Check out these resources below as examples of culturally responsive and appropriate resources for teaching about these important topics. Along with these content supports, it is important to take time to reflect and review not only your classroom curriculum, but to formally review the curriculum of your school and district. Also, please take time to review resources that encourage you to self-reflect on how you, your students, and your colleagues engage in this work as well.
Women's History
Women's History Month - March is Women's History Month and The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.
Smithsonian's History Explorer - Examine collections of the Museum's key resources on major themes in American history and social studies teaching. Additional resources can be found in the main search areas of the website. Explore Women's History with your students using lessons, podcasts, activities, and primary sources as curated by the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian Learning Lab - The Smithsonian has put together five "learning lab collections" (as well as 243 additional resources) that relate to teaching about Women's History.
Library of Congress: Women's History - The Library of Congress offers classroom materials to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching about Women's history.
National Women's History Alliance: Women's History Resource List - The National Women's History Alliance has compiled resources for teaching about Women's History. This resource list was updated in 2020.
Women & The American Story - Women & the American Story (WAMS) is a free curriculum website from the New York Historical Society. WAMS connects educators with classroom resources that illuminate diverse women’s contributions to the American past. WAMS is organized in ten chronological units. We will launch two units per year until the project is complete in 2022. Examine the current units, learn more about the full curriculum, or explore resources thematically.
Restoring Women to World Studies - In much of the social studies—especially courses focused on world history, geography, and culture—there has been a long-standing awareness that the experience of women has been left out of the narrative. Recent changes in state, national, and Advanced Placement educational standards have sought to remedy this omission by calling for the inclusion of women’s studies in the social studies curriculum. However, the most widely available resources tend to focus on the experience of women in Western Europe and North America. Restoring Women to World Studies seeks to address these new requirements and the current regional bias in available resources.
Teaching Tolerance has articles and resources related to the teaching of Women's History:
- A More Complete Women's History
- Women's Equality Day (2019)
- Insist on Persistent Women: Women's History in the K-8 Classroom
New York Public Library: Women's History Month - In honor of Women's History Month, each March, NYPL librarians present a monthlong series of posts highlighting the many amazing women they've discovered through the print and online resources of The New York Public Library.
Women's History Month Resources (That You Should Use All Year) - Check out this 2019 blog post from Glenn Wiebe where he shares strategies for incorporating women's history into your curriculum and resources to support you.
19th Amendment
Bill of Rights Institute: Votes for Women - Votes for Women: The Story of the Nineteenth Amendment guides students through the story of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Through rich narratives, primary source activities, and classroom-ready lessons, the curriculum explores the people, places, and events of the suffragist movement, inspiring students through the perseverance and courage of those in the movement and asking them to consider how one is able to carry out long-term change in order to better align institutions with the principles of liberty, justice, and equality. This framing provides a structure that allows students to explore how the suffragists mapped out a pathway for change to achieve the vote through the Nineteenth Amendment. The resource also contains capstone projects so that students can use the lessons of this curriculum to make a positive impact in their own communities.
Women's Vote Centennial - In April 2017, Congress passed legislation to create the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission (S.847) “to ensure a suitable observance of the centennial of the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for women’s suffrage.” Check out their website and educational resources.
Gilder Lehrman: Women's Suffrage through 1920 - Gilder Lehrman has put together an interactive infographic that shows the history of women getting the right to vote state by state through the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Maine Suffrage Centennial - The Maine Suffrage Centennial Collaborative believes the centennial offers a unique, nonpartisan opportunity to commemorate this victory in the fight to ensure all Americans the right to vote, while also encouraging voting and civic engagement today. We are committed to commemorating the anniversary without repeating the discriminatory and exclusionary aspects of the original suffrage movement, and seek the participation of all Mainers. Check out their educational resources.
Maine State Museum: 100 Years to the Vote Teaching Materials - This series of three lesson plans uses primary sources to introduce students to the women’s suffrage movement in Maine. The lessons are recommended for Grades 4-12. All lessons and materials are digital and available for free download.
Movement & Action: The Women's Suffrage Movement (iCivics Webquest) - How did women win the right to vote? What civic actions were taken to gain political equality? In this WebQuest, students will learn about four civic tactics that supporters of women's suffrage took to move the nation to ratify the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Check out their infographic A Movement in the Right Direction and have students use the WebQuest to follow along.
The books below may be of interest to anyone teaching about or wanting to learn more about the 19th Amendment:
Miss Paul and the President: The Creative Campaign for Women's Right to Vote by Dean Robbins
Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten and 10,000 Miles by Mara Rockliff
Elizabeth Started All the Trouble by Doreen Rappaport
Who Was Ida B. Wells? by Sarah Fabiny
Women and Gender Studies
National Museum of Women in the Arts (Google Arts & Culture) - Founded in 1981 and opened in 1987, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s collection features 5,000 works from the 16th century to the present created by more than 1,000 artists, including Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Alma Thomas, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Chakaia Booker, and Nan Goldin, along with special collections of 18th-century silver tableware, botanical prints, and artists’ books.
Human Rights Educators USA: Women's & Girls (Lesson Plans) - Human Rights Educators USA is a national network dedicated to building a culture of human rights and they have compiled a series of lesson plans related to teaching about women and gender studies.
The book below may be of interest to anyone teaching about or wanting to learn more about Women and Gender Studies:
What is The Women's Movement? by Deborah Hopkinson
Continue the Work Beyond Your Class:
Along with these content supports, it is important to take time to reflect and review not only your classroom curriculum, but to formally review the curriculum of your school and district. Also, please take time to review resources that encourage you to self-reflect on how you, your students, and your colleagues engage in this work as well.