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Women's History Month

by Rachel Cummings TpT Store: Writing by Rachel

March is Women’s History Month, but why should history teachers have all the fun? History’s bookshelf is full of literature written by women, characters and poems inspired by women, and works of fiction and nonfiction that reflect women’s experiences. This month, encourage students to slip on a different critical lens and to read poetry and prose with an eye to gender. What do they learn about women’s experiences from the written word? They may be surprised by what they find beneath the words of a poem or short story. 

The Hook—Defining ‘man’ and ‘woman’

What does it mean to be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’? That question is sure to spark a lively conversation! But, it has academic merit and can be the basis for a thoughtful, historic peek at literature.

Ask students, in pairs, to brainstorm the roles, responsibilities, and activities that define ‘man’ and ‘woman.’ They can record their thoughts on a note-taking sheet that has two spheres, one labeled ‘man’ and one labeled ‘woman.’  (Like a Venn diagram, but without the overlapping center section.) Instruct students to record in both spheres for each topic/question they discuss. Students may want to use the following questions to guide their discussions: 

• What personality traits describe ‘man’ and ‘woman?’ 
• Do females have responsibilities outside the home? Doing what?
• What do women do within the home?
• What do women read?
• What hobbies are appropriate for women? What careers?
• Are men or women restricted, if so in what ways, and for what reasons? 

After students have contemplated what it means to be a man or a woman, ask them to discuss their ideas. Are there descriptors that fit both ‘man’ and ‘woman?’ Are there descriptors they used for ‘man’ or for ‘woman’ but not for both?

Explain to students that in the 19^th century, men and women were considered opposites, i.e.: men were physically strong—women were weak; men were stoic—women were emotional and sensitive. Ask students to create a new set of gender spheres. This time, direct them to think of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ as opposites. How would ‘man’ and ‘woman’ be described this time around? Consider careers, activities, emotions, responsibilities, and innate traits. What dichotomies emerge? How have the cultural expectations of what it means to “be a man” or “act like a lady” changed over time?

The Application—Reading Critically

Will students’ newly found understanding of the complexities and changing ideas about gender better help them understand and appreciate what a work of fiction reveals about gender? Introduce students to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Virginia Commonwealth University shares a hypertext with study notes. When readers click on a red phrase, a study note box appears at the top of the page (students may have to scroll up to see those for boxes at the bottom of the story.) The study notes show readers how phrases and words impart clues. Have students consider the questions asked in the study notes and discuss them as they read.

Critical reading is dynamic because it encourages a variety of evidence-based interpretations. Students will appreciate this if they are exposed to several valid, though different, readings of the story. After reading, lead students in a discussion related to gender. As always, challenge students to cite evidence from the text to support their responses. Discussion questions might include: 

• When is this story set?
• What does this story reveal about men's and women’s roles at that time?
• How are men and women depicted in the story?
• Who has power and who does not—in what ways?
• Does this story have a gender message?

Having used a hypertext and analyzed what “The Story of an Hour” says about gender, let students analyze a poem on their own. The University of Pennsylvania shares a digital library of anthems written by abolitionist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Have students read “To the Indifferent Women,” “The Housewife,” and “Women to Men.” Direct students to Sojourner Truth’s poem “Ain’t I a Woman,” Deborah Garrison’s “Please Fire Me,” and Marge Piercy’s “For Strong Women. “ Consider having students use the Library of Congress’ Thinking about Poems as Historical Artifacts worksheet to guide their work. Students can create their own ‘hypertext’ by recording their thoughts on post-its and attaching them to the text. Or, present students with a collection of questions to guide their work. Perhaps:

• What is going on in this poem?
• What do you think this poem says about women?
• What details, images, or lines give you this impression?
• What questions do you have about this poem?
• What did you most appreciate about this poem?
• Why do you think the author penned this poem?
• Compared to another poem, how are the two similar and different?
• Which poem did you prefer and why?
• How does this poem compare to “The Story of an Hour”?
• Explain how you think American’s ideas about men and women have changed since Kate Chopin wrote her story? 

Tomorrow’s History—Today

It’s all well and good to think about how history has treated women, but what about today? How do contemporary beliefs about gender limit men's and women’s experiences? What do contemporary lyrics reveal about gender? Consider showing students Maddie and Tae’s tongue-in-cheek video for their song, “Girl in a Country Song.” If your preview of the video determines it is inappropriate for your students, share the lyrics and the video but with audio only. Challenge students to examine it using the Library of Congress’ Thinking About Songs as Historical Artifacts worksheet. (If they watch the video, they can include that for the ‘look’ of the song.)

What are your students’ favorite songs? That question will elicit a long list of nominations. What messages do the lyrics to those songs convey about gender? Ask them to apply their critical eye—and the Library of Congress worksheet—to a contemporary song. Moderate a class discussion:

• Who is the song’s audience?
• What did they discover about contemporary lyrics?
• What words are used to describe women and men—their looks, actions, habits…? Record these.
• What trends emerge when they compare their analysis to what their classmates discovered about other lyrics?
• What do students think about these trends?
• What messages do the songs convey?
• How do they break or support gender stereotypes?
• How do they think these messages influence the audience? Do they consider their song helpful? Harmful? To whom and why?
• What do they think future generations of students examining today’s attitudes will conclude?
• How do they hope thoughts about gender will change during their lifetime?
• What can they do to help this be so?

Finally, challenge students individually or in pairs either to write an ode celebrating what they appreciate about men or women (or a particular man or woman), or to write the lyrics to a song.

Reading critically—be it primary documents or fiction—offers students a window through which they may understand texts deeply. Historical documents become more than old. Fiction becomes more than stories. History is today.  

Resources from Writing by Rachel's TpT Store:

A free, downloadable resource that guides students through the process of predicting, interpreting, connecting and questioning as they read.

Provides activities that can be used with any word list.  Helps refresh and invigorate your vocabulary instruction!