Iron Jawed Angels: Analyzing the Historical Accuracy

As part of our study of the Modern Period, I show my students the HBO film Iron Jawed Angels. My students often love this film and have questions about what happened in real life and what was added to the movie, since it is based on the fight for a federal amendment to the Constitution allowing women to vote.

This worksheet will give students 14 statements to read detailing events in the film; they must decided whether or not that event happened in history or was part of the movie mojo, added for dramatic effect, etc. Answers to the statements are provided for you, along with explanations for many of them and links to sites with more information if you want to delve deeper. This is a great closing activity to the film, or it can be an intro activity to an essay or other activities if you are going to continue in your study of the 19th Amendment.

Note that this activity itself only takes one class period, but viewing the movie takes about three class periods. There is one sensitive scene in the film, so I urge you to preview the movie before showing it to students, and I recommend it only for students in 10th grade or higher.