Name: _______________________________________________ Date: ______________ Class: _______
Women’s Rights in 19th Century America
Webquest
In preparation for a comparative essay on Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Chopin’s The Story of an
Hour, you’ll be using the internet to research the societal roles and treatment of women in 19th century
America. Make sure that you keep record of the sources that you draw your information from, since the
essay will require a fully documented “Works Cited” page.
As you work, keep the following in mind:
1. You need to use at least four completely separate sources in your research for these questions.
2. Please do not include Wikipedia in your list.
3. One source should not be an internet site, but rather a book, newspaper or journal article, or
anything else that can provide relevant and accurate information. You will need to find this on
your own time.
4. Handwrite your notes unless you otherwise have access to a printer. If you plan on printing
them later, make sure that you save them to a flash drive or email them to yourself.
You will need to hand your notes into me for review – please do not email them to me or ask me
to print them. You are responsible for obtaining a paper copy to submit.
QUESTIONS
1. What jobs could women hold in the 19th century?
2. What was the social role and status of women? What duties and expectations were placed on them in
the 19th century?
3. What, if any, political rights did women have?
4. What protests and reforms were made for the sake of women’s rights in the 1800’s? 1900’s?
5. What forms of discrimination against women were legal, or even expected, in 19th century America?
6. What is “female hysteria”? How many women were typically diagnosed with this condition?
7. What is “codependency”?
For each internet resource that you take information from you’ll need the following:
Title of the Webpage
Author
Name of the parent organization or company affiliated with the website
The date the page was created
Date the information was accessed
URL (web address)