Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - African-American |
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U.S. History - Civil War and Reconstruction |
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U.S. History - Native American |
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U.S. History - The West |
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U.S. History - Women's Rights/History |
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Time Required |
| Six to seven class periods (more if the class conducts the optional activities). |
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Skills |
| Research using archival documents and first-hand accounts
Writing to learn
Collaboration
Synthesizing concepts
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 11/07/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 11/7/2002 |
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Women’s Suffrage: Why the West First?
Women's suffrage succeeded in the West for reasons as diverse
as the people and places of the West itself.
—From This
Shall Be the Land for Women on the EDSITEment resource Women
of the West Museum
IntroductionThe
19th Amendment, granting suffrage to women, was approved by Congress in 1920.
It was some thirty years previously, however, that Wyoming had entered the Union
as the first state to grant women full voting rights. The next eight states to
grant full suffrage to women were also Western states: Colorado (1893); Utah and
Idaho (1896); Washington (1910); California (1911); and Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona
(1912). Why was the West first? Can students explain with a unified theory why
Western states anticipated the rest of the nation by so many years on this issue?
Or did "women's suffrage succeed… in the West for reasons as diverse as the people
and places of the West itself?" Focused on efforts in support of
women's suffrage in Western states, this lesson can be used either as a stand-alone
unit or as a more specialized sequel to the EDSITEment lesson, Voting
Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage, which covers the suffrage movement
in general. The latter lesson also contains activities and resources for learning
how the movement to gain the vote for women fits into the larger struggle for
women's rights in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Guiding
Question:Why were the Western states the first in
the nation to grant full voting rights for women? Learning ObjectivesAfter
completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to- Discuss the
particulars in the granting of full voting rights to women in several Western
states
- List some women especially involved in the Western suffrage movement
and supply some important facts from their biographies
- Take a stand,
supported by historical evidence, as to whether or not a single theory can explain
why the Western states were the first to grant full voting rights to women.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites.
Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary
for student viewing.
- Download the Worksheet
: Why the West First?, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an
appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- Voting
Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage: You can use this complementary EDSITEment
lesson, which describes the overall women's suffrage movement, to help students
understand how the Western suffrage movement fits within the larger struggle for
women's voting rights. This lesson also contains resources and activities illustrating
how the movement to gain the vote for women fits into the larger struggle for
women's rights in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Because
of the importance and scope of the Women's Rights Movement, EDSITEment offers
three companion lessons designed to supplement your classroom curriculum through
organized access to archival materials:
- Who
Were the Foremothers of Women's Equality?: Students encounter major figures
in the woman's rights movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries in important
documents and other primary and secondary materials. The first activity in particular
familiarizes students with the formative goals of the movement as voiced in Elizabeth
Cady Stanton's 1848 "Declaration of Sentiments."
- Women's
Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs: Students analyze archival cartoons,
posters, magazine humor, newspaper articles and poems that reflect the deeply
entrenched attitudes and beliefs the early crusaders for women's rights had to
overcome.
- For background on suffrage in the West, consult the
following resources:
- The interactive Map:
Woman Suffrage (on Women in American
History, an online exhibit of Britannica.com,
a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet
Public Library), an option in Part 3, below, requires
the Shockwave plug-in. If you plan to use the map, take a moment to see how it
works.
- For further reading, consult the Recommended
Reading List provided here as a PDF file.
Suggested
Activities
1. Why Suffrage
Started in the West: What Made the Difference? 2.
East Meets West (Optional Activity) 3.
Did the Land Make the Difference? 4.
Did the Settlers Make the Difference? 5.
Did the Women of the West Make the Difference? 6.
Did the Western States have Unique Situations that Promoted Suffrage? 7.
Developing a Theory 1.
Why Suffrage Started in the West: What Made the Difference?
Establish an anticipatory set by sharing with the class
the list Suffrage
Firsts, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
of the West Museum. If possible, allow students to view the online interactive
map Map:
Woman Suffrage on Women in American
History, an online exhibit of Britannica.com,
a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public
Library. It demonstrates quite dramatically the progress of full voting
rights for women. Another option is to share the timeline Voting
Rights in America on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
of the West Museum.
Do students have any
theories about why women would achieve the vote in the West first? Distribute
to students the poll "How the West Was First: Why Did Suffrage Succeed?", on page
1 of the PDF file (see Preparing
to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions), which lists a number
of possible hypotheses. Students can complete the poll independently or the teacher
can lead the class through it. Which reasons were most frequently cited by students
as the most likely theories? 2.
East Meets West (Optional Activity) Share
with your students the following texts illustrating connections between suffrage
movements in the West and those in the Northeast: Susan
B. Anthony campaigned vigorously in the West, giving many lectures. The following
excerpt from Albina
L. Washburne, "Annual Meeting, American Woman Suffrage Association: Colorado Report,"
Woman's Journal, 7 (7 October 1876), pp. 327, 328, available on the
EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
and Social Movements in the United States, indicates some of the cooperation
that took place. The introduction to the excerpt explains: The
Colorado Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1876, gave organizational shape
to suffrage sentiment in the state. The state association affiliated with the
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), one of two national organizations
dedicated to achieving votes for women. The AWSA, which began in November 1869,
sought to pass state laws granting women the right to vote, making it the logical
affiliation for the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association.
The essay The
History of the Suffrage Movement, from PBS' Not
For Ourselves Alone, a link from the EDSITEment resource New
Perspectives on the West, offers this additional background information:
American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was
led by Lucy Stone with the aid of her husband Henry Blackwell, Mary Livermore,
Julia Ward Howe, Henry Ward Beecher, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas Wentworth
Higginson and others; it endorsed the Fifteenth Amendment while working for woman
suffrage as well. You may also wish to share this excerpt from
Washburne's 1876 report with students: Previous
to last year there had been very little agitation on the subject of Woman Suffrage
in Colorado, and a few of us waiting ones were glad to receive a visit from Mrs.
