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Source set · 9 sources ✓ Lesson ready

How did women win the right to vote?

From Seneca Falls to the 19th Amendment, students follow arguments, speeches, and protest photographs across seventy years.

Timeline of key events →Gallery Walk: cartoon stations →

Teach it

✓ Lesson ready

A ready-to-run lesson for this set: Gallery Walk: Seventy Years to the Ballot. Slides include a hook, one slide per source, directions, a take-a-stand vote, an exit ticket, and a teacher script in the speaker notes.

Make a copy (Lesson Slides)Make a copy (Lesson Plan + materials)

1. Hook: look closely 3-5 min

Show: WOMAN SUFFRAGE. LUCY BRANHAM WITH POSTERS (1919) (Harris & Ewing, 1919, Library of Congress)

Ask: This 1919 photograph shows suffragist Lucy Branham. What is she holding, and what message is she sending?

2. Main activity: Gallery Walk: Seventy Years to the Ballot

Grouping: Pairs walk the room; 9 stations posted on the walls

Materials (printables are in the Lesson Plan Doc)
  • Nine gallery posters (print the evidence cards in the Lesson Plan Doc on full pages)
  • Sticky notes in two colors
  • Gallery walk recording sheet
  1. Set up 3 min
    Post the nine sources around the room in date order. One, the 1909 “Election Day!” cartoon, comes from opponents of woman suffrage. Give pairs the recording sheet.
  2. Walk 20 min
    Pairs spend about 2 minutes per poster. On sticky notes: one color for an argument (for or against women voting), the other for a tactic (how each side tried to win).
  3. Sort the notes 8 min
    Bring sticky notes to the board under two headings: Arguments and Tactics. Read a few aloud, including what the “Election Day!” cartoon suggests opponents feared.
  4. Discuss 7 min
    Ask: Which changed more minds, arguments or tactics such as marches and picketing? How might supporters have answered the worries shown in the 1909 cartoon? Use the vote slide.
  5. Exit ticket 5 min
    Students answer on a slip before leaving.

Take a stand: What did more to win the vote for women?

  • Arguments: Seneca Falls, Truth, Anthony, and Addams made the case in speeches and writing that women had equal rights and real needs only the ballot could meet.
  • Public pressure: Parades, picketing, and posters, like the 1913 Capitol march and the National Woman’s Party protests, kept the issue in the news until Congress acted.

3. Pacing options

15-minute bell-ringer

  • 3 min Hook: Lucy Branham photograph
  • 8 min Mini gallery: show the Seneca Falls, Anthony, “Election Day!” cartoon, and 19th Amendment slides; pairs rate each
  • 4 min Exit ticket question 1

Full 50-minute lesson

  • 4 min Hook: photograph
  • 3 min Set up
  • 20 min Gallery walk
  • 8 min Sort the sticky notes
  • 7 min Vote and discuss
  • 5 min Exit ticket
  • 3 min Buffer

4. Exit ticket

  1. Name the source that best explains how women won the vote. Why that one?
  2. The 19th Amendment came 72 years after Seneca Falls. Give one reason it took so long, using today’s evidence (consider what opponents argued).

5. Differentiation

Support

Extension

  • Compare the Declaration of Sentiments with the Declaration of Independence: what did Seneca Falls copy, and what did it change?
  • Find out which states let women vote before 1920 and map them.
  • Find another period source by opponents of woman suffrage and list the reasons it gives. How did suffragists respond?

Suggested sequence

  1. Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
    Document · National Park Service · Expansion & Reform (1801-1861) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 15 min
    1848 declaration from the Seneca Falls convention.
    Ask: Why did the authors model it on the Declaration?
    Open with this source to frame the question.
    Original ↗Copy DocCopy AdaptedSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  2. Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? (1851)
    Speech · Fordham University · Expansion & Reform (1801-1861) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    The famous speech as reported by Frances Gage in 1863.
    Ask: Whose words are we reading when a speech is reported by someone else?
    Original ↗Copy DocCopy AdaptedSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  3. Susan B. Anthony: On Women's Right to Vote (1873)
    Speech · Fordham University · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Anthony's speech after her arrest for voting in 1872.
    Ask: Did the Constitution already give women the right to vote?
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  4. Election Day! (1909)
    Political cartoon · Library of Congress · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Political cartoon by E.W. Gustin (Postcard/print, 1909). Made in 1909, when women could vote in only a few western states.
    Ask: What details did the artist include, and what might they be meant to show?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesPolitical Cartoon AnalysisOPTIC
  5. Jane Addams: Why Women Should Vote (1915)
    Essay · Fordham University · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 20 min
    Addams's argument that city housekeeping required women's votes.
    Ask: How did suffragists' arguments change over time?
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneClaim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER)
  6. Women of Protest: Photographs from the National Woman's Party
    Photograph · Library of Congress · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 15 min
    Photographs of National Woman's Party pickets, parades, and protests.
    Ask: How did suffragists use public protest to pressure leaders?
    Original ↗See-Think-WonderOPTIC
  7. Suffrage march line--How thousands of women parade today at Capitol (1913)
    Photograph · Library of Congress · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Library of Congress photograph: Suffrage march line--How thousands of women parade today at Capitol (1913). Women marchers organized by country, state, occupation, and organization, led by Miss Inez Milholland and Mrs. Richard Coke Burleson, during the suffrage march, March 3, 1913, Washington, D.C.
    Ask: How did suffragists use parades to win public support?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesSee-Think-WonderOPTIC
  8. WOMAN SUFFRAGE. LUCY BRANHAM WITH POSTERS (1919)
    Photograph · Library of Congress · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Library of Congress print: WOMAN SUFFRAGE. LUCY BRANHAM WITH POSTERS (1919). 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller
    Ask: What arguments did suffrage posters make for the vote?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesSee-Think-WonderOPTIC
  9. 19th Amendment
    Document · National Archives · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Women's right to vote, 1920.
    Ask: Why did it take so long for women to win the vote?
    Close with this source before writing.
    Original ↗Copy DocCopy AdaptedSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP

Watch

Free videos to pair with this set. Preview before showing in class.

Teach with (more from Hillsdale): Unit 5: The Turn of the Century (1877-1919) (free K-12 curriculum unit)

Culminating writing prompt

Using evidence from at least three sources in this set, write an argument that answers the question: “How did women win the right to vote?” Cite each source by title, explain how its author, audience, and purpose affect its reliability, and respond to at least one counterargument.

Printable writing sheet (make a copy)

Students can plan with the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning organizer.