status Flashcards
(5 cards)
topic sentence
Furthermore, other historians such as Drew Faust argue that Civil war impacted the war impacted women in different ways as their status was impacted differently due to their voluntary work
evidence 1 - us sanutary commission
The US SANITARY COMMISSION, established in Union in June 1861, employing tens of thousands of female volunteers. It collected goods made in the home by Northern women and employed agents to distribute uniforms and other goods into the army field hospitals, as well as organising a commission to ease the problems of disease and infection, and more. This impacted Northern women positively as their employability in this organisation gave them a platform to demonstrate their dedication to working, which could help contribute to the changing status of Union women. Additionally, it gave them the ability to contribute positively to the Union war effort, which could boost morale at a time where they were lost as their husbands, sons etc. were away fighting.
evidence 2 - loss of southern morale
On the other hand, however, in the South, as the war progressed Southern women lost their sense of patriotism which they once possessed due to the hardships they faced, e.g. food shortages and significant death tolls. Indeed, Robert Cook argues, “that old patriarchal habits die hard and that most Southern women avoided full engagement in the public sphere, preferring to participate in supportive activities that were essentially extensions of their antebellum domestic role”. This suggests that the status of Confederate women was changing at a slower rate than that of their Northern counterparts because they were still mainly fulfilling the role of women prior to the Civil War, whereas Northern women were advancing on their status due to their increased employability. This therefore emphasises how the war impacted women on both sides in different ways
counter analysis
However, Cook also recognises that over a thousand female voluntary organisations were set up in the South between 1861 and 1865. This refutes the argument that the war had differing impacts on the North and South because it suggests that they both set up organisations, which demonstrated their employability skills, not just the North.
evaluation
o evaluate, Drew Faust argues that women faced sever hardships on the home front and this led to the growth of defeatism as seen in the contents of letters sent to fighting men of the South. This suggests that women of both sides were impacted in different ways as Southern women developed a feeling of defeatism, whereas this feeling wasn’t as significant in the North
