Teacher Resources: Lesson Plan

Equal Rights for Men?

Overview

Do men always have more rights than women? Many students will assume that men's rights are more extensive than women's. However, our society has positive and negative stereotypes of both genders. Students will brainstorm our cultural images of men and women and examine court cases dealing with gender issues, such as women in the military and gender-based classifications.

National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Time Required

2-3 50-minute class periods

Materials

The Lesson

This lesson assumes that students have read the narrative, Women, Gender, and the Supreme Court. They should have a copy of the narrative.

Anticipatory Set

  1. As a warm up, ask students to list all the male and female stereotypes that they have heard, including both positive and negative stereotypes.
  2. On the board, make four columns, labeling them Female Positive, Female Negative, Male Positive, and Male Negative.
  3. Starting with the positive stereotypes, list the stereotypes on the board that the students know. Place the stereotypes in the appropriate column.
  4. After completing all four columns, ask students to examine the stereotypes. As a class, discuss the cultural stereotypes of gender. Which gender has more negative stereotypes? More positive? Are the stereotypes generally in one category or many (such as intellectual, sexual, athletic, etc.)?

Procedures

  1. Using the narrative, ask students to find examples of how U.S. society has seen/treated men and women differently. Ex. Women were not allowed to hold property in the 1700 and 1800s, men were given custody of children in divorce cases until the 1880s.
  2. Next, ask students to complete a short questionnaire (below). The questionnaire is anonymous, and all students should complete it by circling their response in pencil--no doodling on the paper for anonymity. Students should not think about each statement, simply circle their first response/instinct. This questionnaire is for judgment--it is a tool to explore gender stereotypes.
  3. After completing the questionnaire, ask students to share their responses. If the class is comfortable, students could simply raise their hands. If they are uncomfortable, the teacher could collect the anonymous surveys, shuffle them, and pass them out randomly for discussion. Finally, the class could simply discuss their reactions to each statement without having to reveal each student's personal response. Possible questions could be:
    • Did any of the statements surprise you?
    • Were you shocked at any of your initial responses? If yes, to which statement?
    • Are there any statements with which you strongly agree or disagree?
  4. An interesting twist would be to put a M and F box at the top of the survey and ask students to use it to indicate their sex, and also discuss the cumulative results of the survey by gender.
  5. Next, ask students to create a list of issues that have strong gender stereotypes. Some issues are: maternity/paternity leave, parental custody of children, alimony, salary issues/job promotions, military roles, athletic abilities, and sexual harassment.
  6. Students are going to examine three court cases that are related to gender issues. Below are summaries of three cases, all of which involve the Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment. Print off the Supreme Court Cases Sheet (below) and make an overhead of each one. If students are not able to see the overhead, make copies of the backgrounds of the cases for each student. (Do not copy the results!). Provide students with copies of the Fifth Amendment.
  7. Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students. The groups will work together to make a ruling for the three cases. Choose one of the cases together as an example. Read the case background together, then ask the groups to make a ruling based upon the Fifth Amendment. Remind students that the rulings must be based upon the Constitution--they cannot make rulings based upon feelings or beliefs.
  8. When a ruling has been decided upon by each group, read the actual Supreme Court ruling, which is summarized in the result section. Have students compare their rulings to the actual ruling.
  9. After the practice case, have the groups work on a second case and go over it in the same manner as the first.
  10. The third case should be used as an assessment. Give each group a case worksheet. (below).

Assessment

This worksheet can be scored in a variety of ways. As an in-class assignment, it can be given a specific number of points or a letter grade, depending upon your grading system. Responses should be graded based upon the analysis of the case in accordance to Constitutional law.

Related Works

The Court and Gender Time Line is an interactive timeline, featuring major court cases affecting women. Links to other related websites are included.

