BackStory: You've Come A Long Way—A History of Women in Politics

Clean Up This Mess! focuses on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where, in 1920, women had been elected to run every governmental position in town. 

Comprehension Questions

• What was the "mess" in Wyoming?
• How were the elections in Jackson Hole received outside of Wyoming?
• To what extent did the 1920 elections in Jackson Hole have a lasting effect on politics in the state and country?

Hello, Dolly! traces the place of women in politics from the influence of Jane Adams during the eighteenth century, through Jim Crow and the temperance movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Comprehension Questions

• Why did women gather in Washington, D.C. for a march in 1913?
• Who benefited from passage of the 19th Amendment?
• How did African American women expand political rights for women of color in the United States?
• How do the issues raised in the story compare with challenges and changes occurring today?

Give Me Bread or Give Me Blood features stories about how women organized and petitioned the Confederate government to care for the citizens and not just the soldiers during wartime. 

Comprehension Questions

• Why did white women in the Confederacy riot in 1863?
• How did the Confederate government and other citizens respond to the women's protests?
• Were Confederate women justified in their actions?

Suffering for Suffrage focuses on the march in Washington, D.C. organized by Alice Paul in 1913 that began as a peaceful protest but ended very differently. 

Comprehension Questions

• Who was Alice Paul?
• Why did women organize a peaceful protest in Washington, D.C. in 1913?
• Why did the protest turn violent?
• What were the short and long-term ramifications of this demonstration?

Meme Busters looks at how a citizen decided to investigate a meme that appeared in his social media during the 2016 Presidential Campaign raised questions about when women, depending on their racial identity, could legally vote in the U.S.

Comprehension Questions

• Who was able to vote upon ratification of the 19th Amendment?
• What did the Snyder Act of 1924 do for voting rights?
• What did the McCarren-Walter Act of 1952 do for voting rights?
• What did the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965 do for voting rights?
• How should the 19th Amendment be discussed in history books?

A Woman in the White House explores the candidacy of Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) for President of the United States in 1964.

Comprehension Questions

• Why did Senator Margaret Chase Smith think she could become the first woman to be nominated for the Presidency of the United States?
• What do the questions asked by the reporters reveal about what people thought about her campaign?
• Based on independent research, what did Senator Chase Smith support? What was she opposed to?
• The story concludes with the question: "Will we see a woman elected President of the United States during our lifetime?" Do you think this will happen?

Unbought and Unbossed examines the highs and lows of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm's (D-NY) historic 1972 campaign as the first black woman to seek the nomination of a major political party to be President of the United States,

Comprehension Questions

• Who was Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY)?
• Why did Chisholm experience success in seeking the nomination?
• What obstacles did Chisholm face during her campaign?
• What are the short and long-term effects of Shirley Chisholm's campaign to be President?