This collection contains videos with accompanying lesson plans and activities that help students connect women’s history to today’s current events.
Shirley Chisholm Was a Trailblazer for Change
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm made history as the first Black woman to run for U.S. president. This Retro Report documentary chronicles Chisholm’s journey from Brooklyn to Capitol Hill, where, as the first Black woman elected to Congress, she overcame sexism and racism as an outspoken advocate for racial equality, women’s rights and social justice.
Ida B. Wells and the Long Crusade to Outlaw Lynching
Born into slavery, Ida B. Wells later became an educator, an investigative journalist and an early civil rights activist, shedding light on the plight of Black Americans across the South. After the brutal deaths of three friends who were victims of lynching, Wells began chronicling mob violence, publishing her findings in articles and pamphlets.
The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Was a Catalyst for Indigenous Activism
In 1969, a group of young American Indians who wanted the world to know about the long history of mistreatment and treaty violations against Native people took over Alcatraz Island in California. The occupation sparked an activist movement that successfully reversed federal policies aimed at erasing Native Americans’ cultural identity and reinforced tribal sovereignty.
From Women’s Suffrage to the ERA, a Century-Long Push for Equality
The Equal Rights Amendment, proposed in 1923, sparked debate from its very beginning, even among many of the women who had worked together for suffrage. It was passed by Congress in 1972, and within a year 30 of the 38 states needed had ratified it. In 2020, Virginia became the latest state to ratify. It was challenged immediately.
How Black Women Fought Racism and Sexism for the Right to Vote
The 19th Amendment barred states from denying American women the right to vote on the basis of their sex. It was a major achievement, won by one of the most powerful movements in American history. But the amendment was not the end of the fight. Many African-American women remained disenfranchised, despite having played a major role in the struggle to vote.
She Derailed a Fight for Equal Rights for Women
Even in the #MeToo era, many people don’t know that the Equal Rights Amendment never passed…because of one woman –Phyllis Schlafly. She honed her political skills in the conservative movement of the 1950s and 1960s, then used those skills to stop the E.R.A. She decried the proposed amendment as “anti-family” and un-American.
Rachel Carson’s Warning on D.D.T. Ignited an Environmental Movement
Rachel Carson is often credited with helping give rise to the environmental movement. “Silent Spring,” her treatise on the danger of pesticides, forced people to rethink how their actions might damage the world around them. Although she died shortly after the book’s publication, her legacy continued to grow.
Women, Work and the Modern American Family
Since the 1990s, the debate over the ideal role of women with children has pitted women with full-time employment outside the home against those who are mothers full time. But the debate itself, and false assumptions that underlie it, may be the real problem.
Princess Diana Brought Attention to Land Mines, but Their Danger Lingers
Despite Princess Diana’s public crusade in the late1990’s to ban land mines, they, and other unexploded ordinances, remain an intractable problem around the world, killing and maiming thousands a year. Perhaps no country illustrates the problem more dramatically than Vietnam.
“No” on Impeachment Unites Today’s GOP. In the 1950s, a Renegade Dared to Break Ranks
Breaking with party unity can carry a political cost. In the 1950’s, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, alienated Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and others in their party when she condemned his fiery efforts to suppress Communism.
She Rocked the Pentagon
After a sexual assault scandal at the Tailhook convention rocked the Navy in 1991, one female officer, Paula Coughlin, launched a campaign to change military culture. Tailhook was called the worst case of sexual harassment in the U.S. Navy’s history and led to promises of culture change. But decades later, how much has really changed?
Argentina’s Stolen Babies, and the Grandmothers Leading the Search
As many as 30,000 people were tortured and killed during the seven year military regime in Argentina in the 1970s. They came to be known as the “disappeared.” Over time, it became clear that they were not coming back, but the question remained: What had happened to them and to the estimated 500 babies whose mothers were taken during pregnancy?
