December 20, 2022

Women played many important roles during and following the Civil War. They were the mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of soldiers and sailors, and held the home front together through four terrible years of warfare. They also worked in hospitals just behind the battle lines, in factories, as merchants, did much of the farming, and assumed roles in community leadership. Rather than being a domestic burden, these women, from Minnesota to Maine, played key roles in preserving the Union and in trying to build a better society in its aftermath. Skills forged in the fires of war, aided women in their struggle for a place in society when it ended.  

Dr. Lisa Marie Rude is a professor of history at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN. Dr. Rude received her doctoral degree in History and Women’s Studies at the University of Maine in 2015. She earned her Master of Arts in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College. Her primary research concentration is on twentieth century women’s political history focused on the impact of the women’s movements on the First Ladies of the United States.

(Photo: Women Amidst War Landing Page, nps.gov)