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March 2000: Women Around The World Check out these interdisciplinary teaching ideas, TV programs, and online resources developed each month around a specific theme. Return next month for more ideas!Women Against Slavery
Not only did the American Civil War pit brother against brother, but also sometimes husband against wife. Fanny Kemble, a renowned early nineteenth century actress and writer, found herself in her own private civil war with her husband. She was an abolitionist; he was a slave owner. What was it like to take a stand against one's own spouse in an era when refined women were not expected to have opinions at all?
Have students read her biography and an excerpt from her Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation, the most personal look at a slave plantation ever written by a white abolitionist. Ask your students to write and stage a short drama portraying a heated dinner-table debate between Fanny Kemble and her husband, Pierce Butler, over the issue of slavery. Additional characters could be the Butler's two daughters (Sarah, anti-slavery; and Frances, pro-slavery), and servants. Other students could help with researching sources and writing. For more background on women abolitionists and suffragists, direct students to Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
Baby Boom
How do women fare in countries with rapid population growth? As the world passes six billion people, have women gained or lost status? PBS trained a lens on six countries at all different levels of development to see what effect population increase is having. Divide your students into teams and assign each to one of those countries. Direct them to the "Women's Status" link for each country as a starting point for their investigation, then turn them loose on the web to gather more information on their country's treatment of women.
After research is completed, bring the groups together and ask them to agree on general categories (for example, economics, health, voting rights) and then to produce one large chart with a column for each country and row for each category. Fill in the cells with facts collected from research. Now ask in which countries are women better off and in which are they they faring the worst. Why? Does there seem to be any real relationship between the rate of population growth and the status of women?
For a historical look at the international status of women, direct students to the Not for Ourselves Alone site and have them click the "International" button. Lead a discussion on how status of women in various parts of the world developed throughout the twentieth century. Based on their knowledge of the countries mentioned at that site, why do students think some where quicker to grant rights to women than others?
Online Resources: Sites to See
Africans in America
Do you know Lucy Terry Prince, Phillis Wheatley or Harriet Jacobs? Learn more about famous women in African American history.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/The American Experience: A Midwife's Tale
What were health care and childbirth like in the eighteenth century?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/midwife/FRONTLINE: The Farmer's Wife
Read essays by Jane Hamilton, Maggie Scarf, and Kathleen Norris, and read what visitors have to say about farms and family life.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/farmerswife/FRONTLINE: Secret Daughter
Meet the daughter of a biracial union and the white mother who gave her away.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/FRONTLINE: Valentina's Nightmare
Read about the nightmare suffered by Valentina and her family in Rwanda in 1994.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/Globalization and Human Rights
How will free trade affect human rights in third world countries? Read interviews with activists, labor leaders, government officials and corporate executives.
http://www.pbs.org/globalization/Hitchhiking Vietnam
Join one woman's journey hitchhiking across Vietnam.
http://www.pbs.org/hitchhikingvietnam/Irish in America
What do Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Sandra Day O'Connor have in common?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/irish/Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story
Meet folksinger and Appalachian resident Jean Ritchie.
http://www.pbs.org/ket/jrs/My America: Or, Honk If You Love Buddha
What's it like growing up female and Asian in America?
http://www.pbs.org/myamerica/People's Century
Trace the pivotal events that shaped women's lives in the past century, from bread lines to assemly lines.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/Safe Night USA
Learn how to make your community a safer place for women.
http://www.pbs.org/safenight/To Our Credit
How does microcredit help women in developing countries?
http://www.pbs.org/toourcreditVis á Vis
Go "behind the veil" and learn about women's roles in Iranian culture.
http://www.pbs.org/visavis/Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Learn about women's suffrage in the U.S. and compare it to suffrage in other countries.
http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/Wonders of the African World
Learn about African wedding customs, mendhi painting, female warriors, and more.
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/American Experience: Eleanor Roosevelt
Meet one of the most distinguished First Ladies.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eleanor/Wayback: Stand Up For Your Rights
Meet Melba Beals of the Little Rock Nine and other female crusaders.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civilrights/index.htmlAmerican Experience: Fly Girls
Learn more about women aviators in World War II.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civilrights/index.htmlKate Chopin: A Reawakening
http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/
Investigate the life and work of this controversial author.Precious Children
Explore early childhood education in China.
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/preciouschildren/Six Billion and Beyond
Investigate population growth and opportunities for women abroad.
http://www.pbs.org/sixbillion/Don't miss these programs airing in March for Women's History Month!
Mommy Me? airs March 24 at 3:00/2:00 a.m. MT/PT
Four Chicago teenagers personally discover the hardships of caring for a child while still trying to go to school, work, and pursue their life’s goals. This 30-minute documentary illustrates this social problem at a local level while presenting ways to prevent it through education.An American Revolution: Women Take Their Place airs Friday, March 24 at 3:30/2:30 a.m. MT/PT
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott altered the course of women’s lives forever by leading a 72-year battle for women’s rights, including the right to vote in America. Explore, with your students what it was like to be an American woman living the restricted life of the 1840s.Let the Women Vote! airs Friday, March 24 at 4:30/3:30 a.m. MT/PT
Examines the social and political contexts surrounding woman's suffrage. From the homesteading tradition, in which western women engaged in hard labor with the men, to the drafting of new constitutions for Western territories, and the effects of the Civil War, this program reveals the many changes in America which brought about the women's movement in the West. Wyoming blazed the trail in extending suffrage to women in 1869, partly as a way to publicize the territory, and to make it attractive to those in the East.WOMEN AND WILDERNESS airs Friday, March 24 at 4:00/3:00 a.m. MT/PT
Profiles four women who worked in Idaho’s backcountry in the first half of the twentieth century. Some of the women outfitters interviewed were Babe Hansen from GrandJean, Emma Cox, The Cox Dude Ranch in YellowPine, and Gertrude Maxwell, outfitter from Elk City, Idaho. Each woman offers a compelling narrative of her life in Idaho’s backcountry accompanied by personal black and white photographs complimentary their oral history.
