Montana Women's History Articles to Use in the Classroom

Last June, I surveyed teachers about which articles on Montana women's history published in Montana The Magazine of Western History they would be most likely to use with their students. At the time, we planned to post a selection of articles, along with discussion questions, as part of our 2014 Women's History Matters project. (Learn more about that project here.)

Plans changed, and instead of selecting a few articles and creating discussion guides, we decided to post EVERY article about women published in Montana The Magazine of Western History (over 130 of them) for folks to download for free. But I still thought it would be useful to share the list of favorites from the survey. I've listed the articles below from the top vote-getter (at 23 votes) to bottom vote-getter (at 4 votes).

I also want to ask for your help. If you ever teach any of these articles and develop discussion questions or other class activities/lesson plans for them, would you share them with me so I can share them with other teachers? Send your material to mkohl@mt.gov.

And now without further ado, here are your fellow teachers' choices of most teachable women's history articles from Montana The Magazine of Western History:

• 'We Are Women Irish’: Gender, Class, Religious, and Ethnic Identity in Anaconda, Montana.” (Winter 1994): 28-41. Download here.
• “‘Peace Is a Woman’s Job . . .’ Jeannette Rankin and American Foreign Policy (Winter 1980): 28-41 (part 1) Download here and (Spring 1980): 38-53 (part 2) Download here.
• “Women’s Role in Montana Agriculture: ‘You Had to Make Every Minute Count.’”Montana The Magazine of Western History 38, no. 4 (Autumn 1988): 50-61. Download here.
• “Mother Was Shocked [a firsthand account of working for suffrage].” Montana The Magazine of Western History 24, no. 3 (Summer 1974): 70-79. Download here.
• “World Champions: The 1904 Girls’ Basketball Team from Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 51, no. 4 (Winter 2001): 2-25. Download here.
• “Children of the Hill: Situating Children in Butte’s History.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 62, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 23-46. Download here.
• Dying in the West Part 1: Hospitals and Health Care in Montana and Alberta, 1880-1950” (Autumn 2009): 25-45 Download here and “Dying in the West Part 2: Caregiving in the Home and the Death of Daniel Slayton.” (Winter 2009): 3-23. Download here
• “Hunger: A Memoir of Growing Up in Northeastern Montana.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 60, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 38-53.Download here.
• “Justice as an Afterthought: Women and the Montana Prison System.” Download here
• “The Wobblies and Montana’s Garden City.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 21, no. 4 (Autumn 1971): 18-30. Download here.
• “‘And All That Jazz’: Changing Manners and Morals in Butte after World War I.” Download here.
• “Abortion in the Old West: The Trials of Dr. Edwin S. Kellogg of Helena, Montana.” Download here.
• “Crossing the Gender Line: Ella L. Knowles, Montana’s First Woman Lawyer.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 32, no. 3 (Summer 1982): 64-75. Download here.
• “Frieda and Belle Fligelman: A Frontier-City Girlhood in the 1890s.”Montana The Magazine of Western History 32, no. 3 (Summer 1982): 85-92. Download here.
• “From Hill 57 to Capitol Hill: ‘Making the Sparks Fly’: Sister Providencia Tolan’s Drive on Behalf of Montana’s Off-Reservation Indians, 1950-1970.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 43, no. 3 (Summer 1993):16-29. Download here.
• “My Years as Montana’s First Woman State Senator.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 39, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 54-58. Download here.
• “Pearl Danniel: Homesteader in Big Dry Country.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 46, no. 3 (Autumn 1996): 62-70. Download here.
•  “Helen P. Clarke in ‘The Age of Tribes’: Montana’s Changing Racial Landscape, 1870-1920.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 61, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 3-19. Download here.
• “Montana Quilts and Quiltmakers: A History of Work and Beauty.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 58, no. 3 (Autumn 2008): 23-25, 33-47, 94-95. Download here.
• “Capitalists with Rooms: Prostitution in Helena, Montana, 1865-1900.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 31, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 28-41. Download here.
• “Changing Lives: Baptist Women, Benevolence, and Community on the Crow Reservation, 1904-60.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 61, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 3-29. Download here.
• “‘Women’s Matters’: Birth Control, Prenatal Care, and Childbirth in Rural Montana, 1910-1940.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 41, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 47-56.Download here.
• “Minerva Allen: Educator Linguist Poet.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 41, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 58-68. Download here.
• “Montanans at Work: Businesswomen in Agricultural Communities.”Montana The Magazine of Western History 40, no. 3 (Summer 1990): 77-83. Download here.
• “From Canning to Contraceptives: Cooperative Extension Service Home Demonstration Clubs and Rural Montana Women in the Post-World War II Era.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 61, no. 3 (Autumn 2011): 57-70. Download here.
• “The Making of a Good Woman: Montana and the National Florence Crittenton Mission.” Montana The Magazine of Western History 53, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 50-63. Download here.