Women's history
LEARN NC has selected several resources from our collections to help your students learn about the women's history. Find lesson plans, websites, and articles to help your students learn about the achievements and experiences of women.
Lucy Gwynne Branham, here in an Occoquan prison dress, was among the many National Woman’s Party activists who were arrested and imprisoned for their role in suffrage protests. Photograph from the Records of the National Woman’s Party collection. American Memory, Library of Congress.
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Related pages
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Related topics
- Learn more about American history, Equal Rights Amendment, history, social studies, suffragettes, and women.
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No matter where you look in our rich history, from the front lines photographing the realities of war to the front lines at home struggling for equal rights, you will find the contributions of women. LEARN NC has selected several resources from our collections to help your students learn about these contributions, whether you’re celebrating Women’s History Month (every March) or giving your students a place to start their research on women’s suffrage. Find lesson plans, websites, and articles to help your students learn about the achievements and experiences of women as mothers and wives, as scientists and inventors, and as writers and heads of state. The list is endless.
Lesson plans
- My Favorite Women/Great Aunt Arizona
- These three (or four) 45-minute lessons will introduce Kindergarteners and first graders to “Women’s History Month.” The students listen to the story of author Gloria Houston’s great-aunt, Arizona Houston Hughes. During and following the listening and viewing experiences, the students will discuss their experiences with women in their own history who are helping them become good citizens and grow up well. (Grades K-1)
- Women of the South in a Changing Society
- This lesson examines the lives of women in Southern Appalachia and other areas of the south during the Civil War and focuses particular attention on analyzing the historical stereotypes of women of the 19th-century. (Grade 11)
- North Carolina Women and the Progressive Movement
- This lesson includes primary sources from Documenting the American South specifically related to North Carolina women involved in reform movements characteristic of the Progressive era. For the most part, these documents detail women’s work in education-related reform and describe the creation of schools for women in the state. They also demonstrate that, as was true in the rest of the nation, the progressive, female reformers of N.C. were segregated based on race and socio-economic status. (Grades 11-12)
- Remember the Ladies: The First Ladies
- Students will explore the ways in which First Ladies were able to shape the world while dealing with the expectations placed on them as women and as partners of powerful men. (Grade 5)
- Cultural Change
- Students examine the arguments used to win the vote for American women and explore the cultural dimension of these arguments. (Grades 10-12)
- Suffrage: The Changing Role of Women
- In this lesson, students use oral history excerpts and photographs to learn about the women’s suffrage movement in the United States from a variety of perspectives. (Grades 11-12)
Websites
- National Women’s History Project
- deas for students, teachers, and parents who want to make sure women’s history is part of the learning experience in school. Also includes biographies of important women and the history of Women’s History Month.
- American Women: A Gateway to the Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States
- A companion of the print publication American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States and a gateway to the Library of Congress’s multimedia resources related to women such as manuscripts, recorded sounds, moving images, and maps.
- Women of Our Time
- Photographic portraits and biographical information on some of America’s famous and influential women. There is also information on the styles of artists and their views regarding portraiture.
- Women Pioneers in American Memory
- Stories of women struggling for equality from the mid 19th century to the present day. The site contains images, first person journals, diaries, and letters of women involved in westward migration, suffrage, struggles for equality, the workforce, and today.
- WASP on the Web
- A website with activities and information shared in honor of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots of WWII. the site includes official documents, records, statistics, audio clips of speeches, photographs, a crossword puzzle, a virtual coloring book, a virtual paper doll, the opportunity to e-mail or chat with a retired WASP, facts, a timeline, articles written about the women (beginning with those written in 1943), quotations, a glossary, and digital postcards.
- Celebrating Women’s History Month
- A collection of activities and biographies about women in history. Includes a quiz about women and their achievements and a timeline of significant events.
- “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920
- This website about the campaign for women’s suffrage in the United States features portraits of leaders in the movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Julia Ward Howe, and Mary Church Terrell. The collection also highlights images of suffrage parades and women picketing for the right to vote.
- Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
- Contains biographical information about remarkable Connecticut women as well as an amazing collection of related teacher resources.
- Women Come to the Front - Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II
- Eight women journalists, photographers, and broadcasters of World War II and their works are featured on this site. There are links to other important sites, including the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Additionally, there is a list of accredited women correspondents from the World War II period.
- Three Hundred Women Who Changed the World
- An extensive site with biographies of women who made their mark in history. This Encyclopaedia Britannica site has articles that are less lengthy and more readable than Britannica articles are known to be. Video and audio recordings are available on the site, as well, including many recordings of the women, themselves.
Articles
- Women Soldiers of the Civil War
- An article about several women who enlisted as men into the ranks of both the Union and Confederate armies of the American Civil War. Photographs of some of these women and a discharge document for a soldier discharged because she was a woman are included.
