This paper about images of women during the Civil War addresses broad questions regarding the conditions and impetus for change in gender roles. Based on scholarship suggesting that wars bring adjustments in what is considered appropriate behavior, evidence of shifting gender roles was sought by studying newspapers published during the Civil War. Patriotism as a value was expected to propel any shift in gender behavior. That is, a sense of patriotic duty would prompt women to public service and make such work outside their "proper sphere" seem necessary, valued, and therefore acceptable.
Using a method of discourse analysis, newspaper content was treated as a "text"--assumed to reflect prevailing values and attitudes of the time and place in which it is created. A matrix of antebellum and post-Civil War images of women was used to analyze coverage of women to answer questions about 1) what images of women appeared--and which dominated--in the news, 2) whether a shift in images is discernible, and 3) if a shift is discernible, whether it relates to patriotism.
More than 100 news items about women in 65 issues of five newspapers from 1861, 1862, 1863 and early 1865, plus items quoted in secondary sources from an additional ten newspapers, were studied. Images identified in these sources suggest a shift in the conception of woman's role, particularly that the war years were transitional in notions about what was appropriate gender behavior, and that patriotism and women's very public war work were important to such a shift. News items indicated increasing acceptance of women in public activities. It appeared that patriotism as a value, embedded in the coverage, made such activity acceptable for a society unaccustomed to such behavior by women.
Of special note is that most items found about women were classified
as straight news--that is, reflecting no particular treatment due to the
subject being women. This suggests women were being treated primarily as
newsworthy. Their wartime activities made them more newsworthy and this
news coverage helped increase their visibility in the public sphere. This
likely had long term consequences; after the war, women were unlikely to
revert to the purely private sphere exclusively or to experience severe
ostracism for public activity.
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Last updated: March 9, 1998.
Comments to: Communication Department
