The Impact of the Civil War on Womens Rights Essay

â€Å"I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.† ― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman After four years of seemingly endless battle between a divided nation, more than 600,000 people were killed. These lives, however, were not given in vain. Had it not been for the American Civil War, abolition may not have been carried out. The nation might have remained divided. Women might have remained confined to their roles as the homemakers. Although the Civil War was fought in hopes of preserving the nation and ridding it of slavery, another war raged on within the depths of this war--the womens war. Serving as nurses both in the hospital and on the battlefields, women came to know a whole†¦show more content†¦Certain laws even made it nearly impossible for women to divorce their husbands. This being the case, most women were completely financially dependent upon men. In a few cases, however, women began to advance towards equality with men. For example, around the early 1850s, elementary teaching increasingly became a feminine affair. Prior to the Civil War, Kentucky took partial steps to allow women suffrage. In this state, widowed mothers were allowed a limited vote in school elections. As early as the 1840s, modern womens colleges began to replace the older, female academies (Donald Randall 20). For the most part, however, attempts at female advances-which were made in hopes of achieving equal footing with men-were unacceptable. At the World Anti-Slavery Conference in 1840, for example, women were only allowed to listen and observe behind a screen of the gallery in which the conference was held. Women were denied verbal participation because male leaders refused to speak on the same platform as them. To these men, it was a disgrace to speak on the same platform as the inferior gender. Such denials of equal opportunity gave rise to advocates of womens rights. Womens rights activists, such as Abby K. Foster, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Angelina Grimke, were deeply disappointed that they could not have a voice in the World Anti-Slavery Conference. Like most female radicals during this time, these womenShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Civil War: A Women’s Time to Shine1334 Words   |  6 PagesThe Civil War was a defining point for the United States. The people of America were forced to step back and reevaluate what defined the American Citizen: a person with the rights and privilege to cast a vote for what or who he believes in. The key word here is â€Å"he†. The Civil War brought freedom and rights to African Americans, yet it had no directly positive effect on women’s rights. While African Americans were seeing their lives and futures change, to many observers the women’s rights movementRead MoreWomen s Rights During The Ci vil War1557 Words   |  7 Pagespolitical and social inequality, the American Civil War came at a key time to change the women’s rights landscape. The period leading up to the Civil War, however, did not see a society ready to change, and thus, little work was done towards the women’s rights movement. According to Women’s Civil War History author Mary Elizabeth Massey, women’s rights activists before the Civil War were small in numbers, but opinionated (qtd in Hall 1-2). Dogmatic women’s rights activists were stuck in a world that deemedRead MoreThe Abolition Of The Civil War1679 Words   |  7 Pagesthe transpiration of the Civil War. Between the years of 1861 and 1865, conflict between the North and South had emerged, causing bloodshed at America’s most dominant period of history. Throughout the year 1861, intense conflict between the North and South over issues of states’ liberties, federal power, westward expansion, and slavery had impelled the Civil War. By the end of war, the Civil War had proved to be the most disastrous war known to American existence. During war, antislavery movementsRead MoreThe Women s Rights Movement1547 Words   |  7 PagesFlorida SouthWestern State College The Women’s Rights Movement What was the significance of the Seneca Falls Convention on the Women’s Rights Movement? Jennifer Flores AMH2010 Mr. Stehlin 16 November 2015 The Women’s Rights Movement began in 1848 with the first assembly of women and men gathering to discuss the civil, social, and other conditions of women. The Seneca Falls Convention was the start of the women’s movement. The two women who organized this event were Lucretia Mott andRead MoreWomen s Rights During The Civil War1065 Words   |  5 Pages Women s Rights In the Civil War Time Period Before the war, women had very little rights. A married woman could not control property that was hers before marriage, keep control of her wages, acquire property while married, she could not transfer or sell property, she couldn’t even bring a lawsuit. A husband could do anything he wished to with a woman’s material. He could sell them, break them, and his wife couldn t sell or give away the exact same things. It was immensely unfairRead MoreThe During The 19th Century902 Words   |  4 Pagescentury had changed the lives of women and blacks completely. It was an age where the impact of the industrial revolution caused a sharp differentiation between the gender roles, especially of the upper and middle classes. In 19th century, appeared the events such as African American Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, and The Women’s Rights Movement had put women and blacks’ role to a new level. During the Civil War, women stepped out of their domestic domains t o support the soldiers. In the meantimeRead MoreWomen s Effects On The Civil War1499 Words   |  6 Pagesthe premise of war was that men would go to war while women stayed home to take care of the children and the towns that were left behind. As a consequence, women are often left out of the main narratives of war. Interestingly, historians looking specifically at women’s effects on the Civil War effort have found that women not only worked indirectly for the war effort in their towns to support the war by making uniforms and ammunition and that some even participated directly in the war by disguisingRead MoreA Brief Note On The Civil War And Its Impact On Women s Rights1461 Words   |  6 PagesWomen’s Suffrage and Labor Rights: An Analysis of the Civil War and Its Impact on Women’s Rights In 1865, four brutal years of the Civil War ended, and Congress passed three amendments that eliminated slavery, gave citizenship to everyone born in the United States, protected people’s rights to due process, required equal protection under the law, and guaranteed voting rights to all American men. However, African American men were still segregated in terms of housing, work, equal pay, and schoolingRead MoreThe Civil War : The United States909 Words   |  4 PagesThe Civil War was one of the most pivotal and significant moments in the history of the United States of America. Therefore, its impact of the Civil War was tremendous, and in many ways has shaped the way the United States has evolved into the present. The Civil War brought lots of beneficial changes to America including economic, agriculture, military, and people’s lives. During the Civil War, women stepped out of their domestic domains to help or support their husbands in the field, or other soldiersRea d MoreThe Effect of Amercan Wars on the Societal Views of Women965 Words   |  4 PagesUnited States, and the wars that followed, the female population finally gained the confidence to voice their thoughts of their roles in society. The impact of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Progressive Era impacted the roles that women played in society in momentous ways because all three of these events were times of partial chaos with which came the more confident voices of women voicing their concerns about society’s views of them. The Revolutionary War was a time when thoughts