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Woman Suffrage Lesson Plan

By Renee DeLora, Christina Dwyer, and Mike Romano, Ramapo College

Purpose/Central Focus:To understand the multiple perspectives on woman suffrage in the early twentieth century.

Standards:

  1. NJSLSA.R1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences and relevant connections from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
  2. NJSLS 6.1.12.D.6.c. Analyze the successes and failures of efforts to expand women’s rights, including the work of important leaders (i.e., Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Lucy Stone) and the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment. 
  3. NJSLS 6.2.12.D.3.a. Explain how individuals and groups promoted revolutionary actions and brought about change during this time period (twentieth century).
  4. NJSLS 6.2.12.D.3.b. Explain how industrialization and urbanization affected class structure, familylife, the daily lives of men, women, and children, and the environment. 
  5. NJSLS 6.2.12.D.5.d. Analyze how feminist movements and social conditions have affected the lives of women in different parts of the world, and evaluate women’s progress toward social equality, economic equality, and political equality in various countries. 
  6. Common Core RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence and  make relevant connections to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferentially, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  7. Common Core RL.9-10.9. Analyze and reflect on (e.g. practical knowledge, historical/cultural context, and background knowledge) how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from mythology or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). 

Student Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to identify the differences between suffragettes and suffragists and the goals of the suffrage movement.
  2. After reading about the twentieth century suffrage movement, students will be able to create either a protest poster, political cartoon, or speech that accurately portrays the arguments of suffragists, suffragettes, and anti-suffragists.

Key Vocabulary, Terms, and People:

  1. Woman Suffrage
  2. Suffragette
  3. Suffragist
  4. Jane Addams
  5. Alice Paul

Key Questions:

  1. Why did women want suffrage?
  2. Why was suffrage important?
    1. Follow up question - How does suffrage make a citizen more invested into the democratic process? 
  3. What efforts did the suffrage movement take to achieve suffrage?
  4. What were suffrage leaders doing to promote the movement?

Prior Academic Knowledge:

Students should have learned about Jane Addams as a Progressive Era figure, especially her role in Hull-House. Students should also have learned about the Seneca Falls Convention and the earlier suffrage work of the nineteenth century. 

Misconceptions:

  1. Women did not have any voting rights at any level until the 19th Amendment.
    1. Although, women did not have the right to vote in presidential elections, and in many cases, they did have the right to vote in local elections in many states.
  2. All states had the same voting rights.
    1. While most states did have the same limitations on voting rights for women, there were some states that give women more voting rights at the federal level than others. Some states did allow women to vote for president and vice-president. 
  3. Voting rights for women is a contemporary issues that has only shown up in the last 100 years. 
    1. Before the Revolutionary War, women were able to influence politics, despite lacking the vote. New Jersey even allowed white, property owning women to vote from 1776 to 1807. Woman suffrage was not a major issue, although it was discussed by some politicians, in the context of women who owned property. Voting rights in the United States originally only applied to white, property owning men, but by 1856, had been extended to all white men. Voting grew as a woman’s issue, especially in the 1840s and would be championed into the 20th century. Early woman suffrage rights began in Kentucky (1838), Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870 and 1895), and Colorado (1893).

Instructional Materials:

  1. iPad, Chromebook, etc. to access online resources
  2. Coloring and drawing materials
  3. “School House Rock - Sufferin Till Suffrage.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Aug. 2010, https://youtu.be/CGHGDO_b_q0.
  4. “Alice Paul: The Suffragist.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 10 Apr. 2017, www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-alice-paul-suffragist/.
  5. Steinmetz, Katy. “Suffragette: A Brief History of a Loaded Word.” Time, Time, 22 Oct. 2015, https://time.com/4079176/suffragette-word-history-film/.
  6. Woman Suffrage Lesson Materials

Procedures: 

Day 1:

  1. Do Now: Students will be given a KWL chart about woman suffrage (3-5 mins)
    1. Discussion about KWL chart. The discussion can also address misconceptions, if need be. (3-5 mins.) 
  2. Sufferin’ till Suffrage Schoolhouse Rock Video- 3 minutes
    1. Follow up question - How does suffrage make a citizen more invested into the democratic process? 
    2. When did women gain the right to vote?
    3. Which amendment extended the right to vote to women?
    4. Who were some influential women in the fight for suffrage?
    5. Why did women want suffrage?
    6. Why was suffrage important?
  3. One of the lyrics of “Sufferin’ till Suffrage” says “Cast our ballots and we endeavour to improve our country, state, county, town, and school” but what the song doesn’t explain is that in order to get suffrage, women had to work to slowly achieve the right to vote at the town, county, state, and country level, like the song implies. Jane Addams, who was a suffragist in the early twentieth century, discussed why women in Chicago needed the vote. Addams was one of the suffragists who helped spread the movement during the 1900s.
    1. “There are so many things in the management of the city's affairs in which the women are so much better qualified to supervise, that it is necessary to take them into partnership in governmental affairs in order to continue to keep in the van of progress. They are more vitally interested than the men in school and the playgrounds, the feeding of the families, the care of the markets, the sanitary conditions, the inspection bureaus, the fire escapes in tenement houses, and the general inspection of congested quarters, the bakeries, and innumerable other departments of the city which are under the control of politics. All of these have to do with women and the management of the home. They are along the natural lines of a women's field. They know better what they want than the men for they are ones to suffer. These are women's work for the men never take the interest in them like the woman. That is why we insist that suffrage is the solution of the problem." -- Chicago Examiner.
  4. Jane Addams, the founder of Hull-House, was also a suffragist. Students will be exposed to the suffrage movement by reading primary and secondary sources, from the Jane Addams Digital Edition.
  5. After reading and annotating a modified version of “Why Women Should Vote” (attached below) students will answer questions about the document in pairs.
    1. We have shortened the text so that it is easier for students to understand, but the full text can be found here.
  6. Close: Because Addams’ work focuses on the pro-suffrage argument, it is important to show the anti-suffrage point of view. 
    1. Examples of anti-suffrage cartoons: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3
    2. Tomorrow students will be combining the techniques of the pro-suffrage and anti-suffrage movements to create their own suffrage propaganda.
  7. Homework: For homework, students should read the article “Everything You Need to Know About the Word ‘Suffragette’” and answer the reading comprehension questions.

Day 2: 

  1. Open: To tie in last night’s homework, begin the class with the Alice Paul Video. (2 minutes)
    1. Based on your homework last night, was Alice Paul a suffragette or a suffragist? What about Addams?
    2. What is a suffragist? What is a suffragette?
    3. What efforts did the suffrage movement take to achieve suffrage?
    4. What were suffrage leaders doing to promote the movement?
    5. To supplement this reading, there are images on the Library of Congress website that show the posters and suffragettes of the National Women’s Party.
  2. In this lesson, students will be taking on the roles of the suffragettes, suffragists, and anti-suffrage people. Students will work in groups or as individuals (your choice) on writing a suffrage speech and a suffrage cartoon or a suffrage protest poster, based on the ones that they have learned about in class. Students can take any perspective, as long as it is historically accurate. After creating their speech and cartoon, or poster, they should write a paragraph explaining the project and their thought process behind it.  Examples for each concept should be readily available for students to reference, from the sources previously provided in the lesson.
  3. Working on the project (30 minutes)
  4. Close: Have a few students share their work. All students should submit their work, which can be displayed around the classroom. (5 minutes)

Assessments:

  1. Objective: Students will be able to identify the differences between suffragettes and suffragists and the goals of the suffrage movement.
    1. Assessment:  This objective will be assessed through informal questioning after the “Sufferin’ til Suffrage” and “Alice Paul” Videos.
  2. Objective: After reading about the twentieth century suffrage movement, students will be able to create either a protest poster, political cartoon, or speech that accurately portrays the arguments of suffragists, suffragettes, and anti-suffragists.
  1. Assessment: Students will be assessed on the accuracy of their protest poster, political cartoon, and speeches. The assessments must accurately represent the arguments of either suffragists, suffragettes, or anti-suffragists.

Extension: 

To extend this lesson, an extra class period could also be added for students to present their projects in either a gallery walk or a class debate on the issue. Students could be divided into suffragists, suffragettes, and anti-suffragists and have to argue that point of view.

Follow-Up:

The debate over suffrage went beyond just the suffragists, suffragettes, and anti-suffragists. There were splits between suffrage organizations, which would dive further into why suffragists and suffragettes had different approaches. Because suffrage was so hard to accomplish at the federal level, there is also sufficient information for students to explore the way that suffragists fought for the vote at the local, state, and federal levels. Students could also explore the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment. Connections could also be made to earlier and later feminist movements.

Supporting Diverse Learners:

  1. All digitized articles can also be offered in print form for those students who require them. In addition, the digital articles can also be read by the computer. 
  2. Some of the lyrics in the School House Rock video may be too quick for students to hear, so a teacher could provide a sheet with lyrics on it for students to follow as they watch.

Woman Suffrage Lesson Plan