By: Jasmine Evans, Grace Yang, and Nikki Barrow

 As men moved away to many factories, offices and into shops, the household became a place for the females. “True women” devoted their lives to cleaning, cooking and taking care of their children and husbands.  Women did not know much about the outside world because of the confinement to their homes.

 During the war the women began to turn there attention to the world outside their own homes.  Thousands of women from the North and South joined volunteer groups and helped the army as nurses and many other forms of aid.  These efforts were the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war

 During Civil War women faced a wide variety of new responsibility.  By the women needing to help it expanded their ideas of what their “proper place” should be in society.

 The northern women organized aid societies to supply Union troops.  They did things such as: baked, canned, planted gardens, sewed, knitted, organized fundraisers, put on county fairs and performances of all kinds to raise money for medical supplies for the men.

 The women wanted to stay more active in the war. They were inspired by the work of Florence Nightingale and her fellow nurses.  They stayed involved by trying to stay active on the front lines and caring for the sick and injured soldiers.  They also stayed active by trying their hardest to keep the Union troops healthy and safe.

 The federal government created the United States Sanitary Commission which is a preventative hygienic and sanitary service for the benefit of the army.  Provided relief to sick and wounded soldiers.  Provided almost fifteen million dollars in supplies. The vast majority was collected by women—to the union army.

 Nearly 20,000 women worked for the Union side.  White women as well as free and enslaved African American worked as laundresses and cooks, and nurses.  Women also worked as spies and some even disguised themselves as men and fought with the troops.

 Women of the Confederacy had less money to work with than women of the Union, so they did as much of their work through local auxiliaries and relief societies.  They cooked and sewed for their men like the Union.  They cared for wounded soldiers in their homes as untrained nurses.  The wealthy southern women just relied on slaves and hardly did much work.

 Women that worked as nurses had to be over the age of 30, dress very plainly, and avoid personal attractions to any of the men  Nurses were expected to behave in an unfeminine way and not purposely distract the troops  One of the most famous of these nurses was a writer, her name was Louisa May Alcott

 They never had the luxury of “true women” to begin with.  Being a women never saved a single female slave from hard labor, beating, family separation, rape and death.  Many slave women had to do the work of their husbands because the confederate army frequently impressed male slaves into the army.  The Union took the male slaves but did not take the wives and children as well.

She was an important leader to the escape of slaves through the underground rail road. She was a runaway slave. Over the course of ten years she led hundreds of slaves to freedom. Her birth name was Araminta Ross. She also worked as a nurse, cook, and spy for union.

 She was confederate spy.  She sent ten word secret messages to General Beauregard which ultimately caused him to win the battle of bull run.  She was buried in full military honor in Oakdale cemetery.

 She was a social reformer.  She opened her home as a station in the underground railroad  Was an abolitionist.  She was an activist for women’s suffrage.  She traveled and lectured against war and slavery.

 Just because the civil war ended does not mean that the work ended for the women.  After industrialization and population increased so many women had to stay to work, to make extra money, in factories or farms. They had to do this so that they could pay for the houses and support their families especially if their husbands died at war.  A lot of women also joined social causes. One very popular known as women's suffrage, which was the fight for the right to vote.

 civil-war civil-war 