Clara Barton

In the eighteenth century, a woman had few choices. If she was lucky, she received a decent education. Then she got married. In an era when women didn’t work, Clara Barton was one of the nation’s first career women. Not only did she work, she did a man’s job and demanded a man’s wage. Some said she was scandalous, but friends and family thought she was generous and charming. The wounded from the battles of the Civil War called her the angel of the battlefield. Clara Barton is remembered not only as a nurse, but also as a woman who threw convention aside and went to the battlefields to care for the wounded and dying. Her courageous heart, personal sacrifice, and demands for better medical care for the wounded during the Civil War earned her the respect and love of the entire nation. After the war, she applied the same attributes to the founding of the American Red Cross. She is still loved today.