Feminism: Reading, Discussion, and Guided Five-Part Essay

Objectives: Teens will be able to identify several types of discrimination and biased treatment that women experience. Teens will practice writing a five-part essay.

Activity #1: Reading and discussion

Before the lesson: Write these lists on a board or easel pad:

Here are some expressions used in this story:
Feminist
Sexism
Honor killings
Double standards
“Women suck”
Domestic abuse
Lower wages for women (pay gap)
Male dominance
Arranged marriages

Introduce the lesson/discussion: Tell the group they are going to read an article by 15-year old Alice Markham-Cantor. Then say something like, “The article argues that women suffer serious consequences—sometimes even death—from sexist attitudes and behaviors.”

Ask them to look at the list. Ask for volunteers to define one of the terms and say what they know about the term. Ask them to define three more items from the list.

Discussion questions

1) What facts or experiences does Alice use as she tries to convince readers that women suffer from discrimination? Where in the story does she use them?

2) Do you agree with her main point? If you do, what sentences or paragraphs helped convince you? If you don’t agree with her, why do you think she made a weak argument? What arguments do you have to counter the ones she made?

3) Why do you think Alice wrote about her personal experiences and also referred to several government studies and a book of memoirs? Did the personal part of the story support her main idea?

4) Did anything in the story surprise you? Did you learn something new? Did the story change your mind about anything? Did it reinforce beliefs you already held?

Activity #2 Writing
After the reading and discussion, assign the group to write a five-part essay. They have to follow this structure (you may want to have this written on the board):

Paragraph 1: State whether you agree or disagree with Alice’s main point. One of the sentences should state whether her evidence is convincing or not.

Paragraph 2: Reread the personal parts of her essay in which she describe her own experiences with what she says is sexist behavior (the first and last parts of the essay). Write 3-4 sentences about why these are persuasive or not. Refer to her experiences in your sentences but don’t write a long summary of them.

Paragraph 3: Reread the parts in which she refers to report or studies. Are they convincing? Refer to the studies in your answer.
Paragraph 4: Write at least 5-6 sentences about your direct experience with sexism. It can be about one experience or a series of experiences. Or you can describe what you know about another person’s experiences.

Paragraph 5: Restate your agreement or disagreement with Alice’s thesis. Summarize why the above paragraphs should convince the reader to agree or disagree with Alice