Women Making History

This activity lends itself to having students work with a partner or in small groups and requires access to computers. The goal is to use the Mass Moments website to find the stories of women whose accomplishments outside the home have been especially noteworthy. The search will bring up women highlighted in Lessons A and B, as well as other women featured on the website.

Ask students to consider which words they need to enter in the search tool to yield results (e.g. women’s history, suffrage, woman’s rights, equal rights, etc.) Students should have at least six Mass Moments essays to work with. (An alternative is to distribute hard copies of the scripts and background essays for a selection of Mass Moments.)

Once students are familiar with the content of at least six Mass Moments, discuss as a class:

1. In which fields previously closed to them did women first gain a foothold? How? Which fields were slower to open up to them? Why?
2. Are students surprised by how recently many professional fields excluded or discriminated against women? What role do women play in those fields today?
3. What did the women featured in the Mass Moments have in common? How were they different?

Refer back to and discuss the key questions for the lesson.