How Are Women Treated Before The Civil War

“Before the Civil War, laws and traditions restricted women’s choices.” Woman play an major role in history but that was right before the Civil War. In the article, Breaking traditions by Kathleen Ernst, it is talking about how women were treated during the 1800’s and how they live in the shadow of their husbands, dads, brothers, uncles, and any other male relatives. The wars did change women's lives during the Civil War. When the men went to war the women had to step up and do their husbands jobs but when the men came back they wanted everything to go back to normal. That did not happen because the women got used to doing the male jobs so they did not want to go back to being housewives so they retaliated and they cut their hair to a bob and shorten some of the dresses they wore just to show that they are not going to
In the article the author says “ women were expected to keep busy at home and church and to avoid heavy labor, business, and politics.” This shows that before the war women did not have a say so in what they wanted to do. They only had the choice to stay at home and do house stuff while the men are out working. “ And in the South, slave women dreamed of the freedom to make their own choices and determine their own destiny.” The women in the south did not like how they were being treated and they wanted to change some things but they did not know how. One more example, “Those who wanted or needed to pursue “respectable” careers became schoolteachers, seamstresses, or hat makers. Or gave private lesson in art, music, or French.” This shows how effective the war was towards the women and how they slowly allowed women to do more all because of how they retaliated towards the men doing all the work. In conclusion, the author describe so many ways to show the way women were treated then and how they could not do as much as