WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY Portraits of Progress Marianne E.
Brown 2013
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THIS IS A 50 MINUTE LESSON PLAN SUITABLE FOR A HIGH SCHOOL
AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS Begin with an activator: have students tape
butcher paper across a twelve to fifteen foot space in the room.
One student may draw a line across the middle; another may add
century markers, from 1600 to the present. Have students add 5-10
dates in American history which they know from memory (1776, etc.).
The quotations which follow in this Powerpoint should also be
printed out and distributed to student volunteers.
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INTRODUCTION This is a Group Guessing Game: Ten volunteers will
be given printed copies of the quotations from famous American
Women, along with portraits which follow in this Powerpoint. The
students will study their figures and prepare to take turns before
the class, acting out the quotations. The rest of the students will
brainstorm to figure out the author of the quotation. Some are
harder than others. Where there are two quotations sequentially for
one historic figure, if the students cannot guess correctly after
quote #1, they may be given quote # 2 as an additional hint. Note:
there are eleven quotations, but note to the students that some
figures may appear more than once. * **
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MYSTERY QUOTATION A Do not put such unlimited power into the
hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they
could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies
we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or
representation.
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IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN A
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ABIGAIL ADAMS IN 1776, ABIGAIL ADAMS WROTE THIS IN A LETTER TO
HER HUSBAND, JOHN ADAMS, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME THE SECOND
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SHE LIVED IN QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS.
AT THE TIME, WOMEN IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MOST OF THE COLONIES HAD
THE RIGHT TO VOTE. WOMEN LOST THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN MASSACHUSETTS
SHORTLY AFTER THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN.
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MYSTERY QUOTATION B Quote # 1: I had reasoned this out in my
mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or
death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.
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MYSTERY QUOTATION B Quote # 2: I freed a thousand slaves I
could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were
slaves.
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IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMEN B
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HARRIET TUBMAN SHE LIVED FROM 1820 TO 1913. HARRIET TUBMAN WAS
A LEADER OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AND A UNION SPY DURING THE
CIVIL WAR LATER SHE WAS ACTIVE IN THE WOMANS SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
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MYSTERY QUOTATION C That man over there says that women need to
be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the
best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look
at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered
into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could
work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and
bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried
out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a
woman?
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IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN C
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SOJOURNER TRUTH GAVE THE FAMOUS AINT I A WOMAN SPEECH AT THE
OHIO WOMENS RIGHTS CONVENTION IN 1851 WAS AN ESCAPED SLAVE AND AN
ADVOCATE FOR WOMENS RIGHTS ACTIVELY RECRUITED FREED SLAVES FOR THE
UNION ARMY
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MYSTERY QUOTATION D THIS IS A QUOTATION FROM A FAMOUS DOCUMENT,
NOT A SPEECH: The history of mankind is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To
prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. TRY TO
IDENTIFY THE DOCUMENT AND THE PRIMARY AUTHOR(S)
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IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN D
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THE DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS PASSED AT THE FIRST WOMENS RIGHTS
CONVENTION IN AMERICA IN 1848 IN SENECA FALLS IMAGE WAS OF ITS
PRINCIPAL ORGANIZER, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (ALSO ORGANIZED BY
LUCRETIA MOTT) DOCUMENT FOLLOWS TONE AND FORMAT OF THE AMERICAN
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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MYSTERY QUOTATION E but now, as the celestial gate to civil
rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it becomes a serious
question whether we had better stand aside and see Sambo walk into
the kingdom first....
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IMAGE OF MYSTERY WOMAN E
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ELIZABETH CADY STANTON Was an abolitionist as well as a womans
suffragette; had been barred from attending an anti-slavery
convention in London because she was a woman. Her legacy is
considered tainted by some because she made racists comments, in
her disappointment that freed male black slaves were given the vote
in the Fifteenth Amendment, but that women including educated women
such as herself- remained disenfranchised
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QUOTATION F For what is done or learned by one class of women
becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all
women. It is not easy to be a pioneer but oh, it is fascinating! I
would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the
riches in the world!
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IMAGE OF WOMAN F
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ELIZABETH BLACKWELL The first woman to graduate from medical
school in 1848 She was born in England She worked as a music
teacher to save money to go to medical school There are many womens
clinics named after her
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QUOTATION G Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their
rights, and nothing less. No man is good enough to govern any woman
without her consent. Oh, if I could but live another century and
see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to
be done.
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IMAGE OF WOMAN G
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SUSAN B. ANTHONY A womans rights activist born in Adams,
Massachusetts in 1820. She formed to National Womens Suffrage
Association in 1869 Men their rights, and nothing more; women,
their rights, and nothing less was the slogan for her magazine The
Revolution Led the bloodless revolution which lasted 72 years
(1848-1920) Tragically, like most of the famous suffragettes of the
nineteenth century, she did not live to see women gain the right to
vote through the 19 th amendment in 1920
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QUOTATION H Although I lost the case, I wanted to keep up the
fight. In the year 1879, I was elected President of the Missouri
branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Within each
state, women and men who agreed with us wrote books and pamphlets,
gave speeches, and organized parades and marchesall saying that
women should have the right to vote.
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IMAGE OF WOMAN H
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VIRGINIA MINOR Brought law suit to gain the right to vote
Lawsuit based on principle that as citizens, American women had the
right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment Lost case in Supreme
Court in 1874 Later (in 1893), women gained the right to vote in
Colorado and other western states. The 19 th amendment gave all
women the right to vote in 1920. She died in 1894, not living to
gain the right to vote.
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QUOTATION I The image of woman that emerges from this big,
pretty magazine is young and frivolous, almost childlike; fluffy
and feminine; passive; gaily content in a world of bedroom and
kitchen, sex, babies, and home. The magazine surely does not leave
out sex; the only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman
is permitted is the pursuit of a man. It is crammed full of food,
clothing, cosmetics, furniture, and the physical bodies of young
women, but where is the world of thought and ideas, the life of the
mind and spirit? In the magazine image, women do no work except
housework and work to keep their bodies beautiful and to get and
keep a man.
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PHOTOGRAPH OF WOMAN I
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BETTY FRIEDAN Launched a new womans movement in 1963 with the
publication of The Feminine Mystique Signaled a challenge to the
post-World War II defined roles for men and women in the workplace
and the home Worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment,
which passed the Senate and Congress in 1972 before facing
opposition from conservative women
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QUOTATION J Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based
on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.
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PHOTOGRAPH OF WOMAN J
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PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY A well spoken and passionate opponent of the
Equal Rights Amendment Thought to have single-handedly organized
the successful opposition to state ratification of the ERA, after
its passage in the House and Senate The ERA remains unratified
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FINAL BONUS: MYSTERY QUOTATION K Id like to burn you at the
stake.
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MYSTERY K SECOND QUOTATION I consider you a traitor to your
sex. I consider you an Aunt Tom
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BETTY FRIEDAN Speaking to Phyllis Schlafly at a debate in
Bloomington, Illinois in 1972
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THE END There is a more detailed time line of events in Womens
History in America which accompanies this lesson plan. This lesson
conforms to Massachusetts Curriculum Framework Learning Standards
USI. 36 and USII.9