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Feminism & Women's History Standards
Feminism & Women's History Standards
Waves of Feminism
Waves of Feminism
The history of women in America has been categorized in waves of time that are identifiable by the goals, participants, and strides made for more equitable living.
The history of women in America has been categorized in waves of time that are identifiable by the goals, participants, and strides made for more equitable living.
CONTENT STATEMENT:
The First Wave of Feminism saw the emergence of Women’s suffrage organizations and the first steps towards achieving equality while the Second Wave Feminist Movement built upon the ideas of liberal feminism and focused on addressing sexism socially, politically, and economically. The Third Wave of the Feminist Movement placed greater emphasis on intersectionality, sexual orientation and the idea of femininity which, building upon those, would lead to the Fourth Wave of the Feminist Movement that focuses on the growing LGBTQ+ movement and the role of media in combating social issues. Overall, these movements of feminism have given us major moments in women's history related to voting, bodily autonomy, financial freedom, and more.
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING:
Students will explore the changing roles of women in each wave of feminism as it pertains to social and private lives.
Students will critique the successes and failures of women’s movements in American History.
Students will analyze sources to understand the critiques of feminism over time.
Students will evaluate if the fourth wave is or is not a current movement.
Materials for Lessons
Materials for Lessons
Women's Liberation
Women's Liberation
By analyzing photographs and documents drawn from the 1970s women’s liberation movement, students will learn about the generations of women— from the suffragists of the early 1900s to the activists of the civil rights and labor movements at mid-century to the leaders of the feminist movement— who fought for gender equality.
Suffrage & Women of Color
Suffrage & Women of Color
This National Parks Service website will provide more information on women of color during the suffrage movement and the impact on women and race that the 15th and 19th amendments had.
No More Miss America
No More Miss America
In 1968, it sparked a feminist revolution. As women organized the first protest against Miss America, they were responding not only to the pageant and its antiquated, misogynistic attitudes toward women and beauty, but also to how the United States, as a whole, treated women. Read this source as to why the pageant industry angered them.
ERA debate
ERA debate
Created by OCSS team member, Ariana Sanders, for her women's studies class....have students watch a debate on the ERA and record the responses. You might find it interesting that gendered bathrooms and same-sex marriage are topics discussed then too!
Videos
Videos
Overview of the Waves of Feminism
Why be a feminist?
Gloria Steinem Explains
The Past and future of women's rights movements
Article: 12 Ted Talks about feminism
Role of Women
Role of Women
The Role of women has changed over time in both public and private spaces through acts of agency.
The Role of women has changed over time in both public and private spaces through acts of agency.
CONTENT STATEMENT:
Over time women’s role in the home and in social or political settings have changed as women changed their views on familial gender roles, political participation, working, clothing, and more. Students can explore milestone events around women in public roles like joining the workforce, participating in combat, and holding elected office. They can also identify how stereotypes of women have changed in terms of their roles as wives and mothers.
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING:
Students will identify barrier breakers in various arenas like the military, politics, and corporate America
Students can trace the change in expectations of women over time in terms of motherhood and home duties
Materials for Lessons
Materials for Lessons
This resource provides a background on who Shirley Chisolm is and allows for a creative project about folding chairs, based on her facmous quote.
Arlington National Cemetary's website has a ready-made powerpoint, lesson plan, and primary source activities about women on the homefront during WWII.
Read and annotate this short excerpt "Is this all?" to get to know Betty Friedan and her ideas from Feminist Mystique!
After an introduction to Title IX or watching parts of the ESPN documentary 37 Words about Title IX, students can read this opinion article on why Tile IX is bad for male sports and discuss.
Modern Day Activism
Modern Day Activism
Today, Women around the world engage in effective civic participation that involves identifying problems or dilemmas, proposing appropriate solutions and formulating action plans.
CONTENT STATEMENT:
Today we see women engaged in so many important social and political causes that will one day be in history books. It is valuable for student to engage in current affairs and understand as well as be inspired by the actions of living legends. Students can explore various different ways women are activists for education, health, environment, politics, and racial concerns.
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING:
Students will identify "living legends" and hypothesize how their peers today might be remembered in history
Students will evaluate if we as a society have broken the "glass ceiling"
Students will devise ways in which they can be active citizens and leaders in movements that matter to them
Materials for Lessons
Materials for Lessons
This NYT article is about Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett one of the leading scientists behind the COVID vaccine.
This is great for Black History Month or like in my classroom where we do a woman of the day as an introduction.
Killing Us Softly is a set of 4 documentaries created in different decades analyzing media & women. Students can answer the discussion questions or create a poster or Zine on commentary about women and their standards of beauty.
Greta Thunberg is a great example of the power of young people. This unique lesson focuses on how her UN speech has been sampled in music tracks by musicians passionate about climate change too.
The three female founders of BLM have a long history of activism in LGBTQ+ issues, immigration, and women's health. The hashtag inspired a movement. The options are endless - two founders have memoirs and BLM.com has a resource page and a nice interactive page on the impact of the group.
Videos
Videos
Women's March footage
Mom's Demand Action reflection after 7 years of the group
Tarana Burke was the first to use the phrase "Me Too" that swept Hollywood and the world in many variations.
Over the last few years, disparities in professional soccer and women's NCAA sports have taken center stage due to social media. This is the example of the USWNT equal pay lawsuit.
Recommended Reading for Teachers
Recommended Reading for Teachers
There are many classic books by feminist authors (Friedan, Plath, Angelou, hooks, Davis to name a few) that are used in women's studies. This list is not to ignore the classics but to bring up some books that are currently on popular book club websites or best sellers.
The YA section represents books that are found in school libraries or deemed, in my opinion, to be good books for 9-12 reading assignments.
YA books for Intersectional Literature
YA books for Intersectional Literature
Sources
Sources
The learning statements here are made specifically for this module to have three standards to encompass the learning that could occur. They are unique to the module and creator of it. Initial research came from using the following sources, which are great places to look for creating a full semester curriculum of women's studies.
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