What Is The Role Of Women During The Civil War

Women during the civil war were a very crucial part of the lives of men and children. If it weren’t for women many people wouldn’t have been able to survive, let alone eat or enjoy life. Women helped to keep food on the table while husbands and sons were away. Women really enjoyed going to work while man were away because it allowed them to get out of their houses. Not only could they get out of their houses but they could gain new experiences in the workforce. Although, men did not like their wives and daughters working, they were grateful because they could work to help support the family. Women were some of the most valuable individuals during the Civil War, and they helped to make new discoveries and life available. Not only did they help
to keep food on the table, but they kept the house alive and all the children alive. They took care of all the kids, animals, the house, laundry, yard work, etc. Women were superheroes of the war, and did so much to allow our combat warriors to do their jobs. Women may not have been the most important part of the civil war, but they were definite one of the most important parts of the war, and were one of the reasons the war was able to go on and continue. During the Civil war women still had to keep the household up and running while doing the jobs of the men at the same time. According to Tom Huntington, women’s days started at dawn and didn’t end until dusk. There was always so much to be done and none of it could be put off for the next day. Claire Green said, “Women were at the center of the middle-class ethic that stressed individual responsibility and self-control fit for an industrial society.” Women had the daily house chores, such as making breakfast, cleaning the dishes, making the beds, and cleaning outdoor chamber pots. During the afternoon she would sew, clean, do laundry, bake, and select food from the smokehouse or market. Dinner was the biggest meal of the day, and the husband would most likely come home for dinner and then go back to work after they were finished eating according to Donovan Michael. Daily house work was some of the biggest chores of all of life, and women were at the heart of it. Women didn’t always have help when doing all of the household chores even they are caring for all of the many children that they bear. Doing all of the household chores while caring for their children could be one of the hardest tasks in the world. But women were very good at it, and they were actually the very best at it. Women were some of the greatest and most important individuals during the civil war. When the going got tough, and there wasn’t enough men, women started to do male work.
Such as working in the factories, building airplane parts, building cars, etc. Women started to get themselves out of the house and into the real world. They were now able to drop their household chores and children off at daycare and do things for themselves. During the times of the Civil War, women rarely had time to do anything for themselves, so when they were able to go to work, they were so happy. Women were now given the chance to work, and be around other women that were in the same boat as them during Civil War time. Cattlin Flanagan states that, “a ‘housewives’ number one issue and complaint was respect.” She never thought that she got near enough of it. Women said that they felt like they were always being pushed around and being told what to do. Erma Bombeck says, “The at-home mother defines herself by her relationship to her children. She is doing everything for her children; only wants the best for them always.” If I were ever a housewife during the Civil War, I would definitely not enjoy it very much. Women in the Civil War were very strong and always had a great outlook on life no matter what their situation was. Now that women were able to work in the workforce they were much happier and enjoyed life so much
more. Now that women were a part of the workforce they had large responibilites in order to keep their jobs. Kyle Parks states, “Women had to make sure they made very few mistakes, because everything was going to be blamed on them because they were women.” That would be one of the worst things to happen and feel. You would never want to make any mistakes, ever, because it would be one of the worst feelings to ever experience. Another thing that would be very hard to experience would be not being able to see your children all the time anymore. Even though women and mothers wanted to get out of their houses and still began to miss their children. Abby Cleaver stated, “as much as I loved getting out f the house, I really started to miss my children and staying at home. It was hard always being on my toes and worrying about making mistakes.” See, even though women were glad to get out of the house, they still started to miss their home lives, and everything that they did before they went to work on the field. Women still had many jobs in the work force and they still had to go to work every day. They had to put airplanes together, build weapons, and many other things that men had to do, according to Michel Harrison. Many women were very good at what they did, and were very smart. Women are usually much more efficient and more hardworking than men were because they wanted to keep their jobs, and do what was right. Women’s most important role was staying at home with their children.
While women were at home they had many important tasks to do in order to keep everything in line. That included taking care of the farm and all the farm animals. They had to feed them, water them, and play with them and every other thing that you have to do to keep animals alive. Women also had to take care of all the children and also their husbands and house too. Their many daily chores included having to make breakfast, lunch, dinner, cleaning the house, laundry, etc. Everything they did one day, they had to do another day, and they couldn’t skip something any day because everything had to be done every day. Another thing they had to do at all times was write letter to their husbands that were off at war. Many women chose to write letters to their husbands because if they didn’t their husbands would believe that they didn’t love them, or they weren’t alive anymore, or some silly thing like that. Women were also required to take care of any businesses that their husbands might have had. If they did not have a business they had to take care of any paperwork that their husband had in their daily job, and many things like that. Women were one of the most important people in the Civil War and they continue to be remembered for everything that they did to help their husbands and the rest of the people in their
lives. Women were some of the most important people during the Civil War, and are continuously talked about today. They helped to keep their households, children, husbands, and farm life alive. In many articles, women say that at times they did not feel very important during the Civil War, and they felt very used at times, but they continued to do what they needed to do in order to keep their families alive. Reading and researching about women in the Civil War was a very cool thing, but also very hard to read about because you never know what happens during the war until you research it.