Women’s Suffrage: Exploring The Road To Equality

Are you looking for a way to help your students better understand the history of women’s suffrage and its importance today? With the help of literature, documentaries, photos and interactive activities, it is possible to educate your students about the long struggle that women have faced to gain equal rights and the ways in which these efforts are still relevant today.

Why teach about Women’s Suffrage

Learning about women’s suffrage is an important part of a well-rounded education. It provides students with an understanding of the struggles and victories that women have faced in their fight for equality throughout history. This knowledge can help to shape a student’s views on current issues surrounding gender and civil rights, as well as provide them with a greater appreciation of the sacrifices made by suffragists and feminists.

An understanding of women’s suffrage is also integral to understanding the history of voting rights in America, and why they are so important today. By learning about the long struggle that women faced in order to gain equal voting rights, students can appreciate how far we have come as a society and the importance of continuing to safeguard these rights.

In addition, learning about women’s suffrage can help students gain a more comprehensive understanding of social movements throughout history and how they have affected change on both local and global levels. Understanding the strategies used by early feminists in their fight for equal voting rights can also be useful in modern-day activism, as well as provide valuable insight into how to form and implement successful campaigns.

Ultimately, learning about women’s suffrage is vital to the development of an informed citizenry. It provides students with a better understanding of our country’s history and the importance of equal rights for all individuals. By becoming more familiar with this issue, students will be better prepared to make informed decisions in their own lives, as well as contribute to society in meaningful ways. It is a necessary part of any education that seeks to produce engaged and compassionate citizens.

Teaching ideas for Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month, and that means it’s a great time to explore how women around the globe have fought (and are still fighting!) to attain equal rights. Use this opportunity in your classroom to discuss what they’ve achieved – from suffrage successes all around the world, right up until today – see how far we’ve come on gender equality together! Here are some amazing ideas you can use with your class now:

• Integrate literature into coursework. Reading works by female authors and books about influential women throughout history can help bring the topic to life for students. Check in with your ELA teacher to see if you can work on a story together.
• Watch portions of documentaries related to women’s rights throughout history. Many documentaries will show actual footage of parades, protests, and the like. Showing students actual footage will help them see this fight as something real, not just something they read about in a book.
• Analyze photos from the time of the suffrage movement and have students answer questions about what they see in the image. Have them consider how the photo could have been used in the fight for women’s rights. Use student observations to spark conversations about what women can do today to continue the fight.
• Have students research women and events from history then organize a Socratic seminar allowing students to hold an academic conversation.
• Want to take a time machine to the passing of the 19th amendment? Try a digital escape room where students watch videos, analyze images and graphs, and read primary documents. This is a fun, stand alone activity that can easily be done in one day for a quick March activity.

Overall, teaching women’s suffrage in the classroom is a valuable lesson for students of all ages. It helps students understand the importance of equal voting rights and provides students with an appreciation for the struggles that early feminists went through. By learning more about the history surrounding women’s suffrage, we can become better citizens and more informed advocates for social justice. So let’s recognize Women’s History Month by teaching our students the invaluable lessons of this important movement!