Women's Equality Day is celebrated on August 26 in the United States to commemorate the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. The amendment prohibits state and the federal governments from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1972, designated by Congress in 1973, and is proclaimed each year by the United States President.
Below is an excerpt from Helen Keller's speech to delegates of the new Woman's Party in Chicago endorsing suffrage movement, June 11, 1916. This is just one sample of the thousands of letters, speeches, press clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs available in the Helen Keller Archive.
Note: Click on image to see this folder in the archive.
"Men are never so absurd as when they urge the inferiority of women. To think that a woman can govern a household, manage her husband, bring up children and educate them, but that politics and economics are quite beyond her and should be left to men, is to think like ninnies. I grant that man's notion of woman's mental inferiority is bolstered up by this superficial attitude of many women towards political and economic questions. But what is the reason for this attitude? Custom condemns woman to narrow domesticity, denies her participation in the functions of government."
Using the rich trove of information contained in the digital Helen Keller Archive, AFB has created Helen Keller Lesson Plans that teach middle and high school students about using digital and physical archives and the difference between primary and secondary sources and how to use them.
Aligned with Common Core curriculum standards, each lesson contains a review of the lesson as a whole, as well as teacher and student activity pages. The goal is to enable teachers to guide students in using digital archival collections while discovering Keller’s work as a leading author, activist, and advocate.
