Lesson Plan: Ohio Women and Women's Rights
Author: Barb Adams
Subject: People in Societies
Grade(s): 8
Benchmarks and Indicators
- People in Societies 6-8, Benchmark B: Analyze examples of interactions between cultural groups and explain the factors that contribute to cooperation and conflict.
- Indicator: Grade 8, GLI 5. Describe the historical limitations on participation of women in U.S. society and their efforts to gain equal rights.
Lesson Summary
Students will learn the basic history of the Womens Suffrage Movement beginning with the Seneca Falls Convention. They will learn about the women in the movement and the course the movement took including the eventual adoption of the 19th amendment.
Instructional Procedures
- Give students some background information on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony and other women who helped found the women's suffrage movement.
- Give background information about the Seneca Fall's Convention and discuss parts of the Declaration of Sentiments.
- Give background information about the Ohio Women's Convention.
- Show the document The Proceedings of the Ohio Womens Convention. Pick out several phrases from the pamphlet and discuss them with the class.
- Pass out the handout and have the students respond to several phrases and questions regarding those phrases.
- Further discuss the students responses on the handouts.
- Pass out the second handout --Fact Sheet on Women in the U.S. Today --to each student. Have students make a spectrum with "fully redressed" on one end of the spectrum and "not redressed" on the other end. Then have students place the following categories on the spectrum with a brief explanation for each placement: politics/government; employment; wealth/status; education; moral standards; and treatment by men.
Post-Assessment
Students will complete a handout where they have interpreted various phrases from the convention pamphlet. Then they will answer questions concerning the interpretations. Finally, students will complete a spectrum showing where each major issue fits as to not redressed or fully redressed including an explanation for the placements on the spectrum. Grading will be based on how well the answers for the questions and the placements on the spectrum are supported.
Extensions
- Students can do further research on the womens movement, i.e. the 19th amendment, its passage, other women leaders in the movement, the ill-fated ERA amendment proposal.
- Students can apply the points of the pamphlet to write a pamphlet of their own regarding sentiments of students.
Material Resources
- For Teachers:
- Handout - How Far Have We Come
- Handout Fact Sheet on Women in the United States Today
- Paper to do the spectrum on
- Computer and projector to show the Womens Convention Pamphlet
