Women’s History Web Sites
She Resisted ★★★★★
PBS has created a brand-new multimedia presentation on the fight for women’s suffrage. The site is interactive and very thoroughly covers the movement. Also included is an interactive “suffrage map,” showing the status of suffrage in each state by the year.
American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States ★★★★☆
This Library of Congress site contains digital materials, an introduction to research in American women’s history, tips on searching for women’s history resources in the catalogs, and more
Discovering American Women’s History Online ★★★★☆
A database of primary sources of women’s history in the United States. The collection ranges from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970’s.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000 ★★★★☆
This website is a project of the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender at the State University of New York at Binghamton and includes roughly 900 documents, 400 images, and 350 links to other websites. There are twenty comprehensive lesson plans with over a hundred lesson ideas mounted in the Teacher’s Corner.
Agents of Social Change (Smith College) ★★★★☆
Smith College offers an on-line exhibit and several lesson plans drawn from its collections The lesson plans are directed at middle and high school students and make use of both the text-based documents and visual images that can be found at the curriculum portion of the Web site. They highlight women’s part in struggles for social change in the 20th century including labor, socialism, civil liberties, peace, racial justice, urban reform, welfare rights, and women’s rights.
Internet Women’s History Sourcebook ★★★★☆
The Internet History Sourcebooks are wonderful collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use by Paul Halsall. The site and its documents are well organized and the breadth of materials is impressive. The Sourcebooks include: Ancient History Sourcebook | Medieval Sourcebook | Modern History Sourcebook | Byzantine Studies Page /African | East Asian | Global | Indian | Islamic | Jewish | Lesbian and Gay | Science | Women’s | Medieval Studies Course | Modern History Course | Chinese Studies Course | Medieval Webguide
Half the People: 1917-1996 (PBS) ★★★☆☆
Part of PBS’s People’s Century television series, this site focuses of women’s fight for equal rights. There are interviews, a timeline, and a teacher’s guide.
Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides, Activities and more
Women, Their Rights & Nothing Less
This relatively succinct lesson teaches students about both the different societal roles of women from 1840 to 1920 and the methods they used to achieve desired reforms. Using primary sources from the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections, students learn how tactics in the early women’s rights movement changed with the times, ultimately leading to women’s suffrage. The lesson culminates in a student-made timeline, which uses primary sources to explain the movement’s transformation over time. Designed for grades 9 to 12.
Suffragette Strategies: Voices for Votes
Designed by the Library of Congress for grades 4-6, this lesson plan contains four student activities that detail various suffrage strategies. Activities include writing postcards and making political pins.
Suffragists and Their Tactics
This Library of Congress lesson plan utilizes close analysis of three different primary sources (photos, broadsides and period articles) to explore the fight for women’s suffrage in terms of how and why women advocated change. Designed activities focus on what inferences can be made from primary sources and how to evaluate the efficacy of suffragists’ arguments in the time period they were made. For grades 10 to 12.
The Dawn of a New E.R.A.: Debating the Equal Rights Amendment
In this New York Times lesson, students research the history and politics behind the Equal Rights Amendment; they then stage a debate to discuss the Amendment\rquote s potential for ratification eighty years after its introduction to Congress. (May 5, 2003)
Exploring Women’s History Through Film
In this lesson, students employ the screenwriter’s craft to gain a fresh perspective on historical research, learning how filmmakers combine scholarship and imagination to bring historical figures to life and how the demands of cinematic storytelling can shape our view of the past. Presented by EdSiteMent for high school students
Voting Rights for Women: Pro and Anti-Suffrage
EdSiteMent has provided this lesson plan to teach students about both sides of the suffrage movement. The lesson plan comes with its own worksheets and handouts and is intended for grades 6-8.
Who Were the Foremothers of Women’s Equality?
This EdSiteMent lesson plan centers around identifying the leaders of the Suffrage movement. Attention is also paid to the contributions these individuals gave to society. Lesson plan includes materials and suggested reading. It is geared towards middle school students.
Women’s Suffrage: Why the West First?
In this lesson plan, students seek to answer the question posed in the title. Designed by EdSiteMent, the plan details 7 activities and boasts a vast collection of resources. Grades 6-8
Ladies, Contraband, and Spies: Women in the Civil War
In this concise lesson, students use primary sources from the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections to research and understand the impact of the Civil War on women. By studying women who had different roles in and perspectives on the war, ranging from plantation mistresses to slave women and spies, students have to consider how the war affected women based on their position in society. In addition to advancing skills in using primary sources, the lesson also has students present their results visually with PowerPoint and in writing with a short textbook entry. Designed for grades 10 to 11.
Honor Roll of Notable Women
Alphabetical list of “Women Achievers” developed by Scholastic.