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Women's History Month

The Declaration of Independence asserts, that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." By the "consent of the governed…" At the present time, there are, within the State of Massachusetts, not far from 200,000 women, over twenty-one years of age. Of these, less than 2,000 have asked to be admitted to the right of suffrage. From this fact, the Committee have a right to infer, and also from their personal knowledge of the views and feelings of the class of persons referred to, that a great majority of the women of Massachusetts, do willingly consent that the government of the State should be, as it hitherto has been, in the hands of their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons.

Amasa Walker, Chairman, Committee on Qualifications of Voters, 1853, responding to a petition to strike the word "male" from the Massachusetts state constitution

Giving Massachusetts women the right to vote? That was one of the radical notions to develop out of a series of conventions on women's rights in the 1850s, the most important of which was held in Massachusetts. Seneca Falls, N.Y., may have garnered more attention, but it was the first National Woman's Rights Convention held in Worcester in 1850 that set the stage for a national movement on women's rights and suffrage.

The Worcester Women's History Project maintains a Web site with a wealth of materials about the conference and its participants, including classroom resources created for a play written about the convention, Angels and Infidels.

During the 2002 observance of Women's History Month, the WWHP inaugurated the Worcester County Women's Heritage Trail with a ribbon-cutting, slide show, and lecture at the Worcester Public Library. A 50-page booklet published by the project may be used for a self-guided tour of local women's rights sites from the Antebellum period.

Students can learn more about abolitionist and suffragette Lucy Stone, labor organizer and peace activist Florence Luscomb, and other women honored in the Massachusetts State House on the State House Women's Leadership Project Web site, sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Elementary and middle school teachers may download a free copy of Making the World a Better Place: The Struggle for Equality in 19th-Century America, which focuses on two State House honorees, Lucy Stone and abolitionist Sarah Redmond.

True or False? Massachusetts-born educational pioneer Mary Lyon could do which of the following: Vote? Go to medical, law, or graduate school? Wear pants? Be a minister? Run for political office? Serve in the military? Students can learn about the life and times of Mary Lyon at a Web site established by Mt. Holyoke College, one of several schools for women she founded or influenced. (The answer to all of the above, is of course, false.)

"[T]he object of the high school is threefold. 1st. to give young men a thorough business education. 2nd. To prepare young men for college. 3d. To give young ladies that exact knowledge, that complete mental culture which will fit them to become teachers, and to fill and adorn any station into which they are liable to be called." That's the assessment of J. M. Steele, Charles Goddard, and F. O. Prince) members of the Winchester, Mass., School Committee, in 1850. Ellen Knight's essay on Women and Public Education is part of the town's Web site and contains many other clues to the history of girls in public education.

"You need to believe in people's dreams, especially women's." So said "Madame" Beatrice Alexander. The doll designer is one of hundreds of women featured in the Jewish Women's Archive, a Brookline-based education project.

Each year, JWA's Women of Valor project spotlights three American Jewish women of accomplishment. This year's "Women of Valor" are modern dancer and choreographer Anna Sokolow, radical activist Emma Goldman, and social and political reformer Gertrude Weil. Posters, resource guides, and online profiles provide additional biographical and contextual information.

In the "Resources" section of the JWA site, teachers can find program ideas and bibliographies and the JWA's "Virtual Archive," where visitors can locate sources documenting the history of Jewish women and Jewish women's organizations throughout North America. JWA is currently working on a section of its Web site that will be aimed at helping educators integrate material on Jewish women into their activities and curricula. Check back for this new resource.

More Women's History Month Resources:

Lucretia Coffin Mott Papers Project
Pomona College is collecting papers and correspondence from this Nantucket-born activist in the non-violence, anti-slavery, and women's rights movements.

Women in America, 1820-1842
This University of Virginia Web project seeks to supplement the view of women presented in Toqueville's Democracy in America with accounts from the French traveler's contemporaries.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-1940
A project of the State University of New York, Binghamton, this Web site contains more than 30 document projects created by undergraduate and graduate history students, each with a wealth of primary source documents, graphics, and Web links. A "Teacher's Corner" offers more than 20 lesson plans.

"Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920
The Library of Congress' collection of prints and photos and a timeline, One Hundred Years Toward Suffrage.

Women of NASA
Science and math students can meet the inspirational women who work at NASA through profiles or interactive chats. Teachers will find additional lesson ideas.

Biographies of Women Mathematicians
Dozens of biographical essays on women in math through the centuries, as written by students of Atlanta's Agnes Scott College.

Not For Ourselves Alone
Resources and lesson plans created to supplement the PBS television series on the women's sufferage movement.

The Trial of Susan B. Anthony
The Library of Congress' documentation on the arrest and trial of Anthony for voting in New York.

These Women's History links were contributed by Karen Board Moran, who teaches at Auburn Middle School. That's Karen, above, portraying Christian Temperance worker Abigail Rawson for a lesson she developed. (Male teachers can take the role of Abigail's husband and fellow reformer, Deering Jones Rawson.)

Ernestine Rose Society Susan B. Anthony called Ernestine Rose one of the three foremothers of the 19th century women's rights movement. From Brandeis University. Old Sturbridge Village Meet Indian doctor Molly Geet and other fascinating characters in the kids' section.