9

Quarter 4
Learning Packet 5

Ain’t I a Woman?
 Objectives
 React to lay value judgment on critical issues
that demand sound analysis and call for prompt
actions
Word Bank
01 racket
• noisy disturbance or loud commotion

02 kilter
• out of harmony or balance

03 carriages
• a four-wheeled passenger vehicle pulled
by two or more horses

04 ditches
• a long, narrow open hole that is dug into
the ground, usually at the side of a road
or field

05 ought
• used to express duty, moral obligation, justice,
and rightness,
Word Bank
06 obliged
• to be forced to do something or feel that you must
do something

07 lifted
• raise to a higher position or level

08 woman
• an adult female human being

09 inequality
• lack of equality

10 gender
• an identity or your personal sense of who you are
Reading Selection
Ain’t I a Woman?
by Sojourner Truth
 Objectives
a. Read and comprehend the literary
text,
b. Identify the purpose of the literary
text,
c. Answer the comprehension
question.
 SOJOURNER TRUTH
● She was an American abolitionist and women's
rights activist who was born into slavery in New
York and escaped with her daughter in 1826.
● She became the first black woman to win a case
against a white man in 1828 when she recovered
her son.
 Ain’t I a Woman?

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I
think that ’twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights,
the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my
arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And
ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and
bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all
sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me!
And ain’t I a woman?
 Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience
whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’
rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to
let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men,
’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ
come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all
alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!
And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
 Ain’t I a Woman?
● Delivered at a Women's convention in 1851, addresses the
issues of women's rights and racial inequalities.
● The speech uses a strong and angry tone to convey the
message that women and blacks are equal to white men and
deserve the same rights and freedoms.
● The speech is considered one of the first examples of
intersectional feminism and a powerful expression of
women's empowerment.
● She describes women’s need for equal rights in the United
States.
Key Language Structure
 Objectives
a. Define Social Criticism
b. Identify the difference between social,
moral, and economic issues
c. Determine the social, moral, and
economic issue based on the literary
text given
What is Social
Criticism?
Literary works are vehicles for social criticism. Many writers
present a social critique, which addresses topics that are classified
as personal but which take on a larger meaning. The term personal
may just describe events that these writers have experienced
themselves. However, there are also writers who address larger
social issues and show how these broad issues affect individual
lives.
 Gender inequality

Age, cultural, and religious

Social Issues discrimination

Racism

Othering
 Slavery

Physical and mental abuses

Moral Issues

Abortion

Murder
 Poverty

Unemployment/
Economic Issues Underemployment

Environmental Destruction

Pandemic
 There may not be any available measures in solving some of these
problems yet, but being aware of the social, moral, and economic
dilemmas that individuals of a society face could open opportunities for
further discussion. Some of the questions that can be answered by this
undertaking are the following:

c. How do the majority/minority

a. What is the scope of the issue? view the problem?

d. What can be done to increase

b. Who are the affected individuals? awareness and get valid responses
in the hopes of understanding these
existing issues better?
Performance
Activity
 Determine the social, moral, and/or economic dilemmas present in
A the literary selection you have read. Do people coming from the
same group (women) still face similar problems nowadays? State
your reaction and provide possible solutions to the critical
problems you will identify.
Congratulations!
 9
Quarter 4
Learning Packet 5

Ain’t I a Woman?
Thank You!