Winning the Vote
Teaching Tip
The cornerstone activity of my units on women’s history or of lessons about passage of the Nineteenth Amendment is viewing and responding to the HBO film Iron Jawed Angels. This film really brings to life Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and the campaign for Congress to approve the amendment. These women become “real” people through the film and students see the sort of personal risks that reformers took. This opens the door for discussions of concepts such as being political prisoners versus law breakers, and challenges students to think about what they would be willing to do to further a cause they support. The film, to be sure, is a Hollywood version of history, so students need to be alerted to the non-factual portions. Still I have used the film successfully for several years to illustrate the final chapter of the struggle to win the vote.
April 18, 2011 Beth Sanders wrote:
I used the part of the video during the hunger strikes, singing in jail and forced feeding of Alice Paul my students are still talking about it weeks later! Highly engaged and really connected them to the extremes Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, etc. went to to get women the right to vote!