Women in the Civil War

Created with Padlet

During the Civil war many women chose to take different actions, some were inside the sphere of domesticity, others were outside, and some were both. The sphere of domesticity includes actions such as, cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, maintaining the house, and other things of that nature. Actions outside the sphere of domesticity would include, fighting in the war, getting a job, speaking in public, flirting with men, and anything that is not "lady like" or not performing a "women's duties". We see many examples of women that do one or the other and we even see some women that begin their life one way and change over time.

For example, Harriet Jacob lived her whole life outside of domesticity. She was a journalist and a writer. Jacobs worked for "The Liberator", she set up donations for black refugees, she was a black women who was a former slave. Jacobs wrote articles about black refugees in the North that came up from the south. She helped collect clothes and food for them, which might be considered inside the sphere, but it was the way she did it and who she was that makes it outside the sphere. Being a former slave and even more a women, public speaking on such topics was considered way outside the sphere.

This quilt square above shows talks about many women from the Civil war period. It explains what each women did, whether or not they fell within the sphere of domesticity and much more. It provides an image to give a visual representation of the women and their actions. Sometimes women went outside of the sphere because of special circumstances, but other times they did it for no real reason at all except for the fact that, that was who they naturally were. They are individuals, and each of these women chose to do something different, sometimes its clear whether they are within the sphere or not, and sometimes its sort of on the boarder.