Lesson Idea: Women's Suffrage/Liberation Banner

Since we're right in the middle of election season, I thought it would be appropriate to make this week's Lesson Idea about women gaining the right to vote! Until 1920, women in America couldn't vote for anything-president, mayor, or even on a decision to build a road. Many women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony fought to make women equal, but the fight still continues today. However, the fight now includes equal pay, no discrimination, and the ability to be treated in a respectful manner, united under the fight for Women's Liberation. That's where your students come in-they get to make their own suffrage banners and "join" the battle for equality!

Supplies:

• Scissors
• Pens/Pencils/Markers
• Internet access
• Large Paper (you decide the exact size)

First, describe Women's Suffrage (or Liberation as a whole) to your students. You don't have to go into great detail about the subject, but explain enough that they'll understand the basic reasoning for why it happened. Next, assign the students into groups of 4. These groups will study their topic together as well as make the banner together; this project is better to do as a group than as an individual. Now, if you want to be more inclusive of other areas of women's liberation, assign the following topics to your students for their banners:

• Equal Pay
• Right to Vote (Suffrage)
• No Discrimination
• Respect

Have the students choose one of the topics for their banner; because this lesson will be focusing on suffrage, we'll choose it for the example. Have the students then choose four events that happened during the topic: protests, rallies, speeches, reports, whatever occurred involving the topic during the time period it was most focused on (side note: because that was when it was most likely paid attention to by everyone). Have them write down names of people involved, dates, locations, etc. Then give the students banner-sized paper and instruct them to tell the story of their topic with the events surrounding the name of the topic. Here's an example:

Johnny and Reba chose Suffrage as their topic. Their events were Susan B. Anthony being arrested for voting, speeches made by Elizabeth Stanton to amend the Constitution, protests for suffrage during WWI, and President Wilson's opinion on the topic. These events, seen with an appropriate picture of what happened and relevant information, surround large red letters that spell out: SUFFRAGE.

Depending on the accuracy of the information and understanding of the topic, you can get two completely different banners on the same subject. Grade this project based on amount of info used, events used, relevance to topic, and color (because every banner should have some attention grabbing colors on them).

Voila! You have yourself an army of women's suffrage/liberation banners! While they may not be of the best quality, your students will now understand how different the US was not even 100 years ago, and how many women fought for the modern world to be created! The best part is that you can completely personalize this lesson idea to your suiting-make sure to make it good, and happy voting!

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep