The Treatment of Edwardian Women

• Application of Contextual Information (Lit-AO3)
• Comparison and Evaluation Skills (Lang-AO3/AO4)
• Creative Writing (Lang-AO5, Lang-AO6)
• Critical Reading of Non-Fiction Texts (Lang-AO2/AO4)
• Summarising and Synthesising Skills (Lang-AO1)
• Writing for Impact (form, audience, purpose) (Lang-AO5)

Students critically read non-fiction primary sources regarding the role of women in Victorian and Edwardian England, analysing, assessing and appraising the content of an assigned text in ‘expert’ groups. When they discuss these texts in ‘teaching’ groups, not only do they develop their spoken language skills, they also boost their summarising and synthesising skills. Additionally, the use of discussion and journalling throughout helps students to verbalise their thoughts, and practise turning them into coherent sentences, which will help them across their English GCSEs. Finally, the creative homework, in which students adopt the perspective of a person from history, helps students communicate imaginatively and write for impact across genres as they merge fact and fiction. This creative task also fosters student engagement as it gives students choice and a personal means of processing the contextual information. We recommend that teachers use Marking Criteria Codes when reviewing students’ written work to help students develop the structure and content of their writing, and their written English. These marking codes enable teachers to nurture their students as effective writers by giving them in-depth feedback, of which student engagement is a vital feature.

Learn more about this unit’s Alignment with GCSE Specification. 

What can J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls teach us about the impact of our individual and collective decisions and actions on others?

• How were women treated in Edwardian society? 
• How can investigating primary sources help us understand the world in which the play is set?

This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-min class period and includes:

• 3 activities
• 3 teaching strategies
• 1 PowerPoint
• 1 handout
• 1 homework suggestion

Women in Edwardian society were very much regarded as second-class citizens. They had fewer rights than men, were expected to abide by different social rules, and did not have the vote, so were unable to influence or change laws that discriminated against them. However, their position as inferior citizens was beginning to be challenged and female suffrage was being pushed to the top of the social agenda. 

Emmeline Pankhurst, whose speech ‘Freedom or Death’ is a core text in this lesson, was the leader of the UK suffragette movement that campaigned for women to have the right to vote in elections. Pankhurst, who was born in Manchester in 1858, was interested in politics from an early age and became a suffragist at the age of 14, after having attended a talk where the suffragist Lydia Becker spoke. Her husband, Richard Pankhurst, who she met when she was 20, also believed in women’s suffrage and authored the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which sought to secure married women’s rights to their property and income. Pankhurst formed the Women’s Franchise League in 1889 with her husband, which campaigned for women’s right to vote in local elections. Then in 1903, several years after the death of her husband, Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which was accused of adopting more militant tactics. The WSPU led demonstrations and campaigns of civil disobedience, which saw women smashing windows, committing acts of arson, and engaging in hunger strikes after being arrested. Pankhurst herself was arrested on numerous occasions and subsequently went on hunger strike. She was a powerful speaker and leader, and played a seminal role in securing the vote for women. She died in 1928 not long after the Equal Franchise Act, which granted women equal voting rights to men.

The five texts used in the Jigsaw activity are not at the same level – some are more advanced than others with more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. It is important to think about this when you are deciding which groups students should work in. You may choose to ensure groups are made of mixed-ability students, or that some groups are given shorter excerpts or the texts that are easier to understand. Ideally, the groups would be divided in such a way as to ensure that they all finish reviewing their given text and the connection questions at the same time. If possible, print at least enough copies of each reading for sharing one between two.

The following are key vocabulary terms used in this lesson. Consider adding them to your classroom Word Wall.

• Suffragette
• Enfranchise
• Patriarchy

The writing assignment in the suggested homework section of this lesson, which uses the handout Edwardian Context Task Sheet, is designed to foster student independence, to develop their knowledge of context, and to give students a chance to engage with the content creatively. This task can be used to both develop and deepen students’ understanding of contextual information; it can be used to develop empathy as students are encouraged to adopt a view of people different from themselves; and it can help students prepare for their GCSE language paper as it exposes students to the different writing tasks contained in the GCSE, their various formats, and the devices specific to each one.

To give students an opportunity to reflect creatively on the historical context from the last two lessons, have them choose one creative writing option from the handout Edwardian Context Task Sheet to complete for homework. The range of options provided in the chart gives students a chance to engage with the topic that most appeals to them; a choice which can foster both independence and engagement. 

Each time that students complete a piece of writing, it is important to review their work, giving them feedback if necessary to ensure that they do not develop inaccurate writing habits. When students hand in their homework, consider using the Marking Criteria Codes teaching strategy to give in-depth feedback and to encourage student engagement with marking.