Supreme Court Historical Society--this is a detailed summary of the Supreme Court and women's rights. It also has links to landmark Supreme Court cases and legal concept, as well as suggestions and methods for teaching students about the law:
http://www.supremecourthistory.org/05_learning/subs/05_e.html

Interdisciplinary Works

Language Arts--select one of the featured cases and have students reenact the court case .

Art--have students create murals or collages to illustrate the featured cases.

Each of the following needs to be its own page in the pdf file

(Linked from above)

QUESTIONNAIRE

Using a pencil, circle your first response to each statement.

1. Mothers should be given custody of children in divorce cases.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

2. A husband should pay alimony to his ex-wife.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

3. A wife should pay alimony to her ex-husband.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

4. An ex-husband should pay child support.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

5. An ex-wife should pay child support.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

6. Women should be drafted into the military as well as men.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

7. Only men should be placed in fighting positions in the military.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

8. Since there are no female football or wrestling teams, the teams should be co-ed.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

9. Since there are no male field hockey teams, the teams should be co-ed.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

10. Female auto mechanics are as good as male mechanics.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

11. Male hairdressers are as good as female hairdressers.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

12. Women can be tough in positions of authority, such as police chief or CEO.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

13. A female president would be an effective Commander in Chief of the military.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

14. Women could be sexually harassed by a male co-worker.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

15. Men could be sexually harassed by a female co-worker.

--Agree--Disagree--Unsure

Supreme Court Cases Sheet

Rostker v. Goldberg

453 U.S. 57 (1981)

Docket Number: 80-251

Background:

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter reinstated the draft registration, under which males must register for possible military service upon turning 18 years old. At the time, he also recommended that the draft be amended to include the registration of women. However, Congress decided against his recommendation. A number of men challenged the draft, stating it was unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Result:

The Supreme Court ruled that the draft was not based upon gender stereotypes and did not violate Due Process Laws. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that combat restrictions on women in the military made it reasonable to exclude them from the draft registration.

Frontiero v. Richardson

411 U.S. 677 (1973)

Docket Number: 71-1694

Background:

Lieutenant Sharron Frontiero sued the military for equal benefits. She worked in the Air Force and sought benefits for her husband. The federal government automatically considered military wives as dependents of their husbands and provided them with benefits. Husbands of female soldiers were not automatically considered dependents. Instead, the husbands had to be dependent upon their wives for more than one-half of their financial support. The suit argued that the federal law violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Result:

The Supreme Court found in favor of Frontiero, stating that the law discriminated against people who were "similarly situated" (equally employed by the military). The Court ruled that creating laws based upon differentiation between the genders without any other factors violated the Constitution.

Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS

533 U.S. 53 (2001)

Docket Number: 99-2071

Background:

Tuan Anh Nguyen was born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and an American father. His parents were not married. At age six, Nguyen moved to the U.S. and became a permanent resident. When he was 22 years old, Nguyen was found guilty of sexually assaulting a child. The INS began deportation proceedings against Nguyen after his conviction. At that time, his father sought an order of parentage in order to create a citizenship claim for Nguyen, which would stop his deportation. The citizenship claim was denied, because he had not completed the correct paperwork for a person born to an American father and a non-citizen mother. Nguyen and his father sued on the grounds that having different requirements for citizenship depending upon whether the mother or the father was an American citizen violated the equal protection guarantee in the Fifth Amendment.

Result:

The Supreme Court rules against Nguyen and his father. "For a gender-based classification to withstand equal protection scrutiny, it must be established 'at least that the [challenged] classification serves important governmental objectives and that the discriminatory means employed are substantially related to the achievement of those objectives,'" wrote Justice Kennedy, "[f]or reasons to follow, we conclude [section 1409(a)] satisfies this standard."

Supreme Court Case Worksheet

 

Names of group members: _________________________________

 

Name of Case: _______________________

 

Looking at the Constitutional basis for the case, does your group rule in favor of the defendant or the plaintiff?

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

What is your reasoning for your decision? (Make sure that you tie your response to the Constitution.)

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

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