Stand By Your Man: Emasculation and the Making of Conservative Women's Groups

• In Event: Masculinity as a Political Force

Abstract

When are women at the forefront of conservative movements? This paper argues that shocks to men's status and masculinity drives women to mobilize around upholding patriarchal norms and traditional household and social gender roles. I test this theory using the case of the post-Civil War U.S. South and novel data on the formation of local chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), which mobilized extensively around honoring and rehabilitating the reputation of Confederate veterans through memorial and historical education activities that spread the "Lost Cause'' ideology to Southern whites. Using data on ``as-if'' random exposure to war casualties across companies from the same regiment in the Confederate army, I find evidence that UDC chapters were more likely to emerge in counties where there was shock to Confederate soldiers' lives and reputations. I support this argument with qualitative evidence on gendered humiliation of Confederate soldiers from Northern-origin newspapers with national coverage. This paper provides a new lens on women's post-war activism: namely, the conditions under which women participate in spreading traditional gender ideology and reifying gender roles back to more conservative pre-war structures.

Author

• Roxanne Rahnama, New York University