One of the annoying things you'll sometimes hear feminists say is that "war is caused by men." In reality, women have always supported war (and fallen for the lies that lead to them) just as much as men have.

Women expect their men to be brave and to fight, and have contempt for them if they don't. If  young women decided tomorrow that they would give their love to young men who are pacifists, and withhold their love from young men who are soldiers, war would rapidly become extinct.

I'm certainly not blaming women for war as feminists blame men for war--what I'm saying is that wars happen because societies support them, and that support comes as much from women as from men.

Phil, a reader, recently sent me an example of this from the siege of Vicksburg (pictured) in 1863. He writes:

When the Confederate army that had been defeated at the battles of Champions Hill and Black River retreated into the fortifications of Vicksburg, they were greeted by scornful women. The ladies told the common soldiers that they should be ashamed to have been beaten by the Yankee army.

In Winston Groom's new book Vicksburg: 1863, Winston Groom writes:

Vicksburg's women lined the streets and asked the dejected soldiers, 'What can be the matter? Where on earth are you going,' and 'shame on you!' When the men responded that 'it is all General Pemberton's fault,' the women told them, 'It's all your own fault. Why don't you stand your ground? Shame on you all!'

The women fixed the soldiers dinner anyway for, like Mary Loughborough, they could see that 'they did seem heartily ashamed of themselves. And where these weary worn out men were going we could not tell. I think they did not know themselves.'

Nice ladies.

By the way, my second paragraph above also applies to modern day inner-city gang battles.

I discussed this general subject at length a long time ago in my column Dr. Helen Caldicott Spits on My Grandfather.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 2:59 pm and is filed under History, Gender Issues (Misc.), Heroism/Chivalry/Noble Acts. You can trackback from your own site.