Women's Suffrage

INCLUSIVE Helping you to deliver an LGBT+ CURRICULUM Subject: History Key Stage 4 WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk Original “The Classroom” concept developed by Schools OUT UK Aims KS4 History • AQA 3.3 Shaping the nation: o 3.3.1 Section A: Thematic studies § BB Britain: Power and the people: c1170 to the present day. § Part four: Equality and rights. § Women’s rights: the campaign for women’s suffrage, reasons, methods and responses; role of individuals, including the Pankhursts; the reasons for the extension of the franchise and its impact; progress towards equality in the second half of the 20th century. • This lesson can be used as an introduction to the suffrage movement in the UK and some of the differences between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. Learning Intentions Students can: • Define the terms ‘suffrage’ and ‘women’s suffrage’. • Describe what was expected of women in the late 1800’s. • Compare the actions and behaviour of the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. Resources Supplied: • PowerPoint Needed: • Internet access or dictionaries to research definitions Preparation 1. Read the lesson plan and familiarise yourself with the activities. Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk 2. The lesson mentions the Stonewall Inn riots. If you are looking for support in teaching about LGBT+ history you can find resources through The Proud Trust charity (https://www.theproudtrust.org). Time Slide(s) Activity Method 15 mins 4-7 Starter Share with your students the following information: Studies have shown that people with blue and green eyes are more impressionable than those with brown eyes. People with lighter coloured eyes are more likely to believe what they hear without delving into it deeper. As a result, people with blue/green eyes are less likely to have a proper understanding of commerce and industry. Brown-eyed people have a responsibility to others, to care for them and ensure the correct decisions are made. Knowing that lighter-eyed people are less likely to have a good understanding of topics like trading and business and so make poor voting decisions in the future, should they have additional homework until they have the same understanding as brown-eyed people? Ask your class to move to the left of the classroom if they agree that lighter-eyed people should have additional homework, and ask them to move to the right if they disagree. Next, ask all blue, green and grey-eyed people to return to their seats and count the votes made by the brown-eyed members of the class. Declare the result from just these votes. Ask the class whether people with lighter coloured eyes need to vote when those with darker eyes have listened to their opinion and have the facts, so could vote for them? Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk (The starter is based on the arguments for women not needing the vote. Women supposedly knew nothing of commerce and industry and if their husbands had the vote, why did they need it?) 3 mins 8 Learning Opportunity to share the learning intentions, date and title. Intentions 2 mins 9 Big Picture Should you have to fight for your rights? (The Big Picture links lesson content to the real world and events happening outside of school. It acts as a point of interest to inspire conversations and engage students.) 5 mins 10 New Material Share with your students the following information: Before 1918 women could not vote. The Representation of the People Act was passed in 1918 which allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote. Another decade would pass before women had the same voting rights as men. The lies we told about lighter-eyed people in the starter were similar to beliefs held by powerful MPs about women. “Women are extraordinarily impressionable.” - Sir John Rees “Women know nothing of commerce and industry.” - John Henderson MP “A woman is no more qualified to vote than a rabbit.” - Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister 1908-14 10 mins 11-12 Literacy Share with your students that ‘Suffrage’ comes from the Latin suffragium which meant, ‘a ballot’, ‘a vote’, or ‘the right to vote’. What do you think ‘Women’s suffrage’ means? Suggested answer: Women’s suffrage = the right of women to vote In 1866, a group of women organised a petition that demanded that women should have the same political rights as men. They gathered over 1500 signatures. When this was voted on in Parliament, they were defeated 196 votes to 73. Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk After the defeat women’s suffrage groups formed all over Britain. In 1897 Millicent Fawcett joined together 17 of these groups to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The women in the NUWSS became known as the Suffragists. 10 mins 13-14 New Material Share with your students that the Suffragists believed in a peaceful approach where they campaigned with petitions, posters, leaflets, and public meetings. They were seen as the more ‘ladylike’ suffrage group. Easier: If a person was to act like a girl, how would they act? If a person was to act like a boy, how would they act? Harder: How do you think women were expected to act in the late 1800’s? How do you think men were expected to act? Hardest: Has the way we expect men and women to act and behave changed in the last 150 years? Suggested answers on the following slide. 10 mins 15 New Material Share the following information with your students: In 1903, tired of the lack of progress with the peaceful and ‘respectable’ methods, many women began to support a more confrontational approach. These women became known as the Suffragettes. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The organisation grew to include branches all over Britain. ASK: The Suffragette’s motto was ‘Deeds not Words’; what do you think it means? 15 mins 16-18 Deepen Your You may wish to print slide 16 so your students can read Understanding through the lyrics. Watch the Mary Poppins clip of the song Sister Suffragette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds8cKgPdE6M Share the following: Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk Sister Suffragette is about the Women's Social and Political Union that was formed in London in 1906. The group was formed to rally for suffrage, the right to vote, for women in the UK and all the members were called Suffragettes. In the lyrics, the words dauntless, shackles, meek and mild, subservients, and militantly have been highlighted. Ask your students to use the internet or dictionaries to find the meanings of these words. Answers are on the following slide. Discuss with your students whether the way the Suffragettes were described fits with how women were ‘supposed’ to act. Share the following with your students: The Suffragettes chained themselves to railings, disrupted public meetings and damaged public property. Suffragettes were arrested and imprisoned, but continued to protest in prison with hunger strikes. Initially the women on hunger strike were force-fed but in 1913 the ’Cat and Mouse’ act passed. Prison authorities released hunger-striking women when they became too weak. The women were re-arrested when they recovered. Emmeline Pankhurst was jailed and released 11 times. 10 mins 19 Review and Reflect Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0IAFIhVfA Easier: How were the Suffragists and the Suffragettes different? Harder: Compare and contrast the Suffragists to the Suffragettes. 10 mins 20 Deepen Your Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9wdMJmuBlA Understanding Easier: How were the Stonewall riots different to the actions taken by the Suffragettes? Harder: How were the Stonewall riots similar to the actions of the Suffragettes? Hardest: Compare the Stonewall riots to the actions of the Suffragettes. Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk Women’s Suffrage | History | Key Stage 4 www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk .

Load more