Supplying the Soldiers
Women stereotypes characterized the mid-1800s in the United States. During this era, women were often viewed as the dependent and fragile weaker sex. Gender roles were divided strictly with the women’s place being the home where she was charged with taking care of the children as and domestic chores. However, following the outbreak of the civil wars, all men were forced to join the military, which opened new paths for women, thus taking up new roles that were previously stereotyped as mens roles at home and war(Rodgers,1998). During these political upheavals, women served as nurses, spies, soldiers, among other roles as outlined below:
Supplying the Soldiers
Following the volunteers of men soldiers through the Union and Confederate governments, women supplied their men in the military with key necessities such as flags and uniforms. As the war continued, the demand for supplies rose, thus necessitating the need for the Southern and Nothern women to meet in sewing circles to make blankets, clothings, and haversacks for the soldiers. As a result, women formed bandage and lint associations, which turned waste into lint, which was eventually used as bandages for nursing the wounded soldiers. Further, through the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which was formed in July 1861 under men leadership but staffed by women, women volunteered in gathering money and other resources that were sent to hospitals to take care of the injured soldiers. Women also volunteered in distributing products hiring nurses as well as improving the living conditions in hospitals and camps(Steele, 1998).
Civil War Nursing
Nursing was one of the stereotyped roles which were perceived as a role for men only before the civil wars. However, due to the civil wars, most women took over the nursing roles, providing treatment to the wounded and sick soldiers, thus saving lives. Some of these women included Phoebe Pember and Kate Cumming, who nursed soldiers from the South. Additionally, the likes of Clara Barton and Mary Livermore who hailed from the North raised their voices in the highest power halls advocating for change of some of the nursing reforms which had both positive and long-term impacts on the medical care quality in the U.S. based on
their nursing experiences during the war(Reno, 2019).
Keeping the home fires Burning
Women were also charged with the responsibility of boosting band sustaining the morale of soldiers at war. The government had appealed to them to constantly write to the soldiers, cheering them not to complain regardless of the hardships at war. Women’s domestic roles had changed at this point; they had taken up men’s domestic roles including being the head of the family meaning they had to figure out on how they would feed and clothe their families, care for the children, tending crops, attending to the animals and maintaining their husbands and fathers properties while still running their homes smoothly. However, due to different domestic challenges and the need to supplement the men at war, some women entered into the workforce where they worked in offices, shops, and factories while living their children in the care of friends and relatives. Consequently, women such as Harriet Tubman engaged in dangerous roles in the battlefield serving as union scouts behind Confederate lines. To fit in such scenarios, women had to change their appearance like shaving hair and wearing trousers to hide the incognito((Rodgers,1998).
During and after the civil wars, the attitudes concerning women’s work had changed since the transition of men from being domestic providers to soldiers opened a myriad of opportunities for women to venture in all activities and careers which were previously stereotyped as men’s which they excelled in and to a bigger extent served better than men. The civil wars brought a redefinition of gender roles while still empowering the Northern and Southern women (Reno, 2019).
References
Reno, W. (2019). The importance of context when comparing civil wars. Civil Wars, 21(4), 448-467. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249.2019.1642614
Rodgers, J. (1998). Bosnia, gender, and the ethics of intervention in civil wars. Civil Wars, 1(1), 103-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249808402368
Steele, D. B. (1998). Pre‐empting civil wars. Civil Wars, 1(3), 95-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698249808402383