1. Direct students in pairs or groups to create a word web or semantic map with the term “feminism” in the center. Students should be asked to come up with ideas, terms, people, events, and causes that relate to this idea.  Ask students to present their word wall. As groups present, a teacher or a student should create a word web for the class based on similar themes.  

2.  Use the barometer activity from Facing History and Ourselves to help students get a sense of how they defined feminism and what it looks like in practice. Read several statements out loud and ask students to move to the appropriate corner of the room (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree). Ask students why they placed themselves in each corner of the room when appropriate. When doing this activity, it is important to remind students of classroom norms and guidelines for civility in the classroom.  

Statements for barometer activity  

• All women should aspire to be feminists. 

• Sexism impacts women in the same ways  

• You cannot be “pro-life” and a feminist.  

• Feminism should focus on issues that directly impact women like reproductive rights and economic injustice.  

• Feminism should include all issues that impact women, including environmental justice and immigrants’ rights. 

• The feminist movement should include men and other groups on the gender spectrum.  

• We don’t need feminism anymore. 

• Feminism failed because it was divisive and exclusive 

3.   Students should read aloud the transcript (located below) between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gloria Steinem. This should be framed as a reflection on the struggles of women in the 1950s and 1960s.  After reading the transcript, students should discuss the following questions in groups and then as a whole class.  

 Discussion Questions for Small Groups 

• What was it like to be a high achieving woman in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s?  

• What roadblocks did women encounter in higher education and in their careers? What message do you think society was sending? Do women still see these roadblocks today?  

• In spite of these messages, these two strong women persevered. What do you think pushed them to keep fighting?  

4. In pairs, students will read an excerpt from The Feminine Mystique. As they do, students should complete the following questions in their notebook. Teacher should check-in with students as they work (this assignment could also be completed in advance as pre-reading if the teacher is pressed for time).  

Questions for Check for Reading 

• What is the problem that has no aim? How has it impacted women in the United States?  

• According to the text, what is the traditional conception of being feminine? What are the consequences of this?  

• Who is Friedan writing for (the audience)? How might a sociologist criticize here conception of women in America in terms of race, class, and gender.  

5. Students should be placed in groups of four. Each student will be responsible for approximately 8-10 paragraphs of independent reading and then sharing out with their small group. After the small groups have shared out, the whole class question for competition is “What is the Revolution, as Gloria Steinem envisions it?” Before students begin, teacher should ask, “how does the context of the speech, a commencement address at Vassar College, shape what Steinem might say?”  

• Question for Paragraphs 1-8:  What problem does Steinem confront about American education, what we learn and the impacts of it?  

• Question for Paragraphs 10-17: What myths does Steinem challenge about gender and how does she critique them?  

• Question for Paragraph 18-27: What is liberation? What does liberation look like for all genders?  

• Question for Paragraph 28-35:  How does Steinem consider the impact of intersectionality on the broader revolution?  

6. Exit Ticket: In the commencement speech “Living the Revolution” Gloria Steinem states, “first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.” What does this quote mean? What do you think we need to unlearn about gender today? How is that similar or dissimilar to what Gloria Steinem was fighting for?  

7. Following the Exit Ticket, the teacher should assign the homework below. This assignment intersects with current events and allows students to flush out their understanding of Steinem’s speech, but also apply it in the setting of gender in America today.