Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Women in the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the myths and realities of women's lives during the 1950s.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Women in the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Looks at what life was like for women in 1950s America. Examines the tension between the expectations of conformity and domesticity and an emerging discontent as many women chose to continue working after World War II. Meanwhile, African...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Women's History Month

For Students 9th - 10th
This site highlights historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units which commemorate the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate the contribution...
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Women in the Gilded Age

For Students 5th - 8th
The roles available to women increased during the urbanization of America. Find out how the women's sphere of the home expanded into the community. See what new jobs were availabe to single, middle-class women, and read about how...
Website
US House of Representatives

History, Art, and Archives: Us House of Representatives: Change and Continuity

For Students 9th - 10th
Women began to be appointed to more prestigious positions in Congress during the Roosevelt administration. Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for women running for Congress which had never been done by a First Lady. Continue to read the...
Website
US House of Representatives

History, Art, and Archives: Us House of Representatives: New Patterns

For Students 9th - 10th
Women elected to Congress between 1955-1976 were well-educated and often leaders in business and society. They had clear goals they wanted to accomplish that centered around issues that affected women's lives. This feminism shaped their...
Website
US House of Representatives

History, Art, and Archives: Us House of Representati: Institutional Developments

For Students 9th - 10th
The fourth generation of Congresswomen brought national attention to women's issues which helped them pass laws in the areas of health, education, and concerns in the workplace. Women held positions on key committees and had the backing...
Website
US House of Representatives

History, Art, and Archives: Us House of Representatives: Crafting an Identity

For Students 9th - 10th
Early congresswomen struggled with their identity in Congress. Was it better to work within the institutional channels or push a "feminist" agenda? Examine different viewpoints on this issue in the following summary.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: "Republican Motherhood"

For Students 5th - 8th
Although brief, this article makes clear the change in the role and perception of women in the new United States. See why it was deemed important for women to have the chance to be educated.
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Fighting the Good Fight in World War Ii 1941 1945: The Home Front

For Students 11th - 12th
Discusses how America prepared for war, the impact on the work force in the United States, how women and other civilians supported the war effort, and how the war affected race relations.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Northern Homefront

For Students 5th - 8th
The military-industrial complex thrived in the North during the Civil War, but read about how inflation affected the ordinary worker. See how the role of women expanded to fill in for men who were away fighting. Women also had an impact...
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1754 1800: Women in the American Revolution

For Students 9th - 10th
Women supported the American Revolution by making homespun cloth, working to produce goods and services to help the army, and even serving as spies.
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Let's Celebrate in Her Honor

For Teachers 6th - 8th
For this lesson, students use the Internet to research influential women in history. Each student then chooses a woman worthy of having a holiday named in her honor and designs a slideshow presentation defending the choice.
Website
US House of Representatives

History, Art, and Archives: Us House of Representatives: Crafting an Identity

For Students 9th - 10th
Early women in Congress struggled with a fundamental question of what their role is in Congress. Were they working towards political equality for women or advocating for specific women's interests that were inherently different from men?...
Article
A&E Television

History.com: How the Us Civil War Inspired Women to Enter Nursing

For Students 9th - 10th
Before the American Civil War, the majority of hospital nurses or "stewards" were men. But the war created a medical crisis that demanded more volunteers, and a lot of the people who took up the call were women. Amid this desperate need...
Handout
Digital History

Digital History: Feminism Reborn

For Students 9th - 10th
This comprehensive survey of the women's movement during the 1960s and 1970s documents women and politics, women's wages, legal discrimination against women, stereotypes of women, women's rights legislation, and women's rights...
Website
Other

Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People's History

For Students 9th - 10th
A project designed for teachers using Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States to teach American history, but with broader applicability in any US history classroom where the role of working people, women, social movements and...
Primary
Other

Www Virtual Library: Medical History of Wwi: Nurse Helen Fairchild

For Students 9th - 10th
This story, told through letters home, is about Nurse Helen Fairchild, one of the brave women who played an important part in World War I. Includes pictures and illustrations of uniforms worn during that period.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The War Behind the Lines

For Students 5th - 8th
The battlegrounds were not the only places affected by the Civil War. Read about how both the North and South carried out foreign diplomacy, the effect of the war on the economies of the two sides, and how the role of women in both the...
Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Fight for the Nineteenth: The Fight for Women's Suffrage

For Students 9th - 10th
Looks at the history of the movement to obtain equal rights for women, starting with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, when women won the right to vote.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Expansion of the Vote: A White Man's Democracy

For Students 5th - 8th
Read about how the ability to vote changed from requiring the ownership of property to almost complete enfranchisement of white males by 1840. There was disenfranchisment of women and free blacks in the same period of time.
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Growing Pains of Urbanization: Relief From the Chaos of Urban Life

For Students 11th - 12th
Learn how different economic classes in urban centers spent their leisure time in the late 19th century. Includes a good discussion of machine politics and the role it played in the lives of the lower classes, as well as its negative...
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Women's Suffrage at Last

For Students 5th - 8th
Trace the history of the women's suffrage movement from its organized beginnings in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention to the final success with the adoption of the 19th Amendment, which constitutionally granted women the right vote.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Southern Homefront

For Students 5th - 8th
Life in the Confederacy during the Civil War was one of shortages. Read about the shortages of food, and the unstable currency which resulted in rampant inflation. Women's roles expanded in many fields. See what occurred when the draft...