Women’s Roles during Wars

The women's roles during the Revolution and Civil War were extremely important to society. They took on many different roles. These roles would be cooking, cleaning, parenting, making clothes, nursing, and even fighting in the war. Women played important roles in both society and in two major wars, the American Revolution and the Civil War. Women were basically the caretakers of this time. They were considered true women.

Before the war started women werent allowed to do too much more than they could post-war. They spent most of their time at home taking care of their children, their husbands, and or other soldiers. During the time period of the war it was mandatory for them to house soldiers. Now, we have the right to not quarter them if we do not want to. Women were the base of the soldiers and the families. They were looked at as if they were just masterminds and professional multitaskers. Some of them were even secretly fighting in the Revolutionary War. Women fought secretly in the Civil War because at the time they also werent allowed to join the military. Others were at home taking care of their families and being nurses. The women had to come up with new treatments to help and heal the wounded soldiers. Another job was being a seamstress/maid; the women often made the soldiers clothes during the war. Lastly, there were a few women spies during this time period but they also took on normal jobs to cover their identity. The women's roles during these wars showed how sacrificing they were for their country.

The women in the South, where it is more land, had mainly more working inside their home. This is because the women were working to provide for their house holds most of the time and not for anyone outside of it. They few that were on farms had to milk and feed the animals. Many of the mothers that stayed at home were responsible for teaching the children. The young women had to know the basic jobs of a mother by the age of thirteen during this time. While the young men were most likely getting ready to go off to war. As for the women living in the more rural areas took on the jobs as nurses, seamstresses, and other jobs that were more for the city. They still played an important role because without nurses and the seamstresses the soldiers would have been down bad.

Women had no place in the court during the eighteenth century. If women took on situations where they had higher power or equivalent power to men they got into trouble. Getting a divorce was rarely happening when it was it was complicated for the women. Everything that they owned and worked for was legally their husbands even if they were never even there. If women tried to go against their husband in any kind of way whether if its a divorce or they arent playing their role they receive backlash. If the women did anything that went against what they were allowed to do they were possibly sentenced to time depending on the crime. When the women were caught pretending to be men soldiers they served time in prison because during the time it was illegal.

In the South the women still often depended on the slaves to do their jobs. Slave women had absolutely no right to work in or for the Union. From birth they were slaves and never got to feel the feeling of being a true woman. Though, this didnt mean that they didnt have to still take care of the males. Many of the women slaves had to pull their weight and the males weight do to the Confederate Army leaving.

Cite this page