Margaret W. Campbell, of Massachusetts, a tried friend and worker in the Suffrage
cause, who arrived in Colorado about the middle of November, 1875. Anxious to
avail ourselves of her valuable assistance we Suffragists, then scattered and
unknown to each other, gave her a warm welcome and proceeded to agitate a little,
and feel the public pulse. Mrs. Campbell lectured in nearly all the principle
towns of Colorado, finding many interested, and devoting herself untiringly to
presenting the claims of Woman to legal rights, to the popular comprehension,
when a call was made for a Convention of the friends to be held at Denver, January
10th, 1876, which was responded to by a few from a distance, and others more numerous
from the city. Four sessions were held, an organization effected of the Colorado
Woman Suffrage Association… How did the movement in Colorado
benefit from this contact with an activist from the Northeast?3.
Did the Land Make the Difference? Share
with the class the Introduction
to the West on the EDSITEment-reviewed PBS website New
Perspectives on the West. It introduces the landscape, myth, and history of
the West. What attracted people to the American West? What experiences of the
West do your students have (from watching Western movies or visiting the Grand
Canyon, for example)? What values have become associated with the exploration
and settlement of the vast landscapes of the West? Does the myth of the West,
as discussed in "Introduction to the West," help explain why women achieved full
voting rights there first? To help students
explore this question, briefly share some or all of the following images from
the EDSITEment resource American
Memory that exemplify the myth of the West. As you show the images, ask students
to jot down one to three words they associate with each. Discuss each image briefly
and allow students to add a word or two: Ask students, now working in
small groups, to share their lists and then attempt to come up with a statement
describing the myth of the West that uses some of the list words, and especially
those that were repeated. Reconvene in a whole-class setting and share descriptions.
If desired, choose one group's definition (or use ideas from various groups) to
stand as a class statement on the nature of the myth. Are there aspects of this
myth that help explain why women got full voting rights in the West first? On
the other hand, are there aspects of the myth that seem to contradict the fact
that women's suffrage came to the West first? 4.
Did the Settlers Make the Difference? Who
came to the West and why? In this activity, students explore the various motivations
of those who migrated to the American West. Might the motivations of those who
migrated to the West help us to understand the region's early granting of voting
rights to women? As you share the following
with the class, ask students to invent a character (who, for example, could be
in a realistic historical fiction work about the settling of the West) inspired
by the materials presented. Every character should have a name, age, reason for
coming West, a home place, and a brief story to tell about him or herself: - One
Reason They Came—The Homestead Act
- Another Reason They Came—Aggressive advertising by railroads
in the interest of having people living along the routes and to profit from selling
land.
- Some Information
on Who Came
When you are finished reviewing
the material, have each student—in character—share the basic information about
him or herself. Then ask the "character" to state an opinion about voting rights
for women. Students should be ready, if asked, to provide evidence--either details
from a character's story or reasoning and inference--supporting the likelihood
that their character would hold such an opinion. As a class, discuss and collate
the results of presentations of individual characters. Discuss the central question
of whether women won voting rights in the West because of the nature of those
who wanted to migrate to that region. (Be alert not only to details that seem
to support the region's openness to women's suffrage, but also to details that
make the early granting of the vote to women seem surprising.) 5.
Did the Women of the West Make the Difference? Is
the answer connected to the nature and experiences and characters of the women
who came to the West? In this activity, students—working
individually or in pairs—will learn about a pioneer woman and compose a free verse
poem that highlights the details of her life. As a model, share with students
the poem Lucinda Matlock
by Edgar Lee Masters,
available on the EDSITEment resource The
Academy of American Poets. Though not about a pioneer woman of the West, this
poem gives the details of an entire life history in a few lines. Read
the poem aloud in class. After the first reading, ask students what "jumped out
at them" from the poem. Now distribute copies of the poem to students and have
a volunteer give a second reading. After the reading, ask students to point out
concrete details from the life of Lucinda Matlock. Point out to students that
the poem does not rhyme—a key characteristic of free verse. Now
assign subjects to students from the following list or other sources: Students
should compose poems from what they learn about their subject. When students have
finished writing, conduct a classroom reading of the poems. Having heard all of
them, students should identify any commonalities that exist among these women.
Can their personalities and experiences explain why women in the West were the
first to be granted full voting rights? 6.
Did the Western States have Unique Situations that Promoted Suffrage? Share
the following graphics regarding suffrage movements in three states, available
on the EDSITEment resource Women of the West
Museum: Do these graphics give
the impression that the motivations behind the various suffrage movements were
similar or different? Students will explore this question working in small groups
to research eight of the first nine suffrage states. Divide
the class into eight groups. Students should use the following articles and graphics
from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
of the West Museum, as well as other available classroom and/or library resources,
to research eight Western states. (NOTE: Click on the state name for a summary
article. Additional links to graphics and biographies are provided in each article.)
Once students have completed their research, each
group should present its findings to the class. If desired, have students fill
in the table "Is It Something Particular for Each State?", on page 2 of the PDF
file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above,
for download instructions), as groups present their information. 7.
Developing a Theory After all groups have
made their presentations, reconsider the poll results from Part
1, above. Would students' answers change now? Should other hypotheses be added
to the poll? Which hypothesis would be most frequently chosen now as the most
likely? Is there a unified theory for why
the West gave women full voting rights first?
Selected EDSITEment Websites
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