Women’s Lives in 1890

Overview

In this second lesson of Women Leading Change, students investigate what life was like for women in nineteenth-century New Zealand. They use images and short accounts to identify expectations, opportunities, restrictions, continuity and change, while recognising that women’s experiences differed according to culture, class, place and family circumstances.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify expectations, opportunities and restrictions affecting women in 1890.
• WALT use historical sources to make observations and inferences.
• WALT compare women’s experiences and identify continuity and change.
• WALT explain why one historical source may not represent everyone’s experience.

Success criteria

• I can describe at least two expectations, opportunities or restrictions affecting women.
• I can use details from an image or account as evidence.
• I can identify one example of continuity and one example of change.
• I can explain one way women’s experiences could differ.

Curriculum links

• Understand how people’s interactions with places and environments influence their lives and identities.
• Understand how cultural practices and ideas shape people’s lives and communities.
• Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to challenges and opportunities.
• Social inquiry: ask questions, use evidence, consider perspectives, and communicate well-supported conclusions.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 minutes – Hook and prior knowledge Open with the image hook and lesson question. Show an 1890s image of women at work or in a household setting and ask: “What might this image tell us—and what might it hide?” Students silently note one observation and one question. Clarify that an observation is what they can see, while an inference is what they think it may suggest.

2. 4–8 minutes – Build context Use the 1890 context slides to briefly explain that women in New Zealand were often expected to care for children, manage homes and support family or community life. Some women worked for wages, ran businesses, farmed, taught, nursed or took part in public campaigns. Women’s lives were not the same: Māori and Pākehā women, wealthy and working-class women, rural and urban women could have different responsibilities and choices. Explain that New Zealand women gained the vote in 1893, but voting did not remove all restrictions or inequalities.

3. 8–17 minutes – Source investigation in pairs Distribute the women’s lives source investigation sheet to pairs. Students examine four short, age-appropriate sources: a domestic scene, a woman working for wages, a Māori women’s community or work account, and a source about voting or education. For each, they record what the source suggests about expectations, opportunities or restrictions, and underline the evidence they used. Circulate and prompt: “What makes you think that?” and “Whose voice is missing?”

4. 17–23 minutes – Compare and classify In groups of three, students share one source finding and complete the comparison section of the continuity, change and difference table. They classify examples as:

• continuity: something that remained similar over time;
• change: something that became different;
• differing experience: something that was not the same for all women. Students should be able to justify one classification using evidence.

5. 23–27 minutes – Whole-class discussion Use the discussion prompts and comparison slide. Invite groups to share one conclusion. Ask: “Did women have opportunities in 1890?” and “How could an opportunity also have limits?” Emphasise that gaining the vote was an important change, while expectations about domestic work and unequal access to education, income and decision-making continued.

6. 27–30 minutes – Individual check-out Students complete the final response on the individual evidence-and-reflection section: “One expectation, opportunity or restriction affecting women in 1890 was… The evidence I used is… One way experiences differed was…” Take in the sheets or sample five responses for immediate formative assessment. Close with the recap slide and preview that the next lesson will examine women’s collective action for change.

Resources

• the Women’s Lives in 1890 teaching deck
• the women’s lives source investigation sheet
• Projector or interactive whiteboard
• Pens or pencils
• Four carefully selected historical images and short accounts, included in the worksheet
• Board space for the words expectation, opportunity, restriction, continuity and change
• Optional highlighters for marking evidence

Assessment

• Listen during pair and group discussion for accurate use of source evidence and awareness that experiences differed.
• Check worksheet classifications and justifications for understanding of expectation, opportunity, restriction, continuity and change.
• Use the individual response to identify students needing support with evidence-based historical explanations in the next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide a word bank, icons and sentence starters: “I notice…”, “This suggests…”, “This was a restriction because…”.
• Read the short accounts aloud and offer enlarged, clearly spaced text; pair students strategically and allow oral responses before writing.
• Support learners to analyse two sources rather than four, while still completing the final comparison.
• Extend confident students by asking them to explain whose perspective each source represents, whose perspective is absent, and how this affects its usefulness.