"Cutter argues that "redemptive womanhood"--The idea that women hold active responsibility for the nation's moral and religious health - is the key element of gender ideology in antebellum and Civil War America. In this era, society for the first time allowed and encouraged women's involvement in the public sphere, as long as it was done for the good of the country. The idea of redemptive womanhood prepared women to go to any lengths to defend their...