Women's History for Kids

[C&W'sMum]

Does anyone know of good books, movies or shows that introduce women's history to kids, particularly suffragism?

[SoCal_Bear]

While not totally focused on it, Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States. Reading level is junior high.

 

https://zinnedproject.org/materials/a-young-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/

[Alessandra]

I don't know about an entire curriculum, but in 4th grade my dd was entranced by the story of Clara Lemlich. Clara grew up, Jewish, in Eastern Europe. Iirc, there were restrictions on reading and books. As a girl, Clara hid books and taught her neighbors to read. In the U.S., she gave impassioned speeches in Yiddish while still in her teens/early 20's., to organize women garment workers. During WWI, she crusaded against price gouging by butchers. As an old woman in a nursing home in CA, she persuaded the nursing home to join the farm workers lettuce boycott. Remarkable in every way.

 

I read about Clara and talked to dd. We also found a PBS documentary on the Triangle fire that had some reenactments of Clara's speeches. Now there is a picture book, Brave Girl, on her life. I should check for more resources.

 

The Triangle factory is still there, now an NYU building. Sadly Clara's tenement was torn down. I checked old census records for her address as dd and I had wanted to make a pilgrimage. :-(

 

https://jwa.org/blog/10-things-you-should-know-about-clara-lemlich

 

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/shavelson-clara-lemlich

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1itk1p

 

Btw, there are lots of kids books about the Triangle fire.

 

There was a tv series years ago about suffragettes in England. I'll try to find title. And a more recent series on Irish independence in which women played pivotal roles.

 

Shoulder to Shoulder (1974) was the tv series.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Alessandra

[MeaganS]

We've mostly done this piecemeal. We have the Rebel Girls books and have always made a point to talk about them when it comes up and get biographies on various women from the library or for our home. The Rebel Girls book has struck the imagination of my girls. My 7yo has been interested in Frida Kahlo lately because of it. They also really liked Hatshepsut. I "like" the Mighty Girls page on Facebook and they share a lot of interesting history. Their website has a very big booklist that would be an excellent jump off point.

 

Liberty's Kids touches on a lot about women in the Revolutionary War, the I Am... books are really well done and they have some on a Amelia Earheart, Sacagawea, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, etc. There are picture books about Malala that you can probably get at your library and also a documentary about her.

 

Honestly, I've found this to be best done in a more "unschooled" approach but in a deliberate manner, if that makes sense. I'm sorry that I don't have any particularly on women's suffrage though.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Meagan S

[Runningmom80]

Not suffrage related but I second the Rebel Girls books. They are excellent. I’m trying to piece together a list of books to go along with them but I have the problem of so many ideas so little time. Other books we love are Women in Science, Women in Sports, and I can’t plug enough the picture book about Elizabeth Blackwell, “Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctorsâ€. (I don’t know what age your kid/s is/are so these may be off base.)

[pinewarbler]

Miss Paul and the President: The Creative Campaign for Women's Right to Vote, by Dean Robbins

 

Also, Connie Brummel Crook did a series on Nellie McClung, an incredible Canadian who performed mock plays of parliament where women were in power and debated whether men deserved to get the right vote, drew fantastic crowds when she spoke and won Canadian women the right to be considered 'persons' under the law in 1927.

 

Hyena in Petticoats: The Story Of Suffragette Nellie Mcclung, Willow Dawson

 

[HomeAgain]

There is a short music video by Soomo Publishing that is a great intro to suffrage.  I would say fun, but the trials the women went through were rather disturbing.  It does, however, lead to some great discussions about anti-suffrage propoganda, the two different parties, the words the protesters chose, why the women were arrested, and whether the amendment ever passed.