• What was life like for American middle- to upper-class women in the mid- to late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century?

• Upon completing this lesson, students will gain an understanding of the rapidly changing roles of American women in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
• Students will understand how factors such as race, class, nationality/immigration status, and marital status affected a woman's place and role(s) at the turn-of-the-century (1890s-1910s).
• Students will characterize and explain resistance to changing roles for women

• Review the online workshop "Masculine Superiority Fever": Making Sense of "Spheres" at the EDSITEment-reviewed U.S. History Women's Workshop. (Click second image on left or, for browsers that do not support frames, go directly to the essay.) As you review this site, keep in mind the following key points:
  • The early- to mid-nineteenth century idea of "domestic spheres" suggested that a middle class woman's place was in the private domain of the home, where a woman could rule as a mother and wife; a man's place with in the public sphere of work, politics, etc.
  • This "separate spheres" ideology placed middle class women on a spiritual and moral pedestal as the queen of the home, which often was regarded as a safe "haven" from the tumultuous public world.
• Explore "Gender and the Nineteenth Century Home," from the EDSITEment-reviewed American Studies at the University of Virginia website, with specific attention to "Domesticity in Turn-of-the-Century Literature."As you review this site, keep in mind the following key points:
  • As industrialization and consumerism changed the ideal of the home as a haven, "Americans desperately clung to the idea of a romantic idealized space where children, morality, and culture could flourish without the influence of industrialization."
  • This ideal of the separate spheres no longer made sense at the turn-of-the-century (1890s-1910s) when women's roles began to change and broaden.
  • Late-nineteenth century American literature by women often wrestled with and critiqued separate spheres ideology.
• Read a short history of the women's movement at Brief history of women's movement" via EDSITEment-reviewed National Women's History Project. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Declaration of Sentiments," from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, reads: "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world." Some of Stanton's specific points include the following:
  • Women were not allowed to vote
  • Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their formation
  • Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity
  • Most occupations were closed to women and when women did work they were paid only a fraction of what men earned
  • Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law
  • Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would accept women students
  • Women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect, and were made totally dependent on men
• Review Gilman's brief suffrage commentary in the Votes for Women Collection from the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory collection.

If using this lesson plan in conjunction with Lesson Two on Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper":

• Read full text of "The Yellow Wall-paper" (1899 edition), available online at the University of Virginia Library's Electronic Text Center via EDSITEment-reviewed Center for the Liberal Arts, or the original New England Magazine version, available online at the Library of Congress' Nineteenth Century in Print Collection (periodicals)
• Download and pass out the "Active Reading Worksheet," available in PDF for students to complete while reading "The Yellow-wallpaper." Mention to students that you will collect their "active reading notes" from this worksheet, so encourage them to mark key passages throughout the story as they read. They can also use an interactive version available online.

• Activity 1. The "New Woman"

Activity 1. The "New Woman"

Divide students into five small groups. Each group will explore the historical, social, economic, and cultural background of American women in the nineteenth century. In some cases, students may wish to use a National Archives document analysis worksheet. Using the list below, assign a different topic to each group. Ask each group to present its findings.

• "Nineteenth-century Domestic Spheres"
  • Have students explore "Gender and the Nineteenth Century Home," from the EDSITEment-reviewed American Studies at the University of Virginia website and the "Masculine Superiority Fever": Making Sense of "Spheres" at the EDSITEment-reviewed U.S. History Women's Workshop (Click second image on left or, for browsers that do not support frames, go directly to the essay).
  • Point students to the following items to help generate their small group discussion:
    • "Light of the Home" image
    • "Motherhood" essay
    • "Puss in the Corner" poem
  • Each group will prepare a one-page summary based on the group exploration of these two sites. Guiding questions:
    • How do the primary documents on these websites portray the roles of middle-class men and women in the early- to mid-nineteenth century?
    • What do you think of these roles?
    • How are the roles similar or different from today's roles for women?
• "Women's Rights and the Suffrage Movement"
  • Have students in this group prepare a brief history/timeline of the women's movement by exploring American Treasures of the Library of Congress' Seneca Falls Convention exhibit, the Library of Congress' "Votes for Women" collection(both via EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory), and the College of Staten Island Department of History (via EDSITEment-reviewed U.S. History Women's Workshop).
  • Point students to the following items to help generate their small group discussion:
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Declaration of Sentiments"
    • Gilman's brief suffrage commentary in the Votes for Women Collection: (Search by keyword "Gilman"; text under "Charlotte Perkins Stetson, of California)
    • Detailed timeline
    • Anti-suffrage cartoon
  • Each group will prepare a one-page summary based on the group exploration of these sites. Guiding questions:
    • What prompted the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention?
    • What most surprised your group about Stanton's outline of women's rights (or lack thereof) in 1848?
    • For which key elements of change did women advocate in the several decades leading up to women's official right to vote in 1920?
• "Popular Representations of Women in the 1880s-1910s"
  • Have students explore "Touring Turn-of-the-Century America," Emergence of Advertising in America," and "Library of Congress Online Prints and Photographs Reading Room" to explore how popular media, including advertising, political cartoons, and magazines, portrayed women during the 1880s-1910s.
  • Point students to the following items to help generate their small group discussion:
    • A Hasty Lunch photo (~1900)
    • "I Can't Keep House without It" (1918) advertisement
    • "The Efficient Housewife (1910s)" cookbook advice
    • For the benefit of the girl about to graduate (1890) cartoon
    • Hoyt's A contented woman (1898) poster
  • Each group will prepare a one-page summary based on the group exploration of these sites. Guiding questions:
    • What do you notice (in terms of dress, activity, expressions, etc.) about the lunching women in "A Hasty Lunch" in comparison to other women in the background of the photo (e.g., the woman with the man and children)?
    • What roles for women are portrayed?
    • What commentaries and critiques are depicted in the representations you have found?
• "The New Woman"
  • Have students explore "Touring Turn-of-the-Century America," Emergence of Advertising in America," and "Library of Congress Online Prints and Photographs Reading Room," all available through EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory.
  • Point students to the following items to help generate their small group discussion:
    • Adam Forepaugh & Sells Brothers enormous shows combined (1896) poster
    • The new woman -- wash day (1897) cartoon
    • The new woman -- wash day (1901) cartoon
  • Each group will prepare a one-page summary based on the group exploration of these sites. Guiding questions:
    • What new roles are represented for women in the 1880s-1910s?
    • In what activities did the "The New Woman" engage?
    • How would you describe "The New Woman" in terms of her social and economic background>
• "Working Class, Immigrant, and African-American Women"
  • Have students explore "At Home in the Heartland," Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Within These Walls and Tenement Sweatshops, available through EDSITEment-reviewed Smithsonian National Museum of American History. As a point of comparison to the lives of middle- to upper-class women.
  • Point students to the following items to help generate their small group discussion:
    • Carmella Gustaferre, an Italian immigrant in Chicago, 1914
    • Ruby Livingston, a Southern African-American woman who moved to Chicago, 1919)
    • Visit the Caldwell family and Lynch family sections of "Within These Walls" Exhibit
• Each group will prepare a one-page summary based on the group exploration of these sites. Guiding questions:
  • Describe the home life of working class, immigrant, and African-American women at the turn-of-the-century (1880s-1910s).
  • What were common roles for the women you have learned about by browsing the sites?
  • How would you compare the Caldwell family home life with the home life of immigrants such as Carmella Gustaferre and the Lynches and African-Americans such as Ruby Livingston?

Here are some assessment options:

• Small Group Presentations: Students should present the findings of their assigned topic, referencing strong support from corresponding web sites. They should demonstrate a clear understanding of their online research findings and discoveries.
• Essay: Ask each student to write a two-page essay that answers the lesson's guiding question, "What was life like for American middle- to upper-class women in the mid- to late-nineteenth century and early twentieth century?"
• Role-playing Exercise: Have students role-play the home life of the typical American middle class family of the mid-1800s.
• Journal Entry: Based on research and scholarship, students might write a creative journal entry or an essay in the voice of a person during this time period. What rhetorical perspective might the person take? What are they advocating for, and why? How do those in their homes or communities react to their viewpoints? Emphasize to students that the creative exercise should reveal the students' knowledge of the time period and the competing voices in the midst of change.

• Have students read excerpts from Gilman's 1898 Women and Economics.
• Divide the class into three groups, each of which will browse one of three popular turn-of-the-century (1890s-1910s) publications (Harper's, North American Review, and The Century) for editorials on "The New Woman." Ask each group to characterize the general audience of each publication based on the articles (table of contents), front matter, price, advertisements, and any other aspects of the publication at large. (Students can use a National Archives document analysis worksheet.) Students will analyze the editorials and write a group summary of how each publication represents "The New Woman." Each group will present its summary, and a full class discussion will follow.
  
  Individual periodicals are listed at "Making of America: Nineteenth Century in Print (periodicals)." Students can search individual periodicals with the keyword "New Woman." A sample editorial is: The New Woman. (The North American review. / Volume 158, Issue 450, May 1894), which you can locate using the Search engine.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

American Memory

• Touring Turn-of-the-Century America
• American Treasures of the Library of Congress' Seneca Falls Convention exhibit
• Votes for Women Collection
• Gilman's brief suffrage commentary
• Emergence of Advertising in America
• Library of Congress' Nineteenth Century in Print Collection (periodicals)
  • original New England Magazine version of "The Yellow Wall-paper" (1892)
  • Library of Congress Online Prints and Photographs Reading Room

American Studies at the University of Virginia

• "Gender and the Nineteenth Century Home"
• "Domesticity in Turn-of-the-Century Literature"

"At Home in the Heartland"

Center for the Liberal Arts

• University of Virginia Library's Electronic Text Center
  • full text of "The Yellow Wall-paper" (1899 version)

National Women's History Project

• Brief history of women's movement
• College of Staten Island Department of History
• Assumption College's U.S. Women's History Workshop
  • "Masculine Superiority Fever": Making Sense of "Spheres"

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

• Within These Walls
• Tenement Sweatshops