What Role Did Women Play In The Civil War Essay

When Americans learn about the civil war, they would never expect how much women helped. Women helped a lot. Women would be running homes and business's without husbands, smuggling objects, being nurses, spying, running charities and even disguising themselves as soldiers. As the war progressed, women started to stray from their traditional feminine roles. An important role women did in the civil war was being a spy, there were about 100 spies ("The roles of women").Women spy's would gather information about the enemy troop size, the battle plans and take supplies and sew them on to there cloths to smuggle them to different places. Spy's were the perfect jobs for women because they were trusted, and men didn't see them as a spy so they let their guard down with them, women were also undetected because men wouldn't think they would have such of a dangerous job. In the later times of the war women spy's were getting caught because it was strange to see them ride a horse or carriage alone. They were soon getting searched while crossing the enemy lines. If the spy's were to get caught they would be sent to Canada for jail or execution (which rarely happened). …show more content…
About 2,000 to 5,000 nurses were helping aid soldiers in the civil war ("The roles of women"). In the early years of the war nurses were not allowed to help aid because they would get in the way, flirt and distract the soldiers. They were also considered untrained so men took the job as nurses instead. But after more and more soldiers were getting injured and dying, women were allowed to volunteer to nurse, but there was also rules; women had to be older 30 or older and married ("Women in the US Military"). After the battle of bull run, Clara Barton and Dorethea Dix organized a nursing corporation to help aid soldiers. They also named the nurses of the Union "The Florence Nightingales" ("Civil War