Historical Question:
Did the role of women in American life significantly change during the 1920s?
Author: Helen Soufrine
School: Savin Rock School
District: West Haven
Overview:
In the Progressive Era, the status of the American woman was changing quickly. While
changes were happening for both the African American woman and the White woman, these reforms
were separate from each other. Most white middle class women were married and did not work
outside the home. Most women that did work were either young, single, divorced, widowed, poor
married women, or African American women. In 1920, 8.3 million women older than the age of fifteen
worked outside the home. Women composed 23.6 percent of the labor force. Who were the forces
behind these changes?
There were many American women and men that contributed to the changes during the 1920s.
While their actual power varied in the results, they all contributed something by their voices, their
beliefs, and their actions. They all faced dilemmas, choices, and ambitions.
As a result of these changes, did all American women’s lives change during the 1920s? Did
race, ethnicity, gender, and income matter? Did it matter if you lived in the north or south? Did some
women benefit and others did not or could not change? How did these women change the role of
American women in the 1920s? Did men help their cause or oppose their cause?
These are some questions to consider when reading about women and their role in the 1920s.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in
History/Social Studies
Grade 5 students:
1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher
led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on other’s ideas and expressing
their own clearly.
a. Come to discussion prepared having read or studied required material; explicitly
draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore
ideas under discussion.
b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.
c. Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the
discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
d. Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and
knowledge gained from discussions.
Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats,
including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Summarize the points a speaker makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons
and evidence.
Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using
appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support a main ideas or theme; speak
clearly at an understandable pace.
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations
when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task
and situation.
Reworded to fit lesson
1. Students will engage collaboratively in discussions in groups of four. Two teams of two
students in each group will compare and contrast the role of American women in the
1920’s. Students will build on others’ ideas and be able to express their own ideas
clearly.
2. Students will report on the topic and present an opinion using appropriate facts,
descriptive details, and information gained from documents.
3. Students can include multimedia components and visual displays in their presentations
when summarizing information to be presented in supporting the question in a yes or
no conclusion.
Objectives:




To identify the changes that occurred to help women become more independent in the
1920s
To examine the pros and cons of the question and take a yes or no stand.
To identify some of the people that contributed to these changes and also the ones that
opposed them.
To compare and contrast the people that promoted these changes between rich, poor,
black, white, male or female.
Document 1
Directions: For group 1 (student A and B)
Student A
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person on the Capture Sheet (#2).
 Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
 Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
 Use the timeline.
Josephine St. Pierre was a very important woman for her time. She helped African American
women. She was also from a prominent family in Boston. Did wealth, prominence, and
culture play a role in her ability to make changes for women or did it work against her?
Document Summary:
Document 1 shows Josephine St. Pierre
Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre (1842 - 1924)
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was born into one of Boston’s leading families.
Josephine’s mother was an English-born white woman and her father was
from the island of Martinique. She was a biracial child. This was very
unusual for that time. Her father was the founder of the Boston Zion
Church. Mr. and Mrs. St. Pierre sent their daughter to school in Salem
where the schools were integrated.
When Josephine was 15she got married. She married a man named
George Lewis Ruffin. Mr. Ruffin was the first African American to
graduate from Harvard Law School. He later served on the Boston City
Council. He also served on the state legislature, and became the first black
municipal judge in Boston. After marriage, Mrs. Ruffin graduated from a
Boston finishing school. She completed two years of private tutoring in
New York. The Ruffins were involved in charity work and civil rights
causes. Mrs. Ruffin was involved in the women’s suffrage movement
where she worked with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Josephine Ruffin edited Women’s Era from 1980 through 1897. It was the first newspaper published by and
for African American women. Another thing she founded with her daughter was the “Women’s Era Club.” She
believed that a national organization for black women was important. Mrs. Raffin named the organization the
National Federation of Afro-Am Women. One year later, it joined with the Colored Women’s League to
become the National Association of Colored Women.
Vocabulary
1. Martinique: Island
2. Zion Church: house of god
3. Finishing school: a private school for girls close to college age in which social skills, the arts, and
academic courses are taught
4. Women’s Era Club: national organization for black women
5. National Association of Colored Women: belonging to or representing colored women
Source:
Knight, Stephanie. "Raffin,Josephine St. Pierre (1842-1924)." 2007-2011. BlackPast.org. 17 April 2012
<http://wwwblackpast.org>.
Document 2
This document shows Eleanor Roosevelt while she discussed changes in the laws to help women. Did her
high standing in society and her family background help make these changes or hinder the process?
http://wwwloc.govlibrary/
Directions: For group 1 (student A and B)
Student B
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person on the Capture Sheet (#2).
 Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
 Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
 Use the timeline.
