Women Before The War
Females before the Civil War had nothing to do with the profession of nursing
- Women's only experiences with nursing consisted of caring for people within their own homes
- Women were expected to stay home and do the chores while the men went out and made money for the family
- Women were found to be too frail to care for the sick and dying in a hospital
- The husband of Julia Ward Howe, a well-known nurse during the Civil War, said that if he had been engaged to her and “loved her ever so dearly, I would have given her up as soon as she commenced her career as a public woman”