The Changing Role of Women - Lesson 2: Victorian Women

Containing detailed lesson plans, engaging slideshow presentations, differentiated activities and a range of printable resources, these KS2 History lessons are completely ready to go, meaning you can teach them straight away without the need to spend hours on your own planning. All you need to do is be prepared from some lively debates and discussions!

The first lesson in this series starts by exploring the restrictions and roles of women in the ancient world before going on to look at medieval and Renaissance women in Britain. They will find out about coverture which forced married women to submit all their rights to their husbands, as well as looking at social attitudes towards women before 1600 and what daily life was like for both poor and rich women.

This lesson starts with the example of Margaret Hughes and her role as the first British woman to be legally allowed to act on stage as a way of looking at some of the restrictions that were placed on women prior to the 1900s. It goes on to look specifically at how the Industrial Revolution changed certain aspects of society, particularly the role of middle- and upper-class women, and the strict (and frequently bizarre!) etiquette laws Victorian women had to abide by. It also looks at some of the first rumblings of feminism and how some women were starting to fight against their allocated roles.

Find out about the history of the women’s suffrage movement in this lesson as your class are introduced to the women who fought in different ways for the right to vote. They will learn about the peaceful campaigns of the NUWSS before finding out about the more militant campaigns of the suffragettes, considering how effective their methods were and what public support for the movement was like up to the outbreak of WWI.

The outbreak of World War I forced the suffragettes to temporarily abandon their cause to help the war effort. This lesson will take a look at what women did in Britain during war time, particularly looking at the jobs they now did that they had never been able to do before. Your class will find out what happened when the war ended and how women finally came to be given the vote.

After recapping some of the major events in the history of women’s rights up to 1928, this lesson will teach your class the difference between primary and secondary sources, and use both to find out about the role of women during the 1950s. They will evaluate why the advances made during the war were in some ways repealed during this period and consider the reasons behind this.

Children will consider the inequality in girls and boys being rewarded differently for the same tasks as a context for exploring the disparity in pay and work options between men and women in the 1960s and 1970s. Using the example of the Ford Dagenham strikes, they will find out about second-wave feminism and the changes to laws relating to women’s pay, work and education.

The final lesson in this series gives your class the chance to consolidate what they have learnt about the changes to women’s roles, rights and responsibilities throughout the ages. They will also consider whether women and men are equal in Britain and around the world today. They will have the chance to create a timeline of the women’s rights movement or create extended writing to showcase what they have learnt.