A New Life For Women
Before the civil war, a woman had a specific place in society, one that was extremely inferior to that of men. People had developed notions of what it meant to be a woman. The Civil War changed those notions. The War was the beginning of woman's strive for suffrage in America. As the war came to an end, women became more involved in the world, and were allowed to achieve and accomplish a lot of things that only men had done in the past. "The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues- piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity." (Welter 152). In her work, American Quarterly: The cult of True Womanhood, Barbara Welter explains her view on the role of a woman before the Civil War. In order for a girl to reach "true womanhood" she would have to reach for perfection in the four above categories. After the war, two of these attributes began to decline greatly in women, as they began to find new roles in society. Women started becoming more independent, and the submissiveness and domesticity gradually started to fade. They still had these qualities, but they were definitely not a
"Submission was perhaps the most feminine virtue expected of women. "White southern women were engaged in less extensive, more limited sorts of benevolence, eschewing abolition and other of the more radical 'isms' which absorbed much of northern reform, although recent studies have begun to consider white southern women's interest and engagement in politics. Women would dress as men and fight on the battlefield. "Important to women's emerging gender identity, such groups no doubt provided means for women to share information and provide mutual support. "Because the southern women lived in invaded territory, in a society pressed to !its limits by the demands of military and economic mobilization, the impact of war on them was far more all-encompassing than the women of the North. The war set a new workplace for women. "The contrasts between women's lives in prewar northern and southern societies were reflected in women's wartime experiences and, logically have been evident in differing emphases of historical inquiry in the two regions. "Like the slaves, women were all subject to the absolute authority of the patriarchal system. Domesticity definitely faded the most after the war. "In a study that encompassed North and South, it was concluded that the Civil War compelled women to become more active, self-reliant and resourceful, and this ultimately contributed to their 'economic, social, and intellectual advancement.
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Acceptance Essays
