Chapter 17: Elections and Voting "Women's Suffrage"

Introduction

In this chapter students learned about election campaigns, factors that influence voters, and the historical expansion of voting rights. In this activity they will examine more closely the history of women's suffrage.

Lesson Description

Students will go to the Seeking the Right to Vote Web site to learn more about the birth of the women's suffrage movement and its most prominent leaders and organizations. They will answer four questions about what they have read and will construct a time line highlighting the major events of the women's suffrage movement.

Instructional Objectives

1. Students will be able to explain factors that led to the birth of the women's suffrage movement.
2. Students will be able to describe the major events of the women's suffrage movement.

Student Web Activity Answers

1. Changing social conditions for women and the idea of equality led to the women's suffrage movement. Women started receiving more education and taking part in reform movements, thus becoming more involved in politics.
2. The two organizations were the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. The National was more radical and sought a Constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. The American was more conservative, and its goal was to convince individual states to grant women the right to vote.
3. Alice Paul; she held a Ph.D. and three law degrees and founded the National Woman's Party and the World Woman's Party.
4. It is a nonpartisan organization, formed in 1920 as a result of the women's suffrage movement, that promotes informed and active citizen participation in government. It encourages all people to register and vote and provides voters with nonpartisan information on candidates and issues. Both men and women may belong.
5. Students' time lines will vary but should include the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.