Topic: Feminist movement

Author of the script: Monika Piotrowska‑Marchewa

Target group

7th grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

XXIII. Europe and the world in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pupil:

4 ) lists new political ideas and cultural phenomena, including the beginnings of mass culture and moral change.

The general aim of education

Students learn about women's fight for emancipation and suffrage in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• describes the postulates and achievements of the emancipation and feminist movement;

• lists the leading activists of the emancipation and feminist movement;

• indicates the countries which granted women the suffrage before the First World War, during it and in 1918.

Methods/techniques

• exposing methods: talk, traditional lecture, explanations and comments from the teacher;

• programmed methods: using e‑textbook; using multimedia;

• problematic methods: activating methods: discussion;

• practical methods: exercises concerned, working with text, iconographic material and timeline.

Forms of work

• collective activity;

• activity in pairs or in groups;

• individual activity.

Teaching aids

• computers with Internet access;

• notebook and crayons/ felt‑tip pens, sheets of paper;

• materials from e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard or large screen with a projector to display the content of the e‑textbook for the whole class.

Before classes

The teacher asks students to recall the information from the lesson Everyday life in industrial civilization and the subchapter „Allies and enemies of the women's issue” from the current lesson entitled Making the suffrage universal. Feminist movement.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher explains what the lesson will be about and what success criteria the students should achieve.

2. Students fulfil Instruction 1. They learn about the most important activists of the women's movement in Poland and their initiatives - displaying the timeline on tablets or computers. They pay attention to the issues they are raising and note down the most important slogans.

Realization

3. The teacher divides the students into groups and then asks them, in the form of free discussion, to write down on the sheets of paper everything they associate with the term „emancipation”, both in relation to the exercise they have completed and in relation to their knowledge. Then the students number the written associations according to the value hierarchy agreed in the group. The next step consists of the comparison of the posters of all the groups and finding the elements that are common. On the basis of the material collected in this way, the term is defined. The students' definition is then compared with that of a dictionary or encyclopaedia. Students – divided into groups – carry out a similar operation for the concept of „feminism”. Finally, they note the agreed versions of the definition.

4. Using a talk method, the teacher tells the students about the history of women's efforts to achieve equality, drawing attention to American and British historical experiences. The teacher may display excerpts from the film „Emancypantka” from 2015 or a video clip referring to a well‑known song by Lady Gaga and depicting the experiences of American suffragettes. Then, the teacher goes on to discuss Poland's experience in the fight for women's rights. The teacher asks the students to fulfil Instruction 2. Students analyse an excerpt from a leaflet from 1905. They look for arguments used in it to support the demand for universal suffrage without gender difference. Then, the students organize the information from the women's movement calendar. For this purpose, they do Exercise 1. In conclusion, the teacher may draw the students' attention to the reasons for this situation (e.g. small percentage of women in Australia and New Zealand; egalitarianism of Finnish society, etc.).

5. The teacher asks the students to do Exercise 2. After arranging the picture, the students analyse an anti‑suffragism postcard from the epoch. In their discussion with the teacher, they point to the sources of reluctance towards the feminist movement at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. They use the knowledge gained while reading an excerpt of the e‑textbook before the classes. The teacher may supplement the students' arguments. The teacher takes care to provide the students with feedback when they do exercises and instructions.

Summary

6. Referring to the information from the timeline analysed at the beginning of the lesson and the information obtained after doing the exercises, the students – with the possible help of a teacher – list the most important issues raised by women activists in Europe and in Poland at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. They indicate differences between the Polish and British/American emancipation movement.

7. The teacher assesses the students’ work during the lesson taking into account their contribution and involvement. The teacher gives the students feedback on their work.

8. The teacher gives homework for volunteer students (it is not an obligatory part of the script): to fulfil Instruction 3, and then prepare a poster referring to the subject of the lesson. The most interesting posters can be displayed in the classroom.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Make the suffrage universal. Feminist movement

In the mid‑19th century in the USA, a social movement called feminism took on an organised form, and the period of its greatest mobilisation was the end of the century, when it became particularly evident in Great Britain. The concept of emancipation was its basic slogan, used in campaigns for the empowerment of women. In the 90s. of the 19th century, British women's movement activists, called Suffragettes, started a fight for political rights and voting rights. Under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, the suffragettes took much more radical steps.