The dominant narrative of the entire women’s suffrage movement begins and ends with the United States and Britain. Hundreds of thousands of women petitioned, canvassed, lobbied, demonstrated, engaged in mass civil disobedience, went to jail, and engaged in hunger strikes in a seventy-five-year ongoing political and social struggle for the right to vote. Free registration for students and teachers required to access resource.
In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America
Alice Kessler-Harris of Columbia University discusses citizenship for men and women in the context of the Industrial Revolution and increasing economic tensions.
U.S. Courts: Women’s History Month
The federal courts observe Women’s History Month by celebrating women’s education and accomplishments. Find inspiring profiles of women who made federal court history and inspired others to succeed and watch first-person videos of contemporary women who serve on the federal bench today.
Suffragists and Their Tactics
Students will work primarily with two American Memory Collections, Votes for Women – The Struggle for Women’s Suffrage and Votes for Women: 1848-1921, to understand how the suffragists of the early 20th century changed the requirements for voting in America.
Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes
Students examine a variety of primary source documents related to the women’s suffrage movement. They identify different methods people used to influence and change attitudes and beliefs about suffrage for women. Students then create original documents encouraging citizens to vote in current elections.
Women’s Suffrage Primary Source Set
Sound files, sheet music, photographs, letters and maps help students better understand women’s suffrage. Includes teachers guide.
How Women Won the Right to Vote
In 1848, a small group of visionaries started a movement to secure equal rights for women in the United States. But it took more than 70 years just to win the right for women to vote.
Women, Their Rights and Nothing Less: The First Amendment and the Women’s Suffrage Movement
Use this map to explore how the women’s suffrage movement — and the people who opposed it — tried to influence public opinion. Explore artifacts from billboards and cards to buttons and cartoons. You’ll uncover the wide array of tools and tactics each side used to spread its message, and you’ll see how geography and other factors shaped the form and content of their communication.
Women During the American Revolution
This short video illustrates the degree to which women actively participated in the American Revolution. In response to the Stamp Act, American colonists agreed to stop importing British goods and the colonial women led the boycotts of tea, fine cloth, and other consumer goods. Women began to think of themselves as “Daughters of Liberty.” Professor Rosemarie Zagarri explains how male political leaders came to acknowledge the political capacity and potential of women during this era.