"Women Mechanics" from PictureHistory.com
What better way to celebrate Women’s Month than to study their unprecedented worldwide influence on businesses and economies? In the lesson Women Wanting to Work from PBS LearningMedia, students in grades 9-12 begin by examining historic photographs to determine how economic roles for women have changed in the United States. They then look at contemporary examples of women entering the workforce for the first time in India’s outsourcing sector and in a small business in Israel. They explore how these women’s entry into the economic sphere often involves negotiation and overcoming obstacles, but how they can bring about larger social and behavioral changes as well. As a culminating activity, students apply the knowledge gained in this lesson toward a response to a Document-Based Question.
You’ll have to see this lesson to appreciate the many rich media resources offered, among them websites for 1)introductory activities that focus on media interactions 2) pictures, women’s historical and contemporary issues, and 3) culminating activities from sources such as the Asian Times, the BBC, and The Boston Globe.
To help students organize their work, the lesson also provides: