Although at times unevenly woven, this account of three women's
struggles to serve the Union adds new texture to the well-worn
Civil War metaphor "a house divided." Drawing on their letters and
journals as well as formal historical sources, Leonard
(History/Colby College) chronicles the lives of three women who
battled gender stereotypes in order to participate in the war
effort: Sophronia Bucklin, a volunteer nurse; Annie Wittenmyer, a
soldiers' aid activist; and Mary Edwards Walker, a licensed
physician. Each of the three struggled daily against their male
co-workers and superiors, who operated under a rigid set of
assumptions about women's abilities (for self-sacrificing nurture,
not compensated service) and proper place (maintaining home and
hearth, not participating in war). Bucklin persevered even though
she, like other nurses at the front, was denied pay and expected to
perform menial jobs. Male stubbornness obstructed Wittenmyer in her
efforts to institutionalize services; even her Special Diet
kitchens, attached to army hospitals, met with stubborn opposition,
probably because they offered paid, public work for women. Despite
achieving the respect of army officials in the field, Walker was
repeatedly rebuffed in her applications for a formal commission.
Leonard describes how all three of her subjects helped create new
possibilities for women after the war, but she especially
appreciates Walker's radical assault on gender prescriptions - her
pursuit of a paid commission, heroism on the bloodiest battle
fronts, and insistence on practical, "un-womanly" attire. While
postbellum accounts of women and the war commended both Bucklin and
Wittenmyer, Walker was denigrated as a "freak" or a "crank." This
discrepancy, in Leonard's radical feminist view, attests to the
singular strength of Walker's character and demands historical
notice. Despite some narrative discord arising from the uneasy mix
of broad cultural generalizations and minute historical details, a
valuable contribution to our understanding of the durability and
vulnerability of ideas about gender in the 19th century. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Yankee Woman examines the experiences of women in the Civil War
and, in particular, the lives of three courageous and independent
women: one a frontline nurse, the second a community organizer, and
the third the only woman to serve as a Union army surgeon in the
war. Elizabeth Leonard s in-depth research and her ability to spin
a captivating tale combine to make Yankee Woman both a fascinating
study of gender politics in society and a thoroughly absorbing
story the story of three women ahead of their time."
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