Document Summary:
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1964)
Document 2 shows Eleanor Roosevelt sitting next to Mrs. Emily Newell Blair at a Democratic National
Convention. Mrs. Roosevelt was on the women’s subcommittee. The committee led hearings and made
suggestions to the resolutions committee. There were men that ran the resolution committee. These men had
no interest in hearing what these political lady politicians had to say. During these committees, Mrs. Roosevelt
and her colleagues had to wait for long hours behind closed doors where only men were permitted. They had to
sit and wait before anyone would listen or accept their proposals. “I saw for the first time where women stood
when it came to a national convention,” “They stood outside the door of all important meetings and waited.”
Mrs. Roosevelt worked with many groups of women. Some of them included teachers, lawyers, union
organizers, and social activists that had many goals in mind for women. Some of the goals that they had in
mind were, forty-eight hour work week for women, fair minimum wage, to end child labor laws, and to allow
women to join trade unions.
Vocabulary
1. Democratic National Convention: free and equal participation in government or in the decision
making process of an organization or group
2. Committees: a group of people appointed or chosen to perform a function on behalf of a larger
group
3. Colleagues: a person somebody works with in a professional or skilled job
4. Minimum wage: the lowest rate of pay allowed by law or contract for a specific type of work
5. Child labor laws: rules regulating the employment of children
Sources:
"Friendship and Politics." Freedman, Russell. Eleanor Roosevelt A life of Discovery. New York: Clarion
Books, 1993. 79.
Document 3
Nannie Burroughs was a Black educator. She believed strongly in education, job training, and
voting rights. How did these beliefs help or hinder women and their changing roles?
Directions: For group 1 (student A and B)
Student C
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person on the Capture Sheet (#2).
 Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
 Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
 Use the timeline.
Nannie Helen Burroughs (1878?-1961)
Nannie Helen Burroughs was a nationally prominent Black educator. She was
also a church leader, and suffrage supporter. She founded the National
Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D. C. It became a
national model school for the teaching of African American women. She
believed that education, job training, and voting rights were the tools for Black
women’s empowerment. She wrote an article in the Crisis . It was an official
magazine of the NAACP. It demanded that the right to vote, the ballot was
protection for African American women and the way to racial advancement.
In 1986, Nannie Helen graduated from high school with honors in Washington,
D. C. She also formed women’s industrial clubs all through the South. She
taught night classes in typing, stenography, bookkeeping, and home economics
to Black women. She founded the National Training School for Women and
Girls. She believed in education. She also believed in educating African
American to be self-sufficient wage earners. She was very influential with both
Black and white women. She died in Washington in 1961. The school that she
started still there today.
Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Empowerment: make more confident
Crisis: name of a magazine that meant time for action
Ballot: a piece of paper or card on which somebody can record a vote
Racial: ethnic
Honors: tributes
Source:
http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/nannie-helen-burroughs/
Document 4
Thomas F. Bayard was a man that did not believe in women’s
rights. He believed that men were the protectors of women.
Women could only be a wife or mother. This was a law that was
proclaimed as God’s law. Women could not become lawyers.
Women could not be in charge of the family decisions because
they were considered secondary. How did these beliefs help or
hinder women and their rights to change? Are there people that
still think this way today?
Directions: For group 2 (student C and D)
Student D
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person
on the Capture Sheet (#2)



Thomas F. Bayard
Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
Use the timeline.
-“Man is or should be woman's protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity
and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the
occupations of civil life....The paramount destiny and mission of women...to fulfill [is]
the noble and benign office of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator. And the
rules of civil society must be adapted to the general constitution of things, and cannot
be based on exceptional cases. Supreme Court, 1873, upholding an Illinois law which
prohibited women from becoming attorneys under the operation of this amendment
what will become of the family...? You will have a family with two heads--a "house
divided against itself." You will no longer have that healthful and necessary
subordination of wife to husband, and that unit of relationship which is required by a
true and Christian marriage. Senator Thomas Bayard, 1874, attacking women's suffrage
Housewives! You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout. A handful of potash
and some boiling water is quicker and cheaper....Control of the temper makes a happier
home than control of elections....Good cooking lessons alcoholic craving quicker than a
vote on local option.”
Vocabulary
1. Protector: guardian
2. Defender: warden
3. Timidity: shyness, fearfulness, cowardice
4. Delicacy: fragility
5. Unfit: mentally unsound, incapableSource:
Source: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline achieving its stated goals, it
served to boost union membership among women. The International Ladies’ Garment
Document 5
The 1920s was a time that aloud women to enjoy many freedoms such as earning their own
money. However, there were still many groups of people that were opposed to these new
opportunities. One group was the KKK. They did not like African American women or women
that were Immigrants from Middle Eastern countries.
Directions: For group 2 (student C and D)
Student
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person on the Capture Sheet (#2).
 Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
 Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
 Use the timeline.
The changing role of women in American society caused many conflicts. The alteration from an agrarian
economy to an industrial one created many new opportunities for women. Single young women were the most
affected. They now could enjoy some of the freedoms that were the results of having independence because
they had an income. Many women created a new culture for themselves. This culture centered on a consumer
culture and entertainment culture as well. Many people considered the new woman to be a threat to social
morality. Many people opposed the flapper. The flapper became the icon of the new woman in the 1920s.
This was also a time of racial and ethnic conflict. The 1920s was also a time of the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK
targeted African Americans. It also focused much of its attention on the immigrant population of the cities.
Immigrants, African Americans, as well as women and were needed to help the industrial economy grow.
“Just as the icons of the 1920s, such as the speakeasy and the flapper, are still with us today, so too are the
legacies of these cultural clashes. The issues at stake were never fully resolved. The debate over prohibition
continues today in the debate over cigarettes and the legalization of marijuana and other controlled substances.
The place of women in American society continues to be a subject of much discussion. Many recent events
show that race continues to be a compelling issue in American politics and society. Indeed, even the issues at
stake in the Scopes trial continue to be debated on public school boards around the country, most recently in
Kansas. A look at the cultural clash of the 1920s provides an important historical backdrop to issues that
continue to resonate in American culture.”
Vocabulary
1. Agrarian economy: farming or rural life
2. Industrial: workers in industry, factories
3. Consumer: buyer of goods
4. Entertainment: varies ways to amuse people
5. Social morality: relating to the way in which people in groups behave
Source: http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/clash/Introduction/Intro.htm
Document 6
Helen Kendrick Johnson was part of an organization that was against women acquiring the right to vote.
At first the anti-s, as they were known, let the men do all the talking that were against women. In 1917,
they were successful in New York State blocking the right of women.
Helen Kendrick Johnson
Directions: For group 2 (student C and D)
Student
 Read and examine the document below.
 Report what you learned about the person on the Capture Sheet (#2).
 Work with your partner to prepare your argument using supporting evidence.
 Use the chart with your partner to help you compare and contrast evidence to support
your argument.
 Use the timeline.
The women who opposed the women’s suffrage in the United States were organizations called the National
Organization Against Women's Suffrage. A woman named Helen Kendrick Johnson was a woman that did not
support women’s rights. She was an upper class woman who thought that a women’s place was behind the
scenes. They thought that women’s rights would cause women more harm than good. At first the women who
were against women’s rights let the men do all the talking against women. They believed in the mobilization
technique. This was pioneered by the women’s movement. The antis as they were called won the 1915 New
York State referendum.. Women in New York did not win the right to vote in 1915.
Vocabulary:
1. National Organization Against Women’s Suffrage: against women and their cause.
2. Mobilization: to organize people.
3. Referendum: a vote by the whole of electorate on a specific question.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KendrickHelen.jpgndrick Johnson
Procedure (80 minutes):
1. Introduction of lesson, objectives, overview of SAC procedure (15 minutes)
2. SAC group assignments (30 minutes)
a. Assign groups of four and assign arguments to each team of two.
b. In each group, teams read and examine the Document Packet
c. Each student completes the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2), and works with
their partner to prepare their argument using supporting evidence.
d. Students should summarize your argument in #3.
3. Position Presentation (10 minutes)
a. Team 1 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on
the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 2
records Team 1’s argument in #4.
b. Team 2 restates Team 1’s position to their satisfaction.
c. Team 2 asks clarifying questions and records Team 1’s answers.
d. Team 2 presents their position using supporting evidence recorded and summarized on
the Preparation part of the Capture Sheet (#2 & #3) on the Preparation matrix. Team 1
records Team 2’s argument in #4.
e. Team 1 restates Team 2’s position to their satisfaction.
f. Team 1 asks clarifying questions and records Team 2’s answers.
4. Consensus Building (10 minutes)
a. Team 1 and 2 put their roles aside.
b. Teams discuss ideas that have been presented, and figure out where they can agree or
where they have differences about the historical question
5. Closing the lesson (15 minutes)
a. Whole-group Discussion
b. Make connection to unit
c. Assessment (suggested writing activity addressing the question)
CAPTURE SHEET
Did the role of women in American life
significantly change in the 1920s?
Preparation:
1. Highlight your assigned position.
Don’t forget the rules of a successful
academic controversy!
1. Practice active listening.
2. Challenge ideas, not each other
3. Try your best to understand the other
positions
4. Share the floor: each person in a pair
MUST have an opportunity to speak
5. No disagreeing until consensusbuilding as a group of four
Yes:
No:
2. Read through each document searching for support for your side’s argument. Use the
documents to fill in the chart (Hint: Not all documents support your side, find those that do):
Document
#
What is the main idea of this document?
What details support your position?
3. Work with your partner to summarize your arguments for your position using the supporting
documents you found above:
Position Presentation:
4. You and your partner will present your position to your opposing group members. When you
are done, you will then listen to your opponents’ position.
While you are listening to your opponents’ presentation, write down the main details that they
present here:
Clarifying questions I have for the opposing partners:
How they answered the questions:
Consensus Building:
5. Put your assigned roles aside. Where does your group stand on the question? Where does
your group agree? Where does your group disagree? Your consensus answer does not have
to be strictly yes, or no.
We agree:
We disagree:
Our final consensus: