Abstract
Statement of Problem
Women’s roles and contributions to history have often been diminished or excluded from the history curriculum. This issue of representation is exacerbated in the case of women of color. History curriculum serves the purpose of representing people’s common experiences, yet men continue to dominate the primary narratives of the US history curriculum. Research has demonstrated a distinct gap in the representation of women compared to men. Women and people of color are consistently mentioned less than white male figures in history textbooks and written standards. When examining major social movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, women’s roles and contributions are neglected, minimized, or missing. When women are mentioned in the history curriculum, it most often concerns their stereotypical roles as wives, caregivers, and mothers. Women in the history curriculum have been consistently represented as stereotypically feminine rather than recognized for their contributions or experiences. Current high school history courses lack information about the contributions and plights of women in social movements, especially women of color. It is imperative that students are taught about social movements through a lens that recognizes the contributions of women in order to promote gender equity in the classroom.
Purpose of the Project
Representation of women, specifically in social movements, alters the narrative that has historically excluded women or portrayed them through a stereotypical lens. This project aimed to provide high school-level US history lessons focused on women’s contributions and experiences in social movements to add depth to the current narrative of US history. The lesson guide website is intended for use by high school US history teachers in their classrooms to increase representation. This project was created to provide an accessible resource for teachers to incorporate women activists into their lessons at various points. A central goal of this project was to allow young girls and all students to see themselves in the curriculum and understand that anyone can be an advocate.
Project Description
This project is an extensive teacher resource website containing various resources that can be implemented in the classroom. The website contains recommended resources, applicable California teaching standards, an introductory slideshow presentation with all women activists discussed in the lesson plans, and nine separate lesson plans. The nine lesson plans include guiding questions, three spotlight activists with short biographies, a classroom activity, and lecture notes with the activist biographies and related key topics. The project was designed to be a dynamic resource that teachers can use however best suits their classroom. This project is not all-encompassing but provides clear and ready-to-use resources to promote gender equity in US history classrooms. The researcher received written feedback from 10 evaluators about this project. The evaluators all had expertise in the project in various ways, including gender equity education, US history, and teaching at all levels from K-12 to university. The general response from evaluators was positive, claiming that the digital format of the project created an accessible resource for teachers. The evaluators also largely found that the content was detailed and provided a solid foundation to increase the representation of women in the US history curriculum through women activists. Nonetheless, the evaluators found certain functions of the website that could be improved. They also suggested additional content that could provide more intersectional representation of women such as more women of color, non-able-bodied women, and LGBTQ women activists.