From voting to working, there are many actions society takes for granted. Everyone did not always have the opportunity to take part in such seemingly normal tasks. Women in the 1920s had to fight for these rights, toiling to make significant social changes. World War I had recently ended and women were taking on new responsibilities. They felt their hard work was worthy of gaining basic rights. While many women were still mostly stay-at-home mothers who followed their husbands orders, the 1920s were a transformative time for the social status of women due to the current events, their changing appearance, and their actions. The 1920s were a successful economic period for the United States, and women were able to express their desire for …show more content…
Women tried to erase the distinction between masculinity and femininity by meshing the two together. One example of this was women’s interest in cigarettes. Smoking was viewed as a pastime for men, but the 1920s opened up a whole new world (with unknown consequences) for women (Zeits 5-9). They tried to be more like men with a single act, even if it was in a trivial way. Women were also making great strides toward equality with the new laws they were able to get passed. Some laws seemed minor, like gaining the legal ability to drive (Alchin, “Women in the 1920s”). Others were revolutionary, like getting the right to vote. Women’s suffrage was always a desire but after World War I, women felt they had earned the right to have a say in the government to which they contribute. Men disagreed with this because they felt women having a say would lead them to become more educated. The more educated the woman, the more likely she is to disagree with, and possibly even divorce her husband, wrecking homes all across the United States, according to men of that era. Many protests and discussions later, women finally won the right to vote, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920 (1920-1940: The Twentieth Century, 24-39). Throughout history, women had less rights than men and were held to different standards. In the 1920s, that situation began to change and women put forth the effort to do
Frederick Lewis Allen, in his famous chronicle of the 1920s Only Yesterday, contended that women’s “growing independence” had accelerated a “revolution in manners and morals” in American society (95). The 1920s did bring significant changes to the lives of American women. World War I, industrialization, suffrage, urbanization, and birth control increased women’s economic, political, and sexual freedom. However, with these advances came pressure to conform to powerful but contradictory archetypes. Women were expected to be both flapper and wife, sex object and mother. Furthermore, Hollywood and the emerging “science” of advertising increasingly tied conceptions of femininity to a specific standard of physical beauty attainable by few. By 1930, American women (especially affluent whites) had won newfound power and independence, but still lived in a sexist culture where their gender limited their opportunities and defined their place in society.
The 1920’s was a period of extremely economic growth and personal wealth. America was a striving nation and the American people had the potential to access products never manufactured before. Automobile were being made on an assembly line and were priced so that not just the rich had access to these vehicles, as well as, payment plans were made which gave the American people to purchase over time if they couldn't pay it all up front. Women during the First World War went to work in place of the men who went off to fight. When the men return the women did not give up their positions in the work force.
The 19th Amen... ... middle of paper ... ... Women And The Politics of the 1920s. " OAH Magazine of History 21.3 (2007): 22-26. Academic Search Premier.
On August 18, 1920 the nineteenth amendment was fully ratified. It was now legal for women to vote on Election Day in the United States. When Election Day came around in 1920 women across the nation filled the voting booths. They finally had a chance to vote for what they thought was best. Not only did they get the right to vote but they also got many other social and economic rights. They were more highly thought of. Some people may still have not agreed with this but they couldn’t do anything about it now. Now that they had the right to vote women did not rush into anything they took their time of the right they had.
The 1920s had more movement toward women's rights. In the 1920s the dresses got shorter and women were allowed to drink, smoke, and have a social life.
Between 1890 and 1925 the position of American women was altered forever due to the developments in the political and economic areas of America, along with the assumptions about women. Events such as the Great War, which led to the absences of men working in factories, gave women opportunities to expand their activity in the economy, and new technological advancements in housework gave women free time to pursue educations. American women experienced a wide variety of impacts.
This placed the focus on women's workers rights. Movements for female workers led to an overall heightened realization of the worth and power women can obtain. The women's movement was increased during the first decade of the 20th century. Middle class young females were educated. They went out as settlement workers, helping immigrant women, and increasing involvement in social issues outside the home (Doc C) such as the temperance/Prohibition movement. With advancing technology and a changing (becoming easier) way of life (Doc A) middle class women had the free time to pursue social issues, such as suffrage. Middