ABSTRACT
Scholarship on gender in America usually notes serious regression in women’s rights during formation of the new nation. Newspaper items were first classified as containing gender images or straight news, showing women engaged in, or being encouraged to engage in, public activity, and showing the relevance of patriotism to women’s activities. The frequency then of the image in Civil War newspapers surprises at first blush. Gender constructions were often merged with the notion of woman’s patriotism. Although only suggestive, images found in 65 issues of five Civil War newspapers indicate increasing acceptance of women in public activities. The belief that woman’s true nature was expressed in service to others thus opened the door for public activity through nursing and relief work and expanded the notion of women as altruistic—an image that persisted and abetted women’s increased public activity after the war.
