You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: A Woman’s Right to Vote

Students are assigned topics that reflect the issues surrounding women’s changing roles during the 19th and 20th centuries. Assuming the point of view of individuals from the time period, the students use what they have learned to debate whether women should have greater rights, including the right to vote. To prepare for the debate, the students research how a woman’s social and political activism led to an expansion of their rights and roles in society.

Standard
Social Studies
Grade 10

History, Benchmark F
The United States in the 20th Century
9. Analyze the major political, economic and social developments of the 1920s including:

b. Women’s right to vote.

Objectives

• Students will research the causes that led women to gain the right to vote in 1920.

• Students will express their researched views in a classroom debate.

Time Needed
Students will need at least three class periods to research the topics. Students will need one classroom period to prepare their position and one class period for the debate.

Procedure

1. Divide the class into two groups — those who will argue for expanding women’s rights and those who will argue against it.

2. Have students research the role of women in the following areas:
   • Abolitionism
   • The expansion of suffrage to black men
   • World War I workforce
   • Reforms in education during the Progressive Era
   • Women and the labor movement
   • Women’s role in temperance
   • Women’s role in society during the 19th and 20th centuries.

3. Tell students that you will act as the moderator. Review rules for debate. Debate rules can be found at http://www.urbanedpartnership.org/uclasp/ISSUES/bringing_water/debate.htm. Explain that the group will give an opening statement and have time for a rebuttal and closing arguments. Students may also want to look at the site http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Teach/debate-advice.html, which gives advice on debating.

4. Students may want to use these sites to do research on women’s rights.

   National Organization for Women (NOW)

   National Organization for Women (official site), http://www.now.org

   National Organization for Women Statement of Purpose, http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111now.html

Women’s Suffrage

By Popular Demand: “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures. 1890-1920 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html

The History of Women’s Suffrage http://www.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm010.html

Institutions Formed to Promote Women’s Suffrage http://www.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm011.html

Women Win the Right to Vote http://www.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm012.html

Leaders of the Suffrage Movement http://www.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm013.html

Women’s Suffrage http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsuffrage.htm

Evaluation

• Use the Women’s Right to Vote rubric to assess students’ performances.
• Have students reflect on their own performance and use the rubric to judge how well they met the criteria.
• Ask students: Which movement most greatly affected women’s rights? Why?

Women’s Right to Vote Rubric