Iron Jawed Angels: a Movie Guide for Teachers

Iron Jawed Angels: A Movie Guide for Teachers

David Blanchard

Reading Public Schools

9/20/10

Grade 11

Making Equality: Individuals, Social Movements and the Law

Abstract

Iron Jawed Angels is the story of suffragette, Alice Paul, and her activism around women’s suffrage in the 1910’s. This film details the personal struggles and achievements of Paul, but also gives great historical detail about the women’s movement of the early 20th century. In my 11th grade History class, we explore Progressivism in our very first unit. We define and discuss the progress in America and we specifically look at groups, such as women, who aimed to make America a better, more consistent society. I see this film as a great way for students to gain knowledge about women’s rights, progressivism, constitutionality and expanded justice.

Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework

USII.8 – Analyze the origins of Progressivism and important progressive leaders, and summarize the major accomplishments of Progressivism

USII.9 – Analyze the post-Civil War struggles of African Americans and women to gain basic civil rights

Standards in Historical Thinking

Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation

F. Compare competing historical narratives

J. Hypothesize the influence of the past

Standard 5: Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making

A. Identify issues and problems in the past

E. Formulate a position or course of action on an issue

Essential Questions

1. At the turn of the 20th century, is America truly a democratic government that is run “by the people” and does that government really “provide justice for all”?

2. How is the women’s suffrage movement supported by America’s founding documents?

3. Does the success of the Women’s Suffrage Movement mean justice has been achieved for women in America?

Vocabulary List

o Democracy – a government by the people

o Justice – the maintenance of fairness and impartiality

o U.S. Constitution – laws for American society established in 1781

o Constitutional Amendment – a change or revision to the US Constitution

o Progressivism – Period in American history (1890-1920) that attempted to promote progress and expel corruption, inefficiency and injustice

o Reform – to change

o Repression – the process of excluding or suppressing

o Women’s Suffrage – women’s attempt to gain the right to vote

o Gender roles / expectations – preconceived notions of what people should do and how they should act based on their sex

o Quakers – a religious group tat promotes equality among its people

Contextual Resources

Overview of Women’s Suffrage reading from www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com database.

"woman suffrage movement." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com>

Maps from 1900 & 1950 showing the expansion of suffrage at the state level – highlights rising momentum of the women’s movement

1900 Map - “Women's Suffrage by State, 1900." Map. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/>

1915 Map - "Women's Suffrage by State, 1915." Map. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/>

Previewing Activities

1. Women’s Suffragette Informational Chart

Rationale: This chart will introduce and provide basic background information about the main characters from the film. This will also draw out preconceived notions about women and their role in society at the turn of the century

Students will be asked to complete the following chart on some key figures in the Women’s Suffrage Movement of the early 20th century.
Students will read short biographies on each woman and pull out relevant information on the chart.
Students will also be asked to explain what they believe woman were like at the turn of the century and also explain what they think the social expectations for women of that time period were.

Viewing Activity

1. Role Sheet

Rationale: This will confirm of refute the preconceived notions of the students from the previewing activity. It will also outline the main arguments for and against the suffrage amendment, as depicted in the movie.

a. While students watch they will be asked to document specific examples of how the following groups of people (women / men / politicians) were portrayed by the film. Ask students if all women for example are depicted the same way.

b. They will also be asked to identify elements of the argument that supports suffrage and the argument that opposes suffrage.

Post Viewing Activities

Students may choose one of the two options below as a follow up activity.

Rationale: These activities not only pull facts from the movie about people, issues and historical facts, but they also force students to confront the alignment of social practice and founding principles as well as the concept of expanding justice for women.

Historical Display

Students are to assume the role of a curator at a new museum that is specifically set up to tell the story women’s suffrage. Their job is to create a display for one suffragette that will honor her contributions to the movement.
Each display must include the following:
A visual representation of the suffragette. Displays should have one or all of the following components - Photos, symbolic artwork, videos clips, etc.
A written description of the suffragettes’ contributions to the movement. Contributions can be ideological or action based contributions.
The display either directly states or symbolically implies how this suffragette has expanded justice in America.
This display either directly states or symbolically implies how this suffragette’s work has brought America closer to its founding principles of liberty for all and a democracy of the people.

2. Position Paper

Students are to assume the role of a Congressman in 1919 who is being asked to vote on a national suffrage amendment. Their job is to decide whether they are for or against women’s suffrage and write a persuasive essay explaining their position
Each essay must include the following:
A clear statement about whether the student is for or against suffrage.
A clear rationale is provided as to why you have chosen your position.
An explanation of the Constitutionality of the decision. If you support suffrage, explain how blocking women’s right to vote is unconstitutional. If you are against suffrage, how not extending the vote to women is constitutionally permissible.
An evaluation of whether your decision brings America closer to its founding principles of liberty for all and a democracy of the people.

Background Readings

Clift, Eleanor. Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Provides profiles of the women who pushed the women’s suffrage movement forward from 1848 to 1920.

Ford, Linda G. Iron-Jawed Angels: The Suffrage Militancy of the National Woman's Party, 1912—1920 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991). A scholarly history of the "iron-jawed angels."

Tips for Teachers

Movie was produced by HBO films in 2004 and 123 minutes running time.

There is a more info about HBO films at www.hbo.com

Possible Pitfalls

o Students who miss class while viewing the movie. You may need to set up a make up viewing day afterschool. This could also serve as extra support for students who struggled to understand the movie the first time.

Possible Student Misunderstanding

o Students may believe that all women wanted and worked for suffrage

o Students may believe that all suffragettes were working together in harmony under one set of objectives

o Students may believe that because this ultimately came to pass, suffrage was supported by everyone in the nation

Sensitive Issues

o Physical abuse of women. There are several scenes depicting graphic abuse of the women in the film.

Suggestions for excerpts (teachable moments)

o Senator Lattimer and his wife discussing a divorce – social expectations of the era

o Parade attack on women marchers – uphill struggle to change old habits / belief systems

o Alice and President Wilson’s meeting – clear disconnect between Wilson’s view of democracy and Paul’s

o Debate between Alice and Lucy about picketing a wartime President – moral dilemma of challenging someone who is wrong during a difficult time

Subjective Review

The film Iron Jawed Angels is an exceptionally strong resource for high school teachers who teach early 20th century history. There is great historical knowledge about women’s rights to be learned from the film, but maybe more importantly the film provides an opportunity to analyze what those facts mean within the context of Progressivism and the Constitution. I have struggled to bring this period of time to life in my classes and now I believe confidently that I can use this film to help educate and spark interest in a very important time in our history.

Ideas & Movements CONTEXTUAL RESOURCE #1

Woman Suffrage Movement (Overview)

The woman suffrage movement, or the drive to grant all adult women the right to vote, culminated in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Those who supported women's right to vote were known either as "suffragettes" or "suffragists," the latter being considered more inclusive.
In colonial America, most positions of power outside the family were available only to property-owning men. While the American Revolution led to a broader idea of citizen participation, female taxpayers still voted in only some areas, and early women reformers did not focus on expanding the right to vote to all women citizens. Indeed, at the first women's rights convention, held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, Elizabeth Cady Stanton shocked her colleagues when she asked the assembly to vote on a resolution demanding suffrage for women.
After the Civil War, during which many efforts by women had been underappreciated, Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and other feminists began to view woman suffrage as their foremost goal. Many were disappointed by the proposed Fifteenth Amendment, which would grant African-American men the vote. In particular, Anthony and Stanton felt that the amendment merely expanded male suffrage, and they urged their male allies to withdraw their support unless the amendment was modified to include women. Stanton also prepared a petition requesting an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting states "from disenfranchising any of their citizens on the ground of sex." However, male abolitionists seemed surprised, even indignant, that women objected to the Fifteenth Amendment, and most of them refused to sign the petition.

Splitting over the issue of the Fifteenth Amendment, suffragists formed two organizations in 1869. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was led by Stanton and Anthony and was opposed to the Fifteenth Amendment. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), supportive of the Fifteenth Amendment, was headed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Henry Ward Beecher, and others. Critics viewed the female-run NWSA as more radical than the AWSA. Anthony affirmed that view when she tried to vote in 1872 and was arrested, found guilty, and fined. Other suffragists also brought the issue of woman suffrage into the courts, but the U.S. Supreme Court closed the matter when it ruled in 1875 that U.S. citizenship did not automatically confer the right to vote.
In 1877, the NWSA resolved to collect signatures for another petition supporting a woman suffrage amendment. After Anthony collected 10,000 signatures from 26 states, she presented them to the Senate, which responded with laughter. Three years later, however, the movement gained a bit more respectability when the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) endorsed woman suffrage. At the same time, suffragists attracted new enemies in the liquor industry, which viewed the WCTU as a threat.
Hoping that their combined forces would more quickly advance the idea of a constitutional amendment, the NWSA and the AWSA united in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Led by Anthony, Stanton, and Stone, the organization worked on building support within the states and disassociating itself from radical causes. In recreating their image, some white suffragists even used racist rhetoric to curry favor in the South. Nevertheless, African-American women like Ida Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, inspired by former slave and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth, maintained their support for woman suffrage.
For the next two decades, the NAWSA sought to increase its membership and further shed its radical image. Presidents like Carrie Chapman Catt reached out to educated, socially prominent women, and younger suffragists held many outdoor meetings and parades. Such tactics, however, did not convince any new states to approve woman suffrage.

Prior to World War I, activist Alice Paul brought her experiences with militant suffragists in England home to the United States. Her leadership, along with the increased support for woman suffrage fostered by the progressive movement, inspired many suffragists to focus exclusively on the federal government's failure to approve a woman suffrage amendment. During the war, many even protested the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in front of the White House. Meanwhile, Catt and the NAWSA continued to pressure the states to enfranchise their women. In contrast to Paul, the NAWSA supported Wilson and his war effort, which ultimately helped to convince the president to support the national amendment.
Finally, in 1919, Congress approved an amendment that would guarantee women the right to vote—the language of which had been written by Anthony 40 years earlier—and submitted it to the states. By the summer of 1920, 35 of the 36 states needed for ratification had ratified the amendment. Hoping to influence Tennessee's legislature, suffragists and antisuffragists gathered in that state, which finally approved ratification by one vote.
The Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution on August 26, 1920. The last challenge to women's right to vote was defeated when the Supreme Court upheld the amendment in Leser v. Garnett (1922).

Women's Suffrage by State, 1900

MLA Citation

"Women's Suffrage by State, 1900." Map. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/>

Women's Suffrage by State, 1915

MLA Citation

"Women's Suffrage by State, 1915." Map. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/>