century reform and federal reform. The legacy of the Civil War put an indelible stamp on the women’s rights movements, as women continued the long struggle for women’s suffrage. They were successful in winning the right to vote in several westerns states while working for a constitutional amendment.

Review Questions

1. During the Civil War, women who took part in a variety of reform movements before the war made which of the following their primary goal?

• Women’s suffrage
• The right of women to serve as doctors
• The abolition of slavery
• The right of former slaves to serve in the Union Army

2. Women such as “Mother” Bickerdyke served in the war mainly as

• volunteers on the home front, writing letters of encouragement to wounded soldiers
• workers in factories, replacing men as they were drafted into the army
• nurses on the frontlines
• women disguised as men fighting on the frontlines

3. Primarily known for her work in reforming the treatment of the mentally ill, Dorothea Dix served during the Civil War as

• founder of the U.S. Christian Commission
• superintendent of Army Nurses
• founder of the Woman’s Loyal National League
• a spy for the Union Army

4. When Union General Ulysses S. Grant stated that “no soldier on the firing line gave more heroic service than she did,” he was speaking of

• Sarah Grimké
• Louisa May Alcott
• Clara Barton
• Annie Wittenmyer

5. During the Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony campaigned for an amendment to the Constitution that would

• abolish slavery
• grant women the right to vote
• grant equal rights to all persons regardless of their sex
• grant freed slaves the right to vote

6. During the war, Harriet Tubman and Rose Greenhow both worked as

7. Most southern women who had the time to volunteer for the Confederate cause served as

• nurses and seamstresses
• scouts and saboteurs
• blockade runners

Free Response Questions

• Describe the reasons for formation of the Women’s Loyal National League.
• Explain the role African American women played in the Civil War.

AP Practice Questions

“TO THE WOMEN OF THE REPUBLIC: We ask you to sign and circulate this petition for the ENTIRE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. We have now ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND signatures, but we want a MILLION before Congress adjourns. Remember the President’s Proclamation reaches only the Slaves of Rebels. The jails of LOYAL Kentucky are to-day crammed’ with Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama slaves, advertised to be sold for their jail fees According to LAW,’ precisely as before the war!!! While slavery exists ANYWHERE there can be freedom NOWHERE. THERE MUST BE A LAW ABOLISHING SLAVERY. We have undertaken to canvass the Nation for freedom. Women, you cannot vote or fight for your country. Your only way to be a power in the Government is through the exercise of this one, sacred, Constitutional RIGHT OF PETITION;’ and we ask you to use it now to the utmost. Go to the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the soldier, the civilian, the white, the black gather up the names of all who hate slavery all who love LIBERTY, and would have it the LAW of the land and lay them at the feet of Congress, your silent but potent vote for human freedom guarded by the law. . . . E. CADY STANTON President. SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Secretary W.L.N. League”

Women’s Loyal National League, “To the Women of the Republic,” January 25, 1864

1. The phrase, “remember the President’s Proclamation reaches only the Slaves of Rebels,” refers to

• the Proclamation of Rights and Grievances
• the Olive Branch Petition
• the Emancipation Proclamation
• Field Order No. 15

2. The ideas expressed in the excerpt were a continuation of which philosophy?

• The ideals in the U.S. Constitution
• The “perfectionist” ideals of the Second Great Awakening
• The philosophy expressed by the Stamp Act Congress
• The philosophy of compromise expressed by Henry Clay

Primary Sources

Brumgardt, John, ed. Civil War Nurse: The Diary and Letters of Hannah Ropes . Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1980.

Cady Stanton, Elizabeth, and Susan B. Anthony. “To the Women of the Republic.” January 25, 1864. https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/docs2.html

“Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls, 1848.” https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/senecafalls.asp

“Fifteenth Amendment. Black Suffrage.” http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm#amend15

“Fourteenth Amendment. Civil Rights.” http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm#amend14

“Thirteenth Amendment. Abolition of Slavery.” http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm#amend13

Suggested Resources

Campbell, Edward, and Kym Rice. A Woman’s War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy . Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1997.

Chesnut, Mary Boykin. Mary Chesnut’s Diary , edited by Catherine Clinton. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War . New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

Giesberg, Judith. Civil War Sisterhood . Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2006.

King Taylor, Susie. Reminiscences of My Life in Camp , edited by Catherine Clinton. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2006.

Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Women in the Civil War . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

Related Content

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Women in the Civil War

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 9, 2022 | Original: February 5, 2010

In many ways, the coming of the Civil War challenged the ideology of Victorian domesticity that had defined the lives of men and women in the antebellum era. In the North and in the South, the war forced women into public life in ways they could scarcely have imagined a generation before.

In the years before the Civil War , the lives of American women were shaped by a set of ideals that historians call “the Cult of True Womanhood.” As men’s work moved away from the home and into shops, offices and factories, the household became a new kind of place: a private, feminized domestic sphere, a “haven in a heartless world.” “True women” devoted their lives to creating a clean, comfortable, nurturing home for their husbands and children.

Did you know? More than 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.

During the Civil War, however, American women turned their attention to the world outside the home. Thousands of women in the North and South joined volunteer brigades and signed up to work as nurses. It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort. By the end of the war, these experiences had expanded many Americans’ definitions of “true womanhood.”

Fighting for the Union

With the outbreak of war in 1861, women and men alike eagerly volunteered to fight for the cause. In the Northern states, women organized ladies’ aid societies to supply the Union troops with everything they needed, from food (they baked and canned and planted fruit and vegetable gardens for the soldiers) to clothing (they sewed and laundered uniforms, knitted socks and gloves, mended blankets and embroidered quilts and pillowcases) to cash (they organized door-to-door fundraising campaigns, county fairs and performances of all kinds to raise money for medical supplies and other necessities).

But many women wanted to take a more active role in the war effort. Inspired by the work of Florence Nightingale and her fellow nurses in the Crimean War , they tried to find a way to work on the front lines, caring for sick and injured soldiers and keeping the rest of the Union troops healthy and safe.

In June 1861, they succeeded: The federal government agreed to create “a preventive hygienic and sanitary service for the benefit of the army” called the United States Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission’s primary objective was to combat preventable diseases and infections by improving conditions (particularly “bad cookery” and bad hygiene) in army camps and hospitals. It also worked to provide relief to sick and wounded soldiers. By war’s end, the Sanitary Commission had provided almost $15 million in supplies—the vast majority of which had been collected by women—to the Union Army.

Nearly 20,000 women worked more directly for the Union war effort. Working-class white women and free and enslaved African American women worked as laundresses, cooks and “matrons,” and some 3,000 middle-class white women worked as nurses. The activist Dorothea Dix , the superintendent of Army nurses, put out a call for responsible, maternal volunteers who would not distract the troops or behave in unseemly or unfeminine ways: Dix insisted that her nurses be “past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions.” (One of the most famous of these Union nurses was the writer Louisa May Alcott .)

Army nurses traveled from hospital to hospital, providing “humane and efficient care for wounded, sick and dying soldiers.” They also acted as mothers and housekeepers—“havens in a heartless world”—for the soldiers under their care.

Women of the Confederacy

White women in the South threw themselves into the war effort with the same zeal as their Northern counterparts. The Confederacy had less money and fewer resources than did the Union, however, so they did much of their work on their own or through local auxiliaries and relief societies. They, too, cooked and sewed for their boys. They provided uniforms, blankets, sandbags and other supplies for entire regiments. They wrote letters to soldiers and worked as untrained nurses in makeshift hospitals. They even cared for wounded soldiers in their homes.

Many Southern women, especially wealthy ones, relied on slaves for everything and had never had to do much work. However, even they were forced by the exigencies of wartime to expand their definitions of “proper” female behavior.

Enslaved Women and Freedwomen

Enslaved women were, of course, not free to contribute to the Union cause. Moreover, they had never had the luxury of “true womanhood” to begin with.

The Civil War promised freedom, but it also added to these women’s burdens. In addition to their own plantation and household labor, many enslaved women had to do the work of their husbands and partners too: The Confederate Army frequently recruited enslaved men, and slaveowners fleeing from Union troops often took their valuable male enslaved workers, but not women and children, with them. (Working-class white women had a similar experience: While their husbands, fathers and brothers fought in the Army, they were left to provide for their families on their own.)

A Women’s Proper Place?

During the Civil War, women especially faced a host of new duties and responsibilities. For the most part, these new roles applied the ideals of Victorian domesticity to “useful and patriotic ends.” However, these wartime contributions did help expand many women’s ideas about what their “proper place” should be.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet.

Nurses, Activists, Soldiers, Spies: Women’s Roles During the Civil War

There were many women playing important roles in  the Civil War , including nurses, spies, soldiers, abolitionists, civil rights advocates and promoters of women’s suffrage. Most women were engaged in supplying the troops with food, clothing, medical supplies, and even money through fundraising. Others, following in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale who pioneered the institution of professional nursing in the Crimean War, took to directly caring for the wounded, treating the sick and ensuring the health of the troops. Read more about  Civil War Nurses .

WOMEN SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR

There were over 400 documented cases of women who fought as soldiers in the civil war. Disguised as men, they fought alongside others for their cause. Read our featured article below on  Women Soldiers in the Civil War

Some of the more notable women in the Civil War include:

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE:

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a passionate abolitionist, and her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin , made her an international celebrity, and is considered one of the  causes of the civil war . Learn more about  Harriet Beecher Stowe

HARRIET TUBMAN:

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave who became a conductor in the underground railroad. Learn more about  Harriet Tubman

MARY TODD LINCOLN:

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln, was the First Lady during the Civil War and was a prominent figure of her era. Read more about  Mary Todd Lincoln

LUCRETIA MOTT:

Lucretia Mott was an abolitionist as well as a women’s rights activist. She was elected the first president of the American Equal Rights Association, an organization dedicated to universal suffrage. Read more about  Lucretia Mott

CLARA BARTON:

Clara Barton was a civil war nurse who began her career at the Battle of Bull Run, after which she established an agency to distribute supplies to soldiers. Often working behind the lines, she aided wounded soldiers on both sides. After the war, she established the American Red Cross. Read more about  Clara Barton

ROSE O’ NEAL GREENHOW:

Rose O’ Neal Greenhow (aka Wild Rose) was a leader in Washington society. A dedicated secessionist, she became one of the most renowned spies in the Civil War and is credited with helping the Confederacy win  The First Battle Of Bull Run .

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT:

Louisa May Alcott is best known as the author of  Little Women , but less known is the fact that she served as a volunteer nurse during the civil war. Read more about  Louisa May Alcott

SUSAN B. ANTHONY:

Susan B. Anthony was a key figure in the women’s rights movement, more specifically the women’s suffrage movement. She also promoted prohibition of alcohol and was the co-founder of the first Women’s Temperance Movement. Read more about  Susan B. Anthony

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an abolitionist and an early leader in the woman’s movement, especially the right of women to vote (women’s suffrage). Her declaration of sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention brought the suffrage movement to national prominence. Read more about Elizabeth Cady Stanton .

More Stories of Women in the Civil War

The North’s Unsung Sisters of Mercy

It Was Their Cause, Too: The Women Who Fought in the Civil War—Disguised as Men

Related stories.

Portfolio: Images of War as Landscape

Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, […]

Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot

In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.

This Victorian-Era Performer Learned that the Stage Life in the American West Wasn’t All Applause and Bouquets

Sue Robinson rose from an itinerant life as a touring child performer to become an acclaimed dramatic actress.

She Was Romantically Linked to the ‘Sundance Kid’ — But Much About Her Remains a Mystery

Who was Etta Place?

Can you pass the Citizenship Test? Visit this page to test your civics knowledge!

• AP US History Study Guide
• History U: Courses for High School Students
• History School: Summer Enrichment
• Lesson Plans
• Classroom Resources
• Elementary Curriculum
• Spotlights on Primary Sources
• Professional Development (Academic Year)
• Professional Development (Summer)
• Book Breaks
• Inside the Vault
• Self-Paced Courses
• Browse All Resources
• Search by Issue
• Search by Essay
• Become a Member (Free)
• Monthly Offer (Free for Members)
• Program Information
• Scholarships and Financial Aid
• Applying and Enrolling
• Eligibility (In-Person)
• EduHam Online
• Hamilton Cast Read Alongs
• Official Website
• Press Coverage
• Veterans Legacy Program
• The Declaration at 250
• Black Lives in the Founding Era
• Celebrating American Historical Holidays
• Spanish Influence on American History
• Donate Items to the Collection
• Search Our Catalog
• Research Guides
• Rights and Reproductions
• See Our Documents on Display
• Bring an Exhibition to Your Organization
• Interactive Exhibitions Online
• About the Transcription Program
• Civil War Letters
• Founding Era Newspapers
• College Fellowships in American History
• Scholarly Fellowship Program
• Richard Gilder History Prize
• David McCullough Essay Prize
• Affiliate School Scholarships
• Nominate a Teacher
• State Winners
• National Winners
• Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
• Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
• George Washington Prize
• Frederick Douglass Book Prize
• Our Mission and History
• Annual Report
• Contact Information
• Student Advisory Council
• Teacher Advisory Council
• Board of Trustees
• Remembering Richard Gilder
• President's Council
• Scholarly Advisory Board
• Internships
• Our Partners
• Press Releases

History Resources

Women and the Civil War

By roberta mccutcheon, introduction.

The growth of manufacturing in the decades prior to the Civil War transformed the country. The nation experienced the appearance of cities, manufacturing, and a commitment to wage labor at the same time as the expansion of slavery, a national economy connected by modern transportation, and a society and culture that strained to adjust. While most participants in the expanding economy continued to work in agriculture as farmers, planters, and slaves, more and more joined the ranks of labor in the new industries. Many prospered as a result of the changes and rose into an emerging middle class. The Civil War disrupted this but did not stop the shift to an industrial economy from going forward. Rather than halting or even slowing the industrial revolution, the war fueled the change.

Women both adjusted and responded to the changes of the nineteenth century. Some reacted by protecting or altering their private lives while others turned to public action; some women wanted to seize the opportunities to revolutionize their own lives while others wanted to hang on to established customs. The lives of women in the nineteenth century in many ways reflected the transformations of the nineteenth century but in other ways demonstrated the resilience of traditional assumptions held the United States.

Using the classroom as a historical laboratory, students can use primary and secondary sources to research the history of women in the nineteenth century. The students will be engaged in the craft of historical interpretation; they will be able to identify the assumptions about women before the Civil War and then be able to discover the effects of the war on the history of women in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

• Students will be able to create a model to be used to evaluate the validity of historical evidence.
• Students will examine primary documents and factual references to analyze the lives of women in the nineteenth century.
• Students will be able to identify the private and public roles of women in the nineteenth century.
• Students will be engaged in historical research and critical analysis. They will be able to consider the historical context of the private and public roles of women in the nineteenth century.
• Students will be able to examine how the Civil War affected the lives of women in the United States.

Student Activity One: Create the Historical Context

Examining women’s lives before the Civil War: Have the class research the lives of women in the first half of the nineteenth century. Divide the class into five groups. Assign each group one of the following topics:

• The role of women in the expanding market economy, free and enslaved
• The public and private spheres in the early nineteenth century
• The cult of domesticity and true womanhood
• Women in the public sphere
• Demands for change and the Declaration of Sentiments

Have each group share its research on the assigned topic with the class. Use the information gathered to identify nineteenth-century assumptions about women as well as the challenges to those assumptions. The following sites will be helpful (this is not a complete list).

Helpful Websites

• Slave Women , The New Georgia Encyclopedia
• Working Women in the South , H-Net.org
• Images of Nineteenth-Century Women by Thomas Sully
• The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood , City University of New York
• Quotes from Antebellum Women , National Humanities Center
• Declaration of Sentiments , Rutgers University

Student Activity Two: Panel Discussion—Women’s Participation in the Civil War

Research women’s roles in the Civil War: Have the class research the roles of women in the Civil War. Divide the class into three groups.

• Women on the home front
• Women in support roles
• Women who fought in the war

Have each group share its research on the assigned topic with the class. Use the information gathered to identify women’s roles in the Civil War as well as the challenges to those assumptions. 

• Women of the Civil War , AmericanCivilWar.com
• The Civil War: Women and the Home Front , Duke University Library
• Women Soldiers of the Civil War , National Archive
• Clara Barton , AmericanCivilWar.com
• Sanitary Commission and Other Relief Agencies , CivilWarHome.com
• Humanitarian Intervention and Relief: The Civil War and the Origins of the American Red Cross , AmericanForeignRelations.com

Panel Discussion: Select three panelists (one from each group) to analyze the class research about women in the Civil War. They should consider the effects of the war on the lives of women and the conventional assumptions about women during the war. The panelists will prepare an opening speech presenting their conclusions on one of the following:

The panelists will also respond to questions from the rest of the class about the women’s lives during the Civil War and they were changed by the war.

The moderator will:

• Introduce the issue for the panel discussion.
• Direct questions from the audience (all non-panelist members of the class) to the panelists after the presentations.

Student Activity Three: Class Discussion—Identifying Change Over Time

The class will need to understand the lives of women after the war, in the last half of the nineteenth century. Divide the class into five groups. Assign each group one of the following topics:

• Upper-class women
• Working-class women
• Middle-class women
• Woman activists
• Black women

Use your textbook and the following sites (these sites will be helpful but this is not a complete list).

• Industrial Revolution websites , TeacherOz.com
• Discovering American Women’s History Online , Walker Library, Middle Tennesee State University
• Women’s History in America , Women’s International Center
• The Struggle for Women’s Equality in Black America

Have each group share its research on the assigned topic with the class.

Class Discussion: Analyze the information compiled through the research in order to understand women’s lives after the war. Identify changes regarding both lives and assumptions about the following: upper-class women, working-class women, middle-class women, woman activists and black women.

Extension Activity: Essay

To what extent did the Civil War change the nation’s assumptions about women during the nineteenth century?

Stay up to date, and subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.

Learn how the Institute impacts history education through our work guiding teachers, energizing students, and supporting research.

Home / Essay Samples / History / Civil War / Women Role During The Civil War

Women Role During The Civil War

• Category: History , War
• Topic: Civil War , Women in Combat

Pages: 7 (3269 words)

Views: 3226

• Downloads: -->

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

American History Essays

Progressive Era Essays

Cold War Essays

The Vietnam War Essays

Korean War Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service  and  Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->