Suffragettes Procession after Release from Prison. 1908. [October ?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/rbcmiller002032/.
This is a valuable source, not only for depicting the empowerment of women as they worked to receive the right to vote, but especially on their own and not dependent on a man for permission or ability. The men marching on either side of the women shows solidarity with the situation, and therefore this resource could be used with any strong female characters in literature, as well as strong female leaders. It is also valuable to show the worldwide struggle for women’s rights to vote.
(From the Library of Congress) Maud Joachim, Vera Wentworth, Florence Haig and Miss Howe, English suffragettes released from Holloway jail, are drawn in an open carriage by their sister suffragettes during a suffrage demonstration to Queen's Hall. These women were jailed fighting for the right to vote in the United Kingdom.
Women did not receive the right to vote until 1920 in the United States and 1928 for full women’s voting rights in the United Kingdom. This photo shows women who were released from prison in the UK, still asserting their right to vote. Women were the last voter group added to the voter rolls, but they were not the last to fight for the right to vote. At this time in England, King Edward VII was on the throne. The United States had a strong president to see them through WWI in Woodrow WIlson, but in 1921, Warren G. Harding assumed the presidency and left the nation with scandals, even though he was sensitive to the rights of minorities and women.
If you leave the title off at first, there is a more critical reading of the photo.
- Where do you think this is taking place?
- What do you notice first?
- What can you say about the ratio of male to female participants?
- Why are some women walking and some in a carriage?
- What objects do you see and what do you believe holds the most importance?
- What is the overall tone or mood of the work?
Texas ELAR TEKS and Texas Social Studies TEKS
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ELA Standards |
Social Studies Standards |
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E3.8A: analyze the author's purpose, audience, and message within a text
E3.10F: compose rhetorical analysis using genre characteristics and craft.
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Intro 7: Each social studies class shall include, during Celebrate Freedom Week…the study of…the formulation of the U.S. Constitution, and the abolitionist movement, which led to the Emancipation Proclamation and the women's suffrage movement.
USH.22B: evaluate various means of achieving equality of political rights, including the 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments and congressional acts such as the American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
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- There are many female characters in literature who find their footing after hardships: Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte), Maryann Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen), Janie Starks (Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston), Avery Grambs (The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes), and Sadie Green (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin) are some who come to mind. These female characters span classic to young adult and popular literature. Examining a historical source to show how the human condition has not changed over time will help students recognize these themes more readily.
- Asking students to examine the rhetorical moves the photographer made in this composition opens up photos as a text to students. The photographer captured just one moment, but what does that moment in time do rhetorically? What is the tone? What persuades the reader one way or another? This can be the start of a short rhetorical composition (one to two paragraphs), during which students try out terms like: antithesis, ethos, in medias res, oxymoron, pathos, perspective, repetition, just to name a few. Examining these terms in an accessible photo first can help build writing skills and analytical skills.
- Have students generate questions similar to the focus questions as a quick assessment of a partner they have been working with. The focus questions may or may not have the title of the work present while students are working through them, but while working with the photo as a classroom tool, please show the primary source in its entirety.
While there could be objection to showing the suffrage movement, by and large, this topic is included in most high-school-adopted textbooks, and teachers share texts that have strong female characters who overcome adversity. There is a movement in education to keep harsher ideas from students, but as this action resulted in a change to the Constitution, it seems unlikely for a challenge.
Passage of the nineteenth amendment assured women the right to vote, but if there is a comparison to other classes and races, there could be a potential for challenge. In the US, the fourteenth, fifteenth, and nineteenth amendments are all part of the Constitution and are therefore adhered to as we follow the rule of law as a country.
- Suffragettes on the way to Boston - This shows the same suffrage movement but in the United States. The women in the US had been marching and fighting for the right to vote well before World War I. This photo was taken in 1918.
- All London in Hyde Park for record-breaking suffrage demonstration -This is a nice contrast to the first picture, as it shows more men than women fighting for the women’s right to vote. This setting is also the United KIngdom.
- The Library of Congress has a full collection with over 1900 items, all relating to the suffrage movement in the US. It is called the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, and it offers portraits, song sheets, books, photos, and manuscripts related to Woman Suffrage. This could be used for more exploration and even connections to novels studied with the same time setting.
- Hillary Rodham Clinton made a speech in China entitled, “Women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” She was attending the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. This is the full video of her speech and would be an additional primary source to use as a complement. This is the full text of her remarks. If you did a short rhetorical analysis of the photograph, then you could have students examine similar devices in a longer rhetorical analysis of the speech.
- The Smithsonian Institute has a full museum for Women’s History in the US. This would be an excellent research opportunity for students to start in the past with the original photo and then to examine blog posts here to bring women’s history forward to see both progress and the lack of progress in certain areas of society.
- The National Archives has a site dedicated to Women’s History, and it contains speeches and writings related to the movement.