Voting Rights: Women's Suffrage

Movement
Fourth Grade Writing, Social Studies,

Use this civics lesson, which explores the suffrage movement for women, to teach your students about the
importance of voting rights for all citizens.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to write about the history of the suffrage movement and explain the important civic
duty of voting.

Materials and preparation Key terms

Class set of the Suffrage worksheet suffrage

Chart paper civic duty
Computer or tablet and a projector
Sticky notes (one per student)
Scratch paper (one per student)

Attachments

Suffrage (PDF)

Introduction (5 minutes)

Divide students into two groups, in a convenient way, such as dividing the room in half, or by asking
students to count off by ones and twos.
Inform students that today they will be exercising their civic duty of voting. They will be asked to vote for
what field trip they want to go on this year. Write on a piece of chart paper three possible field trip
destinations that work for your area (examples include museums, libraries, or regional parks).
Give both groups a minute to ponder on which field trip they will vote for. Remind them that they may
only vote for one option.
Tell students that the "polling station" is open and that students are to come up and vote for a field trip
destination by marking a tally next to their choice.
Explain that only one group will vote today. The other group does not have the right to vote.
Invite students from group one to come up and mark their choice.
Announce the results of the field trip vote.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (15 minutes)

Write each of the following questions on separate pieces of chart paper, leaving plenty of space below for
students to contribute their answers.
"How did it feel to be able to vote today?"
"How did it feel to not be able to vote today?"
Pass out a sticky note to each student. Read each question aloud and give students a minute to reflect on
their response. Then tell them to write their response on the sticky note, and paste it below the question
they answer.
Engage the students in a brief discussion regarding the importance of voting, and the injustice for some
groups to not be able to vote. Add any pertinent information that arose from the discussion to the chart
paper with their sticky notes.
Tell students that this was the case for many different groups of people in history, including women,
Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/
Find worksheets, games, lessons & more at education.com/resources
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com
 Native Americans, the poor (i.e., people who did not own property), and African Americans.
Inform students that today they will learn about the suffrage movement, or the movement to change the
law to allow women to vote. Suffrage means the right to vote and participate in politics.
Tell students that many women were involved in the abolitionist movement (ending slavery) in the
mid-1800s, but became disenfranchised or disengaged when they realized they could neither hold any
leadership position in the U.S. government nor vote in elections. Many women began to protest and
campaign for the right to vote.
Explain that the 19th Amendment to the U.S. constitution was established in 1920, finally allowing
women to vote.
Show the School House Rock: Suffrage Right to Vote video to the students and answer any questions that
arise from the video.

Guided Practice (10 minutes)

Pass out the Suffrage worksheet to each student. Read aloud the text to the student, inviting them to
follow along.
Ask students if they have any questions regarding the information they gathered through the text.
Consider the first couple questions on the worksheet and have students turn to a partner to discuss
possible answers.
Call on a few students to share their ideas, and then encourage them to answer the questions
themselves.

Independent working time (20 minutes)

Tell students they will write a speech (on the second page of the worksheet) as if they were at the Seneca
Falls Convention, and they are to convince the audience that women should have the right to vote.
Instruct early finishers to sketch a poster for the suffrage movement on the third page of the worksheet.

Related books and/or media

VIDEO: Schoolhouse Rock - Women's Suffrage movement

IMAGES: Women's Suffrage Movement
BOOK: You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Fritz

Differentiation

Enrichment:

Challenge students to research one of the suffragettes who fought for women's right to vote in other
countries. Have students write an expository essay on this topic.

Support:

Provide visuals (see related media) of the suffrage movement to give students a more complete idea of
the event.
Read aloud a book on the women's suffrage movement such as You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?
to give students more information to understand the history (see related media).

Assessment (5 minutes)

Invite students to read their speeches to a partner and listen in to gauge student understanding of the
women's suffrage movement.

Review and closing (5 minutes)

Distribute a piece of scratch paper to each student. Have them write one thing they learned during
today's lesson, or one fact that stood out to them.
Have students crumple up the paper they wrote on. Gather students to an open area, such as a carpet,
and have students stand in a circle with their crumpled paper and throw it in the middle.
Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/
Find worksheets, games, lessons & more at education.com/resources
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com
Invite students to grab a piece of paper and take turns reading aloud the learnings of the lesson.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Find worksheets, games, lessons & more at education.com/resources
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com
 Name
VOTE VOT
E Date

Women’s Suffrage and the 19th Amendment

Women’s suffrage was the name of the goal that
women worked to achieve from the middle of the 19th
century to the beginning of the 20th. Suffrage is another
word for the right to vote and participate in politics.
Before 1920, women had very few political or social
rights. Women were not expected to work in politics or even
participate in political discussions. Prior to suffrage, it was
considered rude and unladylike for a woman to even speak
her mind.
women. Over the two days, attendees shared ideas on how
to achieve their goal. Famous names like Lucretia Mott,
Amelia Bloomer and even Frederick Douglass attended the
convention, and some of them spoke about the situation and
what they could do to make it better. The convention was
widely reported on, and news of the event inspired women
all over the country to join the fight and demand change.
Official groups were formed, and the women who joined
them, called “suffragettes,” went on to stage demonstrations,
give speeches and write about the struggle for women’s rights.

Women had been fighting for the right to vote almost
since the United States was established. Though the
constitution did not say women could not vote, individual
states had laws that did not allow them to vote. Activists
like Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner
Truth began speaking up about equality for women in the
earlier part of the 1800s. In 1848, Stanton and other famous
activists organized the Seneca Falls Convention, a two-day
meeting of people who wanted to win voting rights for
By 1915, a few rights had been won—some states
allowed women to vote in state elections, but they still were
not allowed to vote nationally. However, the work that women
did on the home front during World War I, combined with
the perseverance suffragettes had shown over the last 70 years,
caused many people to change their thinking about a woman’s
role in society. In 1920, the 19th Amendment, which said that
no one could be excluded from voting in an election because
of their gender, was ratified.

Answer the Following

Besides voting, what’s something women can do now that they wouldn’t have been allowed to do 100 years ago?

What do you think life would be like today if women were not allowed to vote?

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Find worksheets,
Find games,
worksheets, lessons
games, & more
Copyright
lessons
© 2013at education.com/resources
Education.com
& more
LLC All Rights Reserved
at education.com/resources
More worksheets at ©
www.education.com/worksheets
2007 - 2019 Education.com
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com
 Name
VOTE VOT
E Date

Women’s Suffrage and the 19th Amendment

Imagine you’re attending the Seneca Falls Convention. Write a short speech on why women should be given the right to vote.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Find worksheets,
Find games,
worksheets, lessons
games, & more
Copyright
lessons
© 2013 at education.com/resources
Education.com
& more
LLC All Rights Reserved
at education.com/resources
More worksheets at ©
www.education.com/worksheets
2007 - 2019 Education.com
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com
 Name
VOTE VOT
E Date

Women’s Suffrage and the 19th Amendment

One of the ways the suffragettes attracted attention to their cause was by coming up with sayings and slogans to express their
beliefs. Pretend you’re part of a suffrage organization in 1910. Come up with a snappy slogan for your organization, then design
a poster around it.

Write your slogan on the lines below.

Design your poster in the box below.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Find worksheets,
Find games,
worksheets, lessons
games, & more
Copyright
lessons
© 2013 at education.com/resources
Education.com
& more
LLC All Rights Reserved
at education.com/resources
More worksheets at ©
www.education.com/worksheets
2007 - 2019 Education.com
© 2007 - 2021 Education.com