Gender Roles in the American Civil War. The Case of Belle Boyd

Manon Kaemper

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Gender Studies, , language: English, abstract: This bachelor thesis will addres...

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Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Gender Studies, , language: English, abstract: This bachelor thesis will address the negotiation of gender roles during the time of the American Civil War. In this thesis, it will be investigated how women were coping with these strict gender roles and their respective expectations, and if these women were aware of them. All this will be surveyed under the aspect of the American Civil War from 1861 until 1865, a grave distinction from normal life. As a case study, the life of Belle Boyd will be analyzed. She was an upper-class woman, who was working as a spy for the Southern government. She is particularly known for her ability to use traditional assumptions about gender insofar as to sometimes deconstruct them for her own and the South's benefit. In her memoir Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison (1865) she describes her adventures and challenges of war and spying rich in detail and from a very personal point of view. Based on her memoir, it will be examined if and in what ways Belle Boyd is playing with prevalent gender roles and how she redefines them, to fit her circumstances. Gender roles had strict boundaries as to how women and men lived their lives. This did not only concern the social intercourse between the sexes, but dictated everybody's whole being. From expected behavior in the public to dealings with family and friends or colleagues at work. Especially women had a very strict developmental outline. A free and unrestricted development was almost never an option.