SÉQUENCE 4 - WOMEN: FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC SPACE

In this “séquence” we will work on how women handled the private and public spaces from the 19th to
the 20th century (Part 1), before addressing today’s situation (Part 2). We will try to see to what extent the
struggles of the past have enabled women to move from the private to the public space.

Duration: 4 hours

PART 1 – Towards women’s emancipation

Thanks to the discovery activity (“séance découverte”), you are now familiar with some of the issues faced
by women in the past and in today’s society.
In the following part, you will be invited to study how women fought to get out of the private space to which
they were bound by 19th and early 20th century conventions and how they gained access to the public
space.
You will do so through three different documents: the 2019 official trailer of Little Women, an extract from
the 1920 novel Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, and a picture.
Your project: At the end of Part 1, you will be asked to create a new awareness campaign for Women’s
Day.

Part 1 - Objectives:
Culture – 19th / 20th century women
– two classic novels
– Women’s suffrage in the US
Method – Analysis of a picture (political cartoon)
Language Tools
Grammar – WANT (someone) TO
– expressing an opinion
– modals/ equivalent phrases.
Vocabulary – values, female activities, portraits

Activity 1 – Women’s emancipation

1 Warm Up! Create a mindmap

a. What does the phrase ‘Women’s emancipation’ mean to you?
b. What words, ideas, and concepts would you link to it?

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 → Look up the exact definition in an online English dictionary (oxfordlearnersdictionaries or
collinsdictionary.com, or even the legal-dictionary).
→ Classify your ideas according to the three categories emerging from the definition.

Method: Why creating a mindmap?

It will help you memorize some ideas, and it is a useful tool that you can complete all along the lessons
with ideas and vocabulary.
How to do one? You can create one by hand on a sheet of paper or you can create one online with free
mind-mapping software or apps.
Use the title of the unit and draw a circle around it to start your mindmap. Try to find related keywords
and draw the first branches.
If you want to know what a mindmap can look like, here are some examples:
example 1: gender equality in shanty towns
example 2: what does gender equality relate to
example 3: role of husbands in maternal health and safe childbirth in Nepal
Free software: Xmind / Coggle / FreeMind / Freeplane etc.

→ check your answers

So, women’s emancipation movements mainly started in the 19th century. But emancipation from what?
What was the condition of women in the 19th century that triggered a movement towards emancipation?
The next activity will help you find some answers.

2. Before listening: watch!

Video 1: Little Women, official trailer. (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AST2-4db4ic

Watch the trailer with the sound off and select the correct statements below.

a. The film is adapted from a play.   OR   The film is the adaptation of a novel.
b. It takes place in the 19th century.   OR   It takes place in the 20th century.
c. The film mainly shows the development of a love story.   OR   The film portrays young women
coming of age.

3. Listen!
Depending on your skills, choose one of the following options:
– If you are quite good at English (level B1/B2), go for possibility A. If after a first viewing, you find
the video too difficult to understand, go for B.
– If you understand spoken English quite well in general, but not always, and not in the details, go
for possibility B(level A2 towards B1).
– If you find some parts more difficult to understand, have a look at the questions in C.

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 – If understanding spoken English is difficult for you, go for possibility C (level A2). Read the
questions before trying to answer. If they are difficult to understand, get some help from an online
dictionary.
Possibility A: Take as many notes as possible on your own without looking at the questions and sum up
what you have understood in English (you may add some details). Then jump directly to question 4.
Possibility B: Watch the segments indicated below one by one and sum up each of them in a few
sentences. Watch each part as many times as necessary to find what they are about.
a. From 0’00’’ to 0’21’’ = …
b. From 0’22’’ to 0’40’’ = …
c. From 0’41’’ to 0’51’’ = …
d. From 0’52’’ to 1’44’’ = …
e. From 1’45’’ to 2’08’’ = …
Possibility C: Watch the following segments one by one and try to answer the following questions:
a. From 0’00’’ to 0’21’’:
– What is Jo doing?
– Who is the old man she is talking to first?
– What does he want her to do?
– How does she react when Laurie touches her arm?
b. From 0’22’’ to 0’40’’:
– Make a character study of the four girls.
– What is the attitude of the mother—Mrs March— towards her daughters?
c. From 0’41’’ to 0’51’’:
– What does Jo want?
– What does Aunt March think of women in general?
– Why is her case different from that of women in general?
d. From 0’52’’ to 1’44’’ there is a series of scenes introduced in this sequence. What do they all deal with?
e. From 1’45’’ to 2’08’’- Can you identify the girl’s talents and dreams? Match each first name with the
corresponding element.
Meg • • painting
Jo • • marriage/ upper class lifestyle
Amy • • writing plays, novels
Beth • • playing the piano

4. Focus on a specific passage to discover what being a woman at the time was really
like, according to the movie director and the writer. Listen carefully to the end of the
trailer (from 1:49 till the end) and complete the script:

Part A:

Jo: Women, they have __________ and they have _____________, as well as just _____________.
Amy: I want to be ___________ or nothing.
Jo: And they’ve got ___________, and they’ve got _________, as well as just ________. I’m so sick of people
saying that __________ is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it.

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Part B:

Mrs March: There are some natures too _________ to _______, and too __________ to ____________.

Part C:

Publisher: So, who does she __________?

→ Check the transcript to find out if your understanding was correct.

5 Enrich your vocabulary (to prepare for Activity 8):

Find an equivalent to the following words or phrases in the video (or in the transcript if it is too difficult).
a. stupid/ insensitive = …
b. misbehaviour = …
c. succeed without the help of anyone = …
d. I’ve burnt the surface of... = …
e. a person or thing that can no longer be changed for the better. = …
f. fed up with = …
→ check your answers to questions 2 to 5

6. Expressing one’s opinion (and analysing the trailer at the same time!)
Observe these cues:
Amy: I believe we have some power over who we love. It isn’t something that just happens to a person.
Laurie: I think the poets might disagree.
Complete the following sentences to indicate the thought/ opinions of the characters.
a. Aunt March believes that a woman.................................................................................................................
b. Laurie thinks he …............................................................................................................................................
c. Meg is convinced that …...................................................................................................................................
d. Amy is certain Jo …..........................................................................................................................................
e. The publisher thinks ….....................................................................................................................................
f. Jo …....................................................................................................................................................................
→ Check your answers.

7. Expressing a will.
Identify all the words and phrases used in the trailer to express a will and list them.
→ Check your answers.

8. Let’s understand! Answer the questions in your own words.

a. Now that you have watched the trailer, say what role women were supposed to have in the 19th century.
Identify which character illustrates this. (50 words)
b. Comment on Jo’s attitude towards marriage. (100 words)
→ Check your answers.

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Activity 2 – Women: their position in society at the turn of the 20th century

1. Warm Up!
Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence.
- Do some research on D.H. Lawrence
- Find information about his novel entitled Women in Love:
• When was it supposed to be released?
• Why was the publication postponed?
• Why wasn’t it published in the UK at first?

2. Read this excerpt which is the very beginning of the novel (part 1)

Chapter 1: SISTERS
URSULA AND GUDRUN Brangwen sat one morning in the window-bay of their father’s house in Beldover,
working and talking. Ursula was stitching a piece of brightly-coloured embroidery, and Gudrun was
drawing upon a board which she held on her knee. They were mostly silent, talking as their thoughts
strayed through their minds.
`Ursula,’ said Gudrun, `don’t you really want to get married?’ Ursula laid her embroidery in her lap and
looked up. Her face was calm and considerate.
`I don’t know,’ she replied. `It depends how you mean.’
Gudrun was slightly taken aback. She watched her sister for some moments.
`Well,’ she said, ironically, `it usually means one thing! But don’t you think anyhow, you’d be—’ she
darkened slightly—`in a better position than you are in now.’
A shadow came over Ursula’s face.
`I might,’ she said. `But I’m not sure.’
Again Gudrun paused, slightly irritated. She wanted to be quite definite.
`You don’t think one needs the experience of having been married?’ she asked.
`Do you think it need be an experience?’ replied Ursula.
`Bound to be, in some way or other,’ said Gudrun, coolly. `Possibly undesirable, but bound to be an
experience of some sort.’
`Not really,’ said Ursula. `More likely to be the end of experience.’
Gudrun sat very still, to attend to this.
`Of course,’ she said, `there’s that to consider.’ This brought the conversation to a close. Gudrun, almost
angrily, took up her rubber and began to rub out part of her drawing. Ursula stitched absorbedly.
`You wouldn’t consider a good offer?’ asked Gudrun.
`I think I’ve rejected several,’ said Ursula.
`Really!’ Gudrun flushed dark—`But anything really worth while? Have you really?’
`A thousand a year, and an awfully nice man. I liked him awfully,’ said Ursula.
`Really! But weren’t you fearfully tempted?’

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`In the abstract but not in the concrete,’ said Ursula. `When it comes to the point, one isn’t even
tempted—oh, if I were tempted, I’d marry like a shot. I’m only tempted not to.’ The faces of both sisters
suddenly lit up with amusement.
`Isn’t it an amazing thing,’ cried Gudrun, `how strong the temptation is, not to!’ They both laughed,
looking at each other. In their hearts they were frightened. (…)
D.H. Lawrence, Women in love, 1920.

3. Answer the following questions in your own words.

a. Who?
b. When?
c. Where?
d. Topic of the conversation?
→ Check your answers.

4. Vocabulary
a. List the activities associated to the sisters in this text and check in a dictionary what they mean. (You can
use online dictionaries such as https://www.wordreference.com or https://www.linguee.fr for example).
b. Pick the words which express the way the characters feel in the order of the text (Put a cross when no
indication is provided).
Ursula Gudrun

→ Check your answers.

5. Modals and some equivalent phrases

a. Underline all the modals and phrases equivalent to modals in the text.
→ Check your answers.
b. Sort them according to whether they express a degree of certainty or not.
Degree of certainty (en français : valeur Not a degree of certainty (en français : valeur
épistémique) non-épistémique)

Grammar tip: See Petite Grammaire Anglaise, chapitres 9 à 12.

→ Check your answers.

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6. Explain in your own words what the characters implicitly meant in the following
extracts from the text:
a. Gudrun to Ursula: ‘(…) But don’t you think anyhow, you’d be—’ she darkened slightly—`in a better
position than you are in now.’
b. `Do you think it need be an experience?’ replied Ursula.
`Bound to be, in some way or other,’ said Gudrun, coolly. `Possibly undesirable, but bound to be an
experience of some sort.’
`Not really,’ said Ursula. `More likely to be the end of experience.’
→ Check your answers.

7. Carry on with the reading of the text (part 2):

(…) There was a long pause, whilst Ursula stitched and Gudrun went on with her sketch. The sisters were
women, Ursula twenty-six, and Gudrun twenty-five. But both had the remote, virgin look of modern girls,
sisters of Artemis rather than of Hebe. Gudrun was very beautiful, passive, soft-skinned, soft-limbed. She
wore a dress of dark-blue silky stuff, with ruches of blue and green linen lace in the neck and sleeves;
and she had emerald-green stockings. Her look of confidence and diffidence contrasted with Ursula’s
sensitive expectancy. The provincial people, intimidated by Gudrun’s perfect sang-froid and exclusive
bareness of manner, said of her: `She is a smart woman.’ She had just come back from London, where
she had spent several years, working at an art-school, as a student, and living a studio life.
`I was hoping now for a man to come along,’ Gudrun said, suddenly catching her underlip between her
teeth, and making a strange grimace, half sly smiling, half anguish. Ursula was afraid.
`So you have come home, expecting him here?’ she laughed.
`Oh my dear,’ cried Gudrun, strident, `I wouldn’t go out of my way to look for him. But if there did happen
to come along a highly attractive individual of sufficient means—well—’ she tailed off ironically. Then she
looked searchingly at Ursula, as if to probe her. `Don’t you find yourself getting bored?’ she asked of her
sister. `Don’t you find, that things fail to materialise? Nothing materialises! Everything withers in the bud.’
`What withers in the bud?’ asked Ursula.
`Oh, everything—oneself—things in general.’ There was a pause, whilst each sister vaguely considered
her fate.
`It does frighten one,’ said Ursula, and again there was a pause. `But do you hope to get anywhere by just
marrying?’
`It seems to be the inevitable next step,’ said Gudrun. Ursula pondered this, with a little bitterness. She
was a class mistress herself, in Willey Green Grammar School, as she had been for some years.
`I know,’ she said, `it seems like that when one thinks in the abstract. But really imagine it: imagine any
man one knows, imagine him coming home to one every evening, and saying “Hello,” and giving one a
kiss—’
There was a blank pause.
`Yes,’ said Gudrun, in a narrowed voice. `It’s just impossible. The man makes it impossible.’
`Of course there’s children—’ said Ursula doubtfully.
Gudrun’s face hardened.
`Do you really want children, Ursula?’ she asked coldly. A dazzled, baffled look came on Ursula’s face.
`One feels it is still beyond one,’ she said.
`Do you feel like that?’ asked Gudrun. `I get no feeling whatever from the thought of bearing children.’

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Gudrun looked at Ursula with a masklike, expressionless face. Ursula knitted her brows.
`Perhaps it isn’t genuine,’ she faltered. `Perhaps one doesn’t really want them, in one’s soul—only
superficially.’ A hardness came over Gudrun’s face. She did not want to be too definite.
`When one thinks of other people’s children—’ said Ursula.
Again Gudrun looked at her sister, almost hostile.
`Exactly,’ she said, to close the conversation.
D.H. Lawrence, Women in love, 1920.

a. Read this excerpt and complete the grid:

Ursula Gudrun
age
physical appearance
personality
job
their past: where they used to
live, what they did before...

b. What topics are being discussed by the sisters in this excerpt? (15 words maximum)
c. Focus on the feelings of the girls as their conversation evolves. Do they share the same opinion?

Vocabulary

Expressing agreement Expressing disagreement

agree with disagree with

concur with not agree with
go along with disapprove
consent to differ
approve divert
side with depart
settle

→ Check your answers.

8. Narrative technique
a. Underline all the impersonal pronouns in the text.
b. Why are they being used by the characters?
c. What effect is thus created by the novelist in this passage?
→ Check your answers.

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9. What does the text explain to us about the possibilities offered to women in British
society at the time?
a. Pick out the sentence which explains why they are discussing these issues.
b. What prospects did women in their twenties have then?
→ Check your answers.
10. Recap how the modernity of the Brangwen sisters is underlined in this text. (50 words)

Grammar tip: Remember how to use the link words of contrast studied in the introductory unit
(séance de découverte).

→ Check your answers.

Activity 3 – When a picture shows it all—or almost!

1. Warm Up!
Focus on this representation of a woman before looking at the whole document. Describe it in detail.
Try to draw hypotheses from the following questions:

1. Where? When?
2. Social class?
3. How is she dressed? What is she dressed for?
4. Focus on her movement – what is she doing or about to do?
5. Focus on her gaze? What could she be looking at?
6. What adjectives would you use to describe her attitude?
7. What type of document could it belong to?

Word box : social classes in the US:

Upper class = inherited money / newly rich

Middle class = upper and lower : professionals and white collars
Working class = blue collars / blue-collar workers and their families
Lower working class = working poor and the unemployed.

→ Your hypotheses will be checked with the activities that follow.

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2. This is the scene (but not the whole document yet)
a. Describe it.

©1909 E. W. Gustin / © Palczewski Suffrage Postcard Archive

b. Imagine what the situation may be. Draw five hypotheses using the modals or equivalent structures
revised when studying the text.
→ Check your answers.

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3. Now look at the whole document. Right or wrong? Give your first impression

©1909 E. W. Gustin / © Palczewski Suffrage Postcard Archive

a. The document was designed as women were about to get the right to vote in the USA in 1920.
Right or wrong?
b. It praises the fact that women will now be able to vote. Right or wrong?
Right Wrong

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4. Now, let’s study the composition of the document.
a. Draw the various horizontal and vertical lines that run across the image. What do they show?
b. Now draw the lines of gaze of the various characters in the picture, what do they reveal?
→ Check your answers.
c. Finally what is the focal point in this document?
d. What is the artist making us think about what the woman should be doing?
e. What are the consequences of women’s right to vote on the family?
f. Conclude on the purpose of the document.
→ Check your answers.

5. Pronunciation: check how to pronounce the following words on an online dictionary

(Cambridge or Oxford learner’s dictionary for instance)
woman
women
emancipation
right
vote
gaze

6. Recap / oral practice

 Using all the elements gathered while studying this picture, be ready to talk for 5 minutes about it
and explain how it illustrates the topic of ‘ private vs public space’.

Méthode : Quelques conseils :

– Varier les structures et le vocabulaire.
– Argumenter : justifier chacune de vos idées (par une illustration / un
exemple)

Pour vous entrainer :

Pensez à vous enregistrer (voix / vidéo) même simplement avec votre
téléphone. Si la qualité d’enregistrement n’est pas parfaite, vous entendrez
aisément si la présentation est fluide et si cela sonne très ‘français’ ou au
contraire si il y a des efforts de faits sur l’accent.
Il y a un adage en anglais qui dit ‘Practice makes perfect !’. Il ne faut pas hésiter
à refaire la présentation plusieurs fois, c’est un bon exercice pour gagner en
fluidité et améliorer sa prononciation.

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Activity 4 – if you want to go further: A ‘story’ on the legacy of the early
emancipation movement which led to the right to vote.
For International Women’s Day, you have decided to post a ‘story’ (30 seconds maximum) to celebrate one
of those women who contributed to the emancipation process, whether be it Louisa May Alcott, Catherine
Mansfield ( who inspired D.H. Lawrence with the character of Gudrun), Susan B. Anthony or Emeline
Pankhurst (famous suffragettes).

Don’t forget
• to talk in the past
• to sum up their lives
• highlight what aspect of the definition of ‘emancipation’ their contribution could be associated with.

Style:
• Be efficient, and structured.

Activity 5 – Your project

YOUR CHOICE: You can do activity 5 at this stage (the final activity of Part 1) but it is probably best to wait
and do it once you have studied Part 2 however.

A new awareness campaign on Women’s Day!

You have decided to contribute to Women’s Day with a new awareness campaign.

1) You may choose to draw a poster and defend it with an article to be published in a serious newspaper
such as The Guardian, or to create a ‘story’ to be published on your favourite social media.
2) Record a short presentation to explain what you decided to do or write about and why you thought it was
the best choice.

RAPPEL
Le niveau visé en terminale LVA est le niveau B2 et le niveau B1 en LVB.
Suivez le lien ci-dessous pour obtenir plus d’information sur les descripteurs CECRL sur les essais et
rapports ( page 12, descripteurs en un coup d’œil – source:
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_FR.pdf )
C1 Peut exposer par écrit, clairement et de manière bien structurée, un sujet complexe en soulignant
les points marquants pertinents. Peut exposer et prouver son point de vue assez longuement à l’aide
d’arguments secondaires, de justifications et d’exemples pertinents. Peut écrire un essai ou un rapport
qui développe une argumentation de façon méthodique en soulignant de manière appropriée les points
importants et les détails pertinents qui viennent l’appuyer. Peut évaluer des idées différentes ou des
solutions à un problème.
B2 Peut écrire un essai ou un rapport qui développe une argumentation en apportant des justifications
pour ou contre un point de vue particulier et en expliquant les avantages ou les inconvénients de
différentes options. Peut synthétiser des informations et des arguments issus de sources diverses.

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Peut écrire de brefs essais simples sur des sujets d’intérêt général. Peut résumer avec une certaine
assurance une source d’informations factuelles sur des sujets familiers courants et non courants dans
son domaine, en faire le rapport et donner son opinion.
B1 Peut écrire des rapports très brefs de forme standard conventionnelle qui transmettent des
informations factuelles courantes et justifient des actions.
You have now completed Part 1. Well done!
Now that you know more about the early steps of the emancipation process, you will be led to wonder, in
part 2, to what extent women are still struggling today with some gender issues.

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