This presentation will highlight how the Civil War expanded opportunities for women in public roles on both sides of the conflict. Whether as teachers, nurses, doctors, clerks, aid and relief organizers, and even some soldiers and spies, many women played important roles and provided colorful stories over the Civil War period, both in the North and in the South. We shall examine specific examples of women's greater agency in the public eye. As even General William Tecumseh Sherman said of Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a woman who organized hospitals as Union armies advanced in the South and who was mentioned in Ken Burns' PBS Civil War documentary series, "She ranks me."

Live In-Person with Video Catch-up. Available 2-3 business days after live lecture. You will have approximately two weeks to view the video.