Women’s Experiences in Pre and Post Civil War America

Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to New York City in 1832 to “see what a great republic is like,” observed that Americans “showed an equal regard for husbands and wives, but defined their roles differently.”

From the perspective of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, men had established “an absolute tyranny over” women? (Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments”)

Within the changing context of American society, reflect on women’s experience/s in the period leading up to and following the Civil War. What were women’s perceived roles? What were their real conditions and lived experiences? How did women’s experience differ by class, race, and ethnicity?