1.1 Lesson plan: Changing roles of women

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• utilize archival photographs, a cartoon, and an oral history to understand social reactions to the women’s movement
• consider the change of women’s roles over time, and what changes the future will hold
• discuss and assess the importance of the Constitutional Amendments expanding suffrage rights or they will discuss how other countries addressed women’s suffrage

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1–2 class periods

Materials/Resources

• teacher’s guides
• Documenting the American South oral history excerpts:
  • Suffragettes
  • Women’s “Libbers”
  • Societal Attitudes Towards Women
  • Political Theories about Suffrage
  • United States history classes: Domestic Historical Perspective on Suffrage
  • World history classes: International Historical Perspective on Suffrage
• classroom materials and textbooks that address the 19th Amendment or the Women’s Liberation movement in the 1970s or women’s suffrage internationally

Additional materials to print and hand out to students:

• transcripts of oral history excerpts
• cartoon from the Library of Congress: “Election Day!”
• photograph from Library of Congress of White House picketers
• photograph from the Library of Congress of Helen Gurley Brown
• photograph from the Library of Congress of
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• photograph from the Library of Congress of Carrie Chapman Catt
• Voter Turnout Among Citizens According to U. S. Census Current Populations Surveys (Microsoft Word document) for the assessment activity
• The Status of Women in North Carolina fact sheet from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research for assessment activity

Technology resources

• internet connection
• speakers
• computer
• headphones (preferred)
• CD player (in lieu of the computer, speakers and internet connection, if you have burned your own CD)

Pre-activities

Teacher preparation

1. Listen to the oral history excerpts. Read through the teacher’s guides.
2. You may wish to print out enough of the following for each student (alternatively, students can access these online):
   • transcripts of oral history excerpts
   • cartoon: “Election Day!”
   • photograph of White House picketers
   • photograph of Helen Gurley Brown

Audio preparation

1. If you are playing audio from a CD player, you will not require a computer or speakers. In this situation, you will want to download the oral histories ahead of time and burn them onto a CD.
2. If you are playing the oral histories from a computer and speakers in your classroom, you can play it live from the website, download the audio to your computer and play with a variety of audio players that may be pre-installed on your computer.
3. If you are going to use the computer lab, you do not have to download the oral histories. You and your students can simply listen to the audio excerpts included in this lesson plan.
4. Before you use the computer lab, you should ensure every student will have a computer and headphones. Also, ensure that the volume on all of the computers is not muted, and is not too loud.

Consult UNC’s Resources for Teachers: Audio Toolkit if you wish to know more about downloading or playing audio files.

Activities

Warm-up: Understanding attitudes

Hand out the “Election Day!” cartoon printed from the Library of Congress. This cartoon is rich with details that indicate the way society perceived women who were advocating for the vote, and also what society feared by giving women this power.

Give students a chance to look at the photograph and notice particular details. Tell students the cartoon was probably published in a newspaper, though we do not know where. The date is circa 1909, eleven years before Congress voted to pass the 19th Amendment. Discuss the following questions:

• What is being portrayed in the cartoon?
• What are the visual clues as to what the artist is trying to say? What is the artist’s point of view?
• To what audience is this cartoon appealing? Do you think more people at the time would have agreed with the artist or not?
• How do people feel about this cartoon now? What has changed since 1909?

This cartoon lays the groundwork for activities that come later in the class that address: women’s attitudes toward femininity, a woman’s role inside the household and out, and reasons why women might not welcome the right to vote.

Activity 1: Women’s attitudes toward women

Part 1: Suffragettes

1. Read the introductory script from Using the Suffragettes Photograph (teacher’s guide).
2. Pass out the photographs of Women Picketing the White House, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Chapman Catt.
3. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from Using the Suffragettes Photograph (teacher’s guide).
4. Read aloud the introductory script from Using the Suffragettes Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
5. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from Using the Suffragettes Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
6. Play the Suffragettes oral history excerpt. Running time: 1 minute 15 seconds.
7. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from Using the Suffragettes Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

Part 2: Women’s “libbers”

1. Read aloud the introductory script from the Using the Women’s “Libbers” Photograph (teacher’s guide).
2. Pass out the photograph of Helen Gurley Brown.
3. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from the Using the Women’s “Libbers” Photograph (teacher’s guide).
4. Read aloud the introductory script from the Using the Women’s “Libbers” Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
5. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from the Using the Women’s “Libbers” Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
6. Play the Women’s “Libbers” oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 41 seconds.
7. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from the Using the Women’s “Libbers” Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

Activity 2: Society’s attitude toward women

1. Read aloud the introductory script from the Using the Society’s Attitude towards Women Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
2. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from the Using the Society’s Attitude towards Women Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
3. Play the Society’s Attitude towards Women oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 42 seconds.
4. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from the Using the Society’s Attitude towards Women Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

Activity 3: Political Theories

1. Read aloud the introductory script from the Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
2. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from the Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
3. Play the Domestic Historical Perspective oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 40 seconds.
4. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from the Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

For United States history classes

1. Read aloud the introductory script from Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
2. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
3. Play the Domestic Historical Perspective oral history excerpt. Running time 2 minutes 8 seconds.
4. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from Using the Domestic Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

For world history classes

1. Read aloud the introductory Script from Using the International Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
2. Discuss the answers to the preliminary questions from Using the International Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).
3. Play the International Historical Perspective oral history excerpt. Running time: 4 minutes 1 second.
4. Discuss the answers to the follow-up questions from Using the International Historical Perspective Oral History Excerpt (teacher’s guide).

Assessment

Students will consider two reports regarding voter turnout for the 2004 election:

• Voter Turnout Among Citizens According to U. S. Census Current Populations Surveys (Microsoft Word document)
• The Status of Women in North Carolina fact sheet from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research for assessment activity

Students will review this data, and write an essay response considering the significance and impact of the 26th Amendment (lowering the voting age) and the 19th Amendment. Do these two populations represent an adequate percentage of the total voter turnout? Why do turnout problems persist amongst these groups? What information from the Dr. Boyd interview sheds light on the barriers or impediments to greater participation?

The second part of the essay will address the student’s personal attitudes toward voting. In what elections has the student participated, (a school election, church election, or sporting group election counts.) How do students predict they will participate in elections and other civic opportunities in the future? Students should justify their actions with reasons supporting why they think civic participation and voting is important or not.

• Next: Using the Suffragettes photograph

For teachers

• Next: Using the Suffragettes photograph

Learn more

• “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures 1850–1920 A set of 38 images from the Library of Congress relating to woman suffrage Portraits of women active on behalf of woman suffrage and women's rights as well as images depicting the public, often symbolic, way in which suffragists campaigned for the right to vote. The set also features cartoons commenting on the movement and a photograph depicting the activities of anti-suffragists.
• American Women A gateway to Library of Congress resources for the study of women's history and culture in the United States.
• Women of Protest A presentation of 448 photographs from the Library of Congress's National Woman’s Party collection. The National Women's party represented the militant wing of the suffrage movement.
• History of Women’s Suffrage An article from Scholastic that explores the history of women's suffrage worldwide.
• Helen Gurley Brown Wikipedia entry on the long-time editor of Cosmopolitan.
• Reading primary sources: An introduction for students A step-by-step guide for students examining primary sources, with specific questions divided into five layers of questioning.

Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on American history, Helen Gurley Brown, Nineteenth Amendment, North Carolina, Rosamonde Boyd, Woodrow Wilson, oral histories, suffrage, suffragettes, and voting.