Women in the roaring twenties

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It is not often that that any aspect of society experiences a complete overhaul, nevermind within a period of time as short as ten years. Nonetheless, just such an event occurred with the women’s revolution in the 1920s. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was thoroughly entangled in the first successful women’s rights movement. Seventy years earlier, in 1848, 100 activists attended the Seneca Falls Convention in support of women’s rights, especially those that would allow the female to hold the power of the ballot. Much of the rest of the movement addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women’s rights in society. However, activist groups struggled to maintain momentum and gather support after enfranchisement was denied in the 1950s. At that time, the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution prohibited voting restrictions on the basis of race. It did not, however, include similar guarantees on the basis of gender. 1 Despite these less-than-favorable conditions at the turn of the century, the state of the women’s rights movement took a turn for the better at the start of the twenties. The time bridging the gap between these two eras featured transitional ideas that melding old world opinions with changing ideals to lead the nation into the Roaring Twenties.
Between the years of 1900 and 1920, women in America struggled to escape the confines placed on them by ancient expectations that placed them in subservient roles as the weaker sex. At the time, society, in particular that the female side, was governed by pious conformity that mirrored the doctrines of the church. These regulations forced ”respectable women” to conform to strict moral standards. They were not permitted to smoke, drink, swear...

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...9. Print.
Kallen, Stuart A.. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Print.
Mowry, George E.. The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, & Fanatics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
NCPedia.org. http://ncpedia.org/history/20th-Century/1920s-women (accessed May 27, 2014).
Pietrusza, David. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1998. Print.
Tiede, Tom. American Tapestry: Eyewitness Accounts of the Twentieth Century. New York: Pharos Books, 1988.
"WIC - Women's History in America." WIC - Women's History in America. http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm (accessed June 4, 2014).
"The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives." The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920. http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ (accessed June 4, 2014).

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