Lesson Plans from EDSITEment

An article originally published in the 1991 Session Weekly of the Minnesota House of Representatives recalls the arguments put forth in objection to the Minnesota Equal Suffrage Association's decision, early in the 20th century, to push for the right of women to vote in presidential elections. One lawmaker declared that all-male voting was "designed by our forefathers." Later, Rep. Thomas Girling argued that "women shouldn't be dragged into the dirty pool of politics." Approving such a measure, he said, would "cause irreparable damage at great expense to the state."

When the Senate took up the bill, one member asserted that "disaster and ruin would overtake the nation." Suffrage would lead inevitably to "government by females" because "men could never resist the blandishments of women." Instead, he recommended that women "attach themselves to some man who will represent them in public affairs."

Though such arguments may now sound rather ridiculous to some, they are closely related to entrenched views of women that took more than a century to overcome (assuming one agrees they have been overcome). Understanding the positions of the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements—as expressed in archival broadsides, speeches, pamphlets, and political cartoons—will help your students better appreciate the struggle for women's rights and the vestiges of the anti-suffrage positions that lasted at least through the 1960s and, perhaps, to the present day.

Guiding Questions:

What attitudes about women and their relationships with men had to be overcome before women could take their rightful place in American society? What were the arguments for and against suffrage?

Learning Objectives

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

All four initial grievances relate to the exclusion of women from the voting process, the overt subject of the first grievance. The second grievance echoes a familiar cry from the American Revolution, "No taxation without representation." The third grievance is a precursor to the argument used in the courts starting in the 1870s, that if women are citizens, they cannot be deprived of rights accorded to other citizens (and even, in some instances, non-citizens). The fourth grievance explains why the early proponents of the Women's Rights Movement chose suffrage as their central goal. Depriving women "of the elective franchise" made "oppressions… on all sides" possible. Stanton continues by listing many such oppressions.
(NOTE: A more in-depth discussion of the grievances may be found in the first activity of the EDSITEment lesson Who Were the Foremothers of Women's Equality? For more on the deeply engrained beliefs the early movement was working against, consult the EDSITEment lesson Women's Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs.)
For further background on the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements that is specific to this lesson, consult the following resources:
- The Arguments of the Anti-Suffragists and Other Fears the Anti's Had if Women Were Considered Equals, on The Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
- Opposition to Female Suffrage in the United States, from the Concord Review, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
- Not For Ourselves Alone, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website New Perspectives on the West
The Currier and Ives lithograph The Age of Brass/or the Triumphs of Women's Rights, used in Part 1, below, is from 1869. According to Roland Marchand, it is a picture of various types of dangerous feminists. It includes the following words and phrases: "Vote for the Celebrated Man Tamer / Susan Sharp Tongue"; "Rights for Women…for Sheriff Miss Hang Man…." It also features two women smoking cigars and, to the side, a man with a baby.
An additional EDSITEment lesson, Cultural Change, explores how women won the vote and the relationship between political ideas and cultural attitudes. Although intended for high school, this lesson includes activities and resources you can adapt for younger students.
For further reading, consult the Recommended Reading List provided here as a PDF file.

To establish an anticipatory set, begin by sharing with students the Currier and Ives lithograph The Age of Brass/or the Triumphs of Women's Rights, available on the Area 3 History and Cultures Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource History Matters. Before giving any background or guidance, encourage students to report what they notice in the lithograph. Then, in a whole-class setting, use the Cartoon Analysis Worksheet offered by the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital Classroom to analyze the illustration. Tell students they will be much better equipped to do such analyses when they have completed the other activities in this lesson.

Share with students the first paragraph of the Introduction, above. Was the legislator correct when he said that all-male voting was "designed by our forefathers?" As a class, read the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (ratified 1920), available in a Transcript of Amendments 11-27 on the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom. What does the amendment say? Now have students scan the text of the Constitution. (A Transcription of the U.S. Constitution is also available on Digital Classroom.) Are women expressly forbidden from voting? Why was the 19th Amendment necessary? Women did vote in some states in the early days of our republic.

What about the post-Civil War Constitutional amendments? Didn't they grant universal suffrage? Read the 14th and 15th Amendments (a Transcript of Amendments 11-27 is available on the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom). Note that the 14th Amendment specifically uses the word "male." The 15th does not, leaving open the possibility for a state to grant women the right to vote.

Though passed in hopes of enforcing the rights of freed slaves to vote, a less well-known act of Congress—the Enforcement Act of 1870—was used to convict Elizabeth Cady Stanton of voting illegally. Download, copy and distribute to students the "Enforcement Act of 1870" on page 1 of the Pro-and Anti-Suffrage Worksheet, available here as a PDF file. Can students find the clause that was used against Stanton?

The Founding Fathers never specifically banned women from voting, but the states did have that power and used it. What we might call a technicality in the Federal law was also used to enforce the ban.

If desired, students can now fill in the first section of the chart "Pro- and Anti-Suffrage Arguments" on page 2 of the PDF file, available here as a PDF file.

Share with the class the document A Petition for Universal Suffrage (circa 1865), an early plea to Congress, available via a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital Classroom. What are some of the issues Stanton, Anthony, Blackwell, Stone, and others included in the petition?

If you have not already done so, pass out the chart "Pro- and Anti-Suffrage Arguments," on page 2 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions), for students to use during the following activity.

Divide the class into eight groups. The archival documents listed below will allow the groups to explore specific issues. The selected documents have a common theme or themes, but are not necessarily limited to any particular theme. If possible, create overheads or multiple copies of documents as requested by groups.

Group 1: The African-American Perspective
- From the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
  - WEB DuBois on Woman Suffrage
  - Letter from Booker T. Washington to Charles Monroe Lincoln, Tuskegee, Alabama, 14 December 1908 with enclosed "The Woman Suffrage Movement" which appeared in the New York Times on 20 December 1908
- "Woman Suffrage," an article from The Cleveland Advocate 16 (August 28, 1920), p. 8 (a resource from the EDSITEment resource American Memory).
Group 2: Woman's Work Outside the Home
- Votes for women! The woman's reason on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory (NOTE: Click for additional versions.)
- The Truth about Wage-Earning Women on Jane McCallum and the Suffrage Movement, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia
Group 3: Pro and Anti: Women versus the Brewers
- From the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
  - Anti-Woman Suffrage (In Colorado)
  - To the Women of Colorado
- “Backbone” on Jane McCallum and the Suffrage Movement, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia
Group 4: The Rights of Women/The Rights of States
- Transcription of Text of the Memorial from Alice Wadsworth on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000 (NOTE: A memorial is a written statement of facts accompanying a petition presented to someone in authority.)
- From the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom
  - Texas Woman Suffrage Association Petition for Passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment (19th Amendment)
  - Memorial from Alice Wadsworth of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (Page 1 Image / Page 2 Image)
Group 5: Are Women Already Represented?
- From the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory
  - Some reasons why we oppose votes for women ... National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, New York City, 1894 (Full Text Version / Broadside Image) (NOTE: Click for additional versions.)
  - Some Common Questions Answered (Full Text Version / Broadside Image) (NOTE: Click for additional versions.)
- Modern Representative Government, a broadside from 1915 on The Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, a link from the EDSITEment resource Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
Group 6: Do Women Even Want the Vote?
- Do Women Want the Vote? (Full text version) / Broadside Image (NOTE: Click for additional versions) on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory
- Objections to Woman Suffrage Answered (Page 1 / Page 2) on the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom
Group 7: Will Suffrage Ruin Marriage, the Family, and the Nation?
- Thoughts on female suffrage and in vindication of woman's true rights / by Mrs. Madeline Vinton Dahlgren.. Washington, D.C.: Blanchard and Mohun, 1871 (NOTE: From the end of line four, beginning with the words, "The good old idea…" to the sentence ending with "pottage," about halfway down the page.)
- The Nonsense of It (Page 1 / Page 2) on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital Classroom
- The Risk of Woman Suffrage on the EDSITEment resource Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
Group 8: Woman's Work in the Home
- Housework in Late 19th Century America on The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, a link from the EDSITEment resource History Matters
- The Sphere of Women on The Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000
- The Suffrage Family on the Maine Memory Network, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia

Following their research, student groups should present their documents in a point/counterpoint fashion, having at least two speakers—each of whom represents a position as expressed in a particular document—speak in turn when possible.

If desired, use the list of archival cartoons below as a check for understanding. It can be used in a variety ways:

Simply share as many of the cartoons as you like with the class and ask students to point to details representing specific issues.
With the students in groups, proceed from group to group in order as each group points to an issue expressed in the document, until the issues are exhausted. Start each round with the group that went second in the previous round.
Pass the cartoons out to individual students to analyze.

Regardless of which method you choose, students can use the Cartoon Analysis Worksheet, available on the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom, for guidance.

List of Archival Cartoons

From The Marchand Collection on the Area 3 History and Cultures Project, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website History Matters (With Marchand's notes, when applicable.)
- AN INAUGURATION OF THE FUTURE Man's place is that of baby-tender in this cartoon by William H. Walker, 1897.
- Who Wears the Pants? 1865 "The Discord," 1865. A marriage dispute over who wears the pants. "Fight courageous for sovereign authority, neighbor, or your wife'll do to you as mine has done to me—she'll pull your hair off your head and compel you to wear a wig!" Child: "Oh, Mamma, please leave my Papa his Pants." Husband: "Rather die! than let my wife have my pants. A man ought to always be the ruler." Wife: "Sam'Y help me! Woman is born to rule and not to obey those contemptible creatures called men!" Daughter: "Oh, Pa, let go, be gallant or you'll tear 'em." Woman: "Bravo, Sarah. Stick to them, it is only us which ought to rule and to whom the pants fit best."
- WHY NOT GO THE LIMIT? "WHY NOT GO THE LIMIT? FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE LADIES WHO ASK FOR THE RIGHT TO SMOKE IN PUBLIC. Cleopatra Café. Drink Ladies Auxiliary Rye. Chew Scrub-Lady's Delight. Try Our Progressive Sours. Bock Beer. Little Mother Brewing Co. Evelyn Cassidy Association Dance and Smoker. Women sometimes; Ladies never, spit on the floor. Ladies will please refrain from throwing cigar butts in the free lunch. No scrapping allowed on premises."
- Women Challenging a Union Man
From the EDSITEment resource Digital Classroom
- Petition c. 1918 (During WW I)
- Kaiser Wilson
Age of iron. Man as he expects to be. (Cartoon) Lith. by Currier & Ives, 1869 on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory
Election Day on Famous American Trials, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
Woman's Emancipation (drawing, with text) on the EDSITEment-reviewed website U.S. Women's History Workshop

Extending the Lesson

The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have fought the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of morals in our land--the school in which human rights are more fully investigated, and better understood and taught, than in any other ... Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated ... Now if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, then the mere circumstances of sex does not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than to women....

During the 1830s, a growing number of female abolitionists became convinced that women suffered legal and economic disabilities similar to those facing enslaved African Americans. Not only were women denied the right to vote and hold public office, they had no access to higher education and were excluded from most professional occupations. American law accepted the principle that a wife had no legal identity apart from her husband. She could not sue, she could not make a legal contract, nor could she own property. She was not permitted to control her own wages or gain custody of her children in case of separation or divorce. In this selection, Angelina Grimké explains how the struggle against slavery sensitized female abolitionists to other, more subtle forms of bondage and coercion.

Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage

Introduction

Guiding Questions:

Learning Objectives

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

Suggested Activities

List of Archival Cartoons

Extending the Lesson

Selected EDSITEment Websites