LACOE is committed to valuing the experiences and accomplishments of all individuals and believes deeply that the contributions of women in history and contemporary society are central to the character of who we are, to the health of our democracy and to the well-being of our world.
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES
https://www.crf-usa.org/curriculum/online-lessons/womens-history-month/womens-history-month
Lessons and resources on key individual women's contributions to U.S. and world history, as well as movements that have aimed at equality for women.
Facing History offers lessons, blogs, readings, videos, and on-demand videos to commemorate Women’s History Month.
The Audacity of a Vote: Susan B. Anthony’s Arrest
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/audacity-vote-susan-b-anthony-s-arrest
In this lesson, students analyze a daring challenge to the legal and social order of the time: Susan B. Anthony’s casting of an illegal ballot in the 1872 presidential election. Anthony was ultimately put on trial, convicted, and fined $100 for her “crime.” In this lesson, students close read an excerpt from Anthony’s speech Is It a Crime for Women to Vote? in which Anthony defended her actions. The speech, written prior to Anthony’s trial in 1873, contains many themes that resonate with contemporary debates about membership in American society. At a time when voter suppression, gerrymandering, and election interference dominate the headlines, this lesson prompts students to draw connections between the past and present, especially around acts of civil disobedience, the role of voting in a democracy, and the meaning of equality.
U.S. v. Susan B. Anthony: The Fight for Women's Suffrage
When the leading advocate of woman suffrage votes in a federal election, a federal court must decide what political rights are protected by the Constitution.
The Trial of Susan B. Anthony
by Ann D. Gordon, Editor, Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Rutgers University
https://www.fjc.gov/history/famous-federal-trials/us-v-susan-b-anthony-fight-womens-suffrage
Teaching Resources
https://www.fjc.gov/history/famous-federal-trials/us-v-susan-b-anthony-fight-womens-suffrage
https://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/women_history.php
Library of Congress offers an overview of Women’s History Month, legislative branch documents, and executive branch documents.
Students Investigate the 19th Amendment’s Influence on the 1920 Election
https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/category/womens-history/
The 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. The next morning, New York Tribune ran a front page story entitled “Woman Vote Expected to Aid Harding.” The article contains a series of predictions for the November 1920 Presidential and Congressional elections based on predictions from “political Washington” about these new voters.
Nineteenth Century Women: Struggle and Triumph
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/triumph/
Ever wonder what women were doing during the 1800s or what is known as the antebellum period of United States history? Men are well represented in history books as they were the powerful, educated leaders of the country. Women, on the other hand, rarely had opportunities to tell their stories. Powerful stories of brave women who helped shape the history of the United States are revealed to students through journals, letters, narratives and other primary sources. Synthesizing information from the various sources, students write their impressions of women in the Northeast, Southeast, or the West during the nineteenth century.
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/womens-history
The National Archives offers educational resources, online exhibits, videos, articles, images, photos, and primary sources from Presidential Libraries to celebrate Women’s History Month.
19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=63
Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage
Resources include primary source documents, teaching activities, and document analysis worksheets.
https://edsitement.neh.gov/teachers-guides/womens-history-united-states
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers lesson plans, media resources, and primary sources to celebrate Women’s History Month.
Women's Suffrage: Jane Addams's Article
https://teachinghistory.org/best-practices/examples-of-historical-thinking/25637
What arguments did women in the suffrage movement make to anti-suffrage women? TJ Boisseau suggests analyzing reformer Jane Addams's short essay "Why Women Should Vote," published in 1910. What nuances does Addams put in her arguments? How does what she says differ from other contemporary arguments for suffrage, and how is it the same? Are echoes of anything she writes about still debated today? What complications make the suffrage movement, as represented by this essay, less clear-cut than textbooks may paint it as?
Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment
https://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/lesson-plan-reviews/23943
Access primary sources and activities for a unit on the suffrage movement, from the Seneca Falls Convention to the passage of the 19th Amendment.
This lesson is anchored by nine primary source documents related to the women's suffrage movement, from 1868 to 1920. Students and teachers alike will appreciate that the site includes images of the original documents—not simply transcriptions.
It also has six teaching activities that range from document analysis, to role-play, to student research. Activity three, which asks students to use textbooks, library resources, and documents to make a timeline, can be an effective way of helping younger students understand historical chronology. For older students, activity six, which asks students to write and stage a one-act play, presents an opportunity to interpret and synthesize primary sources. The script for a one-act play commissioned by the National Archives, "Failure Is Impossible," is available as a model. This lesson also includes links to related websites, including those from the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Women’s History Project.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/womenshistory/index.htm
The National Park Service offers readings, podcasts, videos, images, maps, and more to celebrate Women’s History Month.
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence
https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/votes-for-women
March 29, 2019 - January 5, 2020
“Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence” will outline the more than 80-year movement for women to obtain the right to vote as part of the larger struggle for equality that continued through the 1965 Civil Rights Act and arguably lingers today. The presentation is divided chronologically and thematically to address “Radical Women: 1832–1869,” “Women Activists: 1870–1892,” “The New Woman: 1893–1912,” “Compelling Tactics: 1913–1916,” “Militancy in the American Suffragist Movement: 1917–1919” and “The Nineteenth Amendment and Its Legacy.” These thematic explorations are complemented by a chronological narrative of visual biographies of some of the movement’s most influential leaders.
https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history
The mission of the National Women’s History Museum is “to tell the stories of women who transformed our nation. We will do that through a growing state-of-the-art online presence and a future physical museum to educate, inspire, empower, shape the future, and provide a complete view of American history. Educational resources include lesson plans, biographies, posters, electronic field trips, primary sources, and more.
“Because of Her Story” includes online exhibits, videos, music, stories and objects from women who have shaped America as we know it through their work, creativity, and resolve.
The Stanford History Education Group is an award-winning research and development group that comprises Stanford faculty, staff, graduate students, post-docs, and visiting scholars. SHEG seeks to improve education by conducting research, working with school districts, and reaching directly into classrooms with free materials for teachers and students. SHEG’s Reading Like a Historian curriculum and Beyond the Bubble assessments have been downloaded more than 5 million times. SHEG 's current work focuses on how young people evaluate online content.
Background on Woman Suffrage
https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/background-woman-suffrage
When the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, the fight for women’s suffrage had already gone on for decades. Many women had hoped that women would win suffrage at the same time as African Americans. However, the Fifteenth Amendment only extended suffrage to African-American men. In this lesson, students explore the broad context of the women’s suffrage movement through reading selections from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Anti-Suffragists
https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/anti-suffragists
The 19th Amendment was passed seventy-two years after the Seneca Falls Convention. This fact demonstrates the strong opposition that women’s suffrage faced. In this lesson, students study a speech and anti-suffrage literature to explore the reasons why so many Americans, including many women, opposed women's suffrage.
Women's Rights
https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-assessments/womens-rights
Like Civil Rights Movement in Context, this assessment gauges students’ ability to contextualize two historical documents and place them in the correct chronological order. Document A is excerpted from Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. Document B is from the trial of Susan B. Anthony, who voted illegally in the election of 1872. This assessment draws on students' knowledge about changes in women’s rights over time but in a way that goes beyond just the simple recall of facts and dates. Students must show that they have a broad understanding of how women’s rights changed over time and demonstrate the ability to use knowledge about the past to place the two documents in context.
Special Focus on Women’s History Month
https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/womens-history-month
This focus includes stories, testimonials, artifacts of women confronted with the horrors of the Holocaust.
Discover the rich heritage of “the People’s House” and its central role in U.S. history since 1789. Explore its unique story and the men and women who have shaped it. Browse its collections. Access historical data and other research resources.
A Century of Women in Congress
https://history.house.gov/Oral-History/Century-of-Women/
On November 7, 1916, Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the United States Congress. To commemorate the centennial of her November 1916 election and April 1917 swearing-in as a U.S. Representative, the Office of the House Historian conducted oral histories with former women Members, staff, and family. Drawn from decades of congressional experience, the interviews in this ongoing project convey a larger narrative about the transformative role of women in American politics and their contributions to Congress during the past century.
