Women's Role In The Civil War Essay

In American history, women have had a profound role. Whether it was the lack of freedom or the excessiveness of their decisions, women have shaped what America has become and what it will continue to grow into. Daphne Spain explains in her article entitled “Women’s Rights and Gendered Spaces in 1970s Boston,” how “During the 1970s feminists in Boston declared their rights to their own bodies by establishing women's health clinics and domestic violence shelters. In doing so, they wrote a modern chapter in the distinguished history about how women have shaped the city. Almost one hundred years earlier, in 1877, the Women's Educational and Industrial Union opened on Boylston Street as a center to promote women's intellectual and economic independence.' Elite and middle-class women of the era also sought a role in urban politics. (Spain, 1)” This seems ironic due to current politics, but aside from that, there have been women’s rights movements for centuries to protect. However, as
No matter the job that were assigned to the “men” of the Civil War, they were far more eventful than the ones lead by the women at home. Some women went on to become soldiers, nurses, and even spies. In cases such as these, Charnan Simon, in his article “Emma Edmonds: Master of Disguise,” states, “Private Frank Thompson was one of the Union Army's most successful spies during the Civil War. Whether disguised as a slave, an Irish peddler woman, a black laundress, or a Confederate sympathizer, Frank's real identity was never uncovered by the enemy. But it wasn't until long after the war ended that Frank's fellow Union soldiers learned just how good at disguise he was. For in real life, Frank Thompson was a woman named Emma Edmonds! (Simon)” Women clearly were a pivotal feature in the Civil War, for they play key roles on both sides that the Armies of both the Union and Confederacy couldn’t be