Patriotic Ladies and Gallant Heroines

Abstract

The Civil War forced many southern women into the public sphere of war materiel production, factory labor, and hospital work, jobs that previously had been part of the male sphere. This article examines how Confederate newspaper editors framed such work for women and argues that the majority of southern editors not only recognized the necessity of women's moral, patriotic, and physical contributions to the war but frequently encouraged and applauded such actions. In an era of separate gender spheres, southern editors promoted women's war work as part of the existing southern and Confederate values of self-sufficiency, hard work, paternal devotion, and sacrifice for the new nation. Examining such press representations is important because Confederate editors played crucial roles in shaping public opinion during the war and in temporarily reconstructing gender roles during wartime.