Paired Texts > Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement

by Anonymous

1852

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

9th Grade Opinion 1470L
Our Deportment, or the Manners, Conduct, and Dress of Refined Society
  • John H. Young
  • 1881

In “Our Deportment, or the Manners, Conduct, and Dress of Refined Society,” John H. Young explains the rules of etiquette during the early 19th century. In this excerpt, Young explains the proper etiquette for wives and husbands.

Pair “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” with “Our Deportment” to engage students in a deeper look into how our expectations of men and woman have both evolved and stayed the same.

10th Grade Speech 1240L
Address to Congress on Women's Suffrage
  • Carrie Chapman Catt
  • 1917

In this address to Congress in November 1917, Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947), a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage, argues for the rights of women.

Pair “Address to Congress on Women’s Suffrage” with “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” for ask students to compare these opposing sides. How does each side, for and against women’s rights, understand the roles of women?
12th Grade Short Story 910L
The Yellow Wallpaper
  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • 1892

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a groundbreaking short story from 1892 told through journal entries that chronicles a woman’s struggle in dealing with male physicians who will not take her illness seriously.

Pair “The Yellow Wallpaper” with “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” and ask students to discuss the relationship between the wife and husband. Are their roles as husband and wife equal, or does one hold power over the other? How does this person wield this power?

10th Grade Poem
Verses Written by a Young Lady, on Women Born to Be Controll'd!
  • Anonymous
  • 1743

Written anonymously (though by a female poet, if the title is true; women often signed writing as anonymous in order for it to be published), this poem laments the position of women as was then conceived natural: subservient to men.

Pair “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” with “Verses Written by a Young Lady, on Women Born to Be Controll’d!” and ask students to discuss the nature of subservience in each text, regarding women to men. Ask them to consider the kind of rhetoric women were up against when it came to denouncing them as inferior.

10th Grade Speech 1200L
First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Address to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
  • First Lady Hillary Clinton
  • 1995

In the speech “First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Address to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,” Clinton tells the United Nations why women’s rights are human rights and encourages the world to protect those rights.

Pair “First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Address to the United Nationals First World Conference on Women” with “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” and ask students to discuss why people might object to the idea that women’s rights are human rights.
12th Grade Informational Text 1100L
‘Why Sit Here and Die’ Speech
  • Maria W. Stewart
  • 1832

In Maria W. Stewart’s “’Why Sit Here and Die’ Speech,” she addresses the New England Anti-Slavery Society, discussing the experiences and rights of African Americans.

Pair “‘Why Sit Here and Die’ Speech” with “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” and ask students to consider if this anonymous author would agree or disagree with Stewart that women and African Americans became products of their environment. Why or why not? If these two authors met, what might they discuss or debate? Ask students to create a debate stance from the perspective of the speech against the opinion or vice versa.
11th Grade Essay 1160L
Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own
  • Virginia Woolf
  • 1929

In Virginia Woolf’s “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own,” a speaker explores the inequalities that exist between women and men who are pursuing their artistic and creative passions.

Pair “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” with “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” and ask students to discuss how both texts explore people’s reluctance to allow women equal rights. How does Virginia Woolf’s discussion of the obstacles women face in artistic professions reflect greater inequalities of her time? Why does the anonymous author of “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” wish to maintain these inequalities? How do students think Woolf would respond to the views of the anonymous author?