Roles of Southern Women as a Result of the Civil War.
In the Antebellum South, society was based on two main ideas: white superiority and patriarchy. Men were the masters, in charge of the family, the slaves, and the plantation, but along with their authority came duty to protect all that was theirs. And the majority of Southern women agreed with and went along with these ideals. Aristocratic women's purity and beauty was prized. They were considered dainty and fragile, delicate creatures to be shielded from the harsher realities of life. In the rural society of the South, most women stayed at home with their families, and had a small circle of friends and neighbors with whom they socialized.
But when the Civil War broke out, suddenly plantation mistresses and their children were left alone and unprotected, with plantations they now had to run by themselves. They also took on tasks such as nursing and spying that thrust them into a world of suffering they had never known. But vast numbers of women rose to the occasion, and did whatever they could to support the Confederacy. They took on new roles that had formerly been part of the public, masculine domain, such as overseeing plantation and slaves, working in the government, and sabotaging an enemy's strategy. But these new jobs were wrought with hardship, and when the war was over most women were ready to return to their roles of the family, which is what they did. So while women quickly took on new roles during the Civil War, these roles were just as quickly relinquished when the war was over.
With the men off fighting in the war, women had to do the men's work on the plantation in addition to their own. Plantation mistresses had to manage entire plantations, which was extremely difficult with little or no experience. In addition, other factors such as wartime shortages, slave resistance, and an invading enemy made it even harder to keep the plantations running.
