Women's Rights in America

  • Remember the presentation about Amazing Women in Early America

  • Objective: The fight for equal rights continues to this day and this webquest will offer a glimpse of the women's rights movement and the fight for the right to vote (suffrage) in the mid-1800s and beyond through social movements, formal protests as well as literature.

  • Directions: In a google doc (save the document attached at the bottom to your drive), explore the resources and answer the corresponding questions relating to women's rights in America.

  • Log into the following sources first with the username/password of lenapehs1. Then, click on the specific links for each article or video.

PART 1: Women's Rights Movement

(A) Video: The US Constitution's Neglect of Women

    1. How were women treated in the US Constitution?

    2. What was a married woman known as legally?

    3. What was a married woman's identity under the law?

(B) "The Women's Suffrage Movement" from American Social Reform Movements book

    1. What is one of the most effective ways to get change in America?

    2. Why were women denied the right the vote? (Why did many Americans view the idea of women having the right to vote as "absurd"?)

    3. When did the major fight for suffrage start and when did women gain the right to vote?

    4. Define "suffragist".

    5. How did women first become active in social movements in the early 1800s (related to the Second Great Awakening)?

    6. What happened at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in terms of the women present?

    7. What was the Seneca Falls Convention?

      • when did it take place?

      • who organized it?

      • what was its purpose?

      • what happened at the convention?

    8. What happened to the fight for suffrage with the Civil War? (Who was the one suffragist who continued the fight?)

    9. Look at the sidebar on AFRICAN AMERICAN SUFFRAGISTS. Briefly describe how African American women participated or did not participate in the movement. Why?

    10. Look at the sidebar on A SHOCKING NEW STYLE. How did clothes impact the fight for suffrage?

      • What did these new pants come to be known as?

      • How do you believe clothes impact a person's daily life, ability to participate in activities, etc?

    11. Look at the section on A SPLIT AND A RECONCILIATION. The 14th and 15th amendments granted African American males the right to vote and rights as citizens.

      1. Why did this cause a conflict in the women's rights movement?

      2. What did Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony believe?

      3. What did Lucy Stone believe?

      4. What did both groups want? What legal changes did they fight for?

    1. Scroll down to A DIFFERENT APPROACH. How did the new leaders of the suffrage movement in the early 1900s approach the fight for the right to vote?

    2. How were parades and marches used in the early 1900s?

    3. What happened to Alice Paul and other women at these marches?

    4. When did women officially get the right to vote (with the Nineteenth Amendment)?

    5. Look at AFTER THE AMENDMENT.

      • How did the passage of the 19th amendment impact African American women?

      • What did Alice Paul introduce and fight to get passed?

      • Has this been passed yet as of January 2020 (the ERA)?

      • Did the political and social culture of the US change dramatically after women had the right to vote?

(C) PBS Documentary, May 2020 - Suffrage and the Women who Won the Vote

Now that you have a general, overview understanding of the length and depth of the fight for suffrage for women, the next articles and videos will highlight specific people and events relating to the fight for women's rights and connect to feminist literature, including works by Kate Chopin.

(C) The women's rights movement and, in particular, the fight for the right to vote, was always connected to other social movements of the time as you read about in the previous article. View the short video about the connection between the suffrage movement and the abolition movement.

Video: Connection between Suffrage Movement and Abolition Movement

    1. What did the Abolition movement offer to women?

    2. When was the National Association for Women's Suffrage launched? How many years after the Declaration of Independence?

    3. What rights did women demand?

    4. Why was the right to vote met with resistance in Victorian society? Briefly describe the public v. private sphere and women's/men's role.

    5. What was the fear of what would happen to families if women were granted the right to vote?

    6. How would you describe some of the tactics used to fight for suffrage?

(D) Open the American History Online database. Search for the SENECA FALLS CONVENTION.

    1. How many people were present at the convention in 1848?

    2. Was it just women or were men there too?

    3. Who were some of the women leaders present at this convention?

    4. What famous male leader was present?

    5. Describe the "Declaration of Sentiments."

    6. Do you think you would have attended the convention if you lived at that time? Why or why not?

    7. Would you have voted for the "Declaration of Sentiments"? (again, living in that time)

(E) Read the article "The Struggle for Suffrage, 1861-99".

    1. Was the women's suffrage movement a united movement (did all women support it)? Why or why not?

    2. Read about the Anti-Suffrage movement. What do you think of the arguments of the Anti-Suffragists?

(F) Personal reflection on the fight for women's suffrage and the women's movement in the mid-1800s to early 1900s.

    1. Were the goals of the movement accomplished?

    2. Why do you think there were so many divisions within the protest movement itself? (racial divisions, tactical divisions, class-based divisions)

    3. If you lived at the time, how would you have responded to this movement? Do you believe protest or conformity (advocating within the system) was the best option for success?

    4. What is the legacy of this movement? In what ways does the fight for equal rights continue today?

PART 2: Feminism/Fight for Equality and Feminist Literature

(G) STORY OF AN HOUR by Kate Chopin. Search for KATE CHOPIN in the US Women's History Infobase database. Look at the two articles from the following books: American Women Writers and Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature.

    1. Where did Kate Chopin grow up?

    2. What happened to her father? When?

    3. How do you think this influenced her?

    4. What was Kate Chopin’s early married life like? (What did she do? Did she write?)

    5. What happened to her in 1882?

    6. How did this event impact her life and writing?

    7. What are her main characters like according to the articles?

(H) Video: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1. What was the main theme of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's writings at the start of the 1900s?

    2. What happened in her life that sparked her passion for this?

    3. What was radical in her arguments?

    4. How did she portray her ideas about women's equality in her fictional works?

(I) Feminism and Literature - Literature as a form of protest.

    • In the Victorian era (1890s), how did women writers (in general) feel about feminism (fight for equality, right to vote)?

    • What happened between 1905-1914 that changed women writers' perspectives?

    • How did women start to incorporate ideas of the women's rights movement (feminism) into their writings?

    • How do you believe the social movements and culture of the time influence a writer? What can we learn about society from reading literary works written during a particular time and place?

Background image:

"Hay Wagon in Suffrage Parade, 1913." Women in America, Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2210015427/SUIC?u=lenape_main&sid=SUIC&xid=9c050fcb. Accessed 20 Jan. 2019.


Last updated 1/06/2020 by Ms. Fauver for Ms. Mustaccio's English II classes at Lenape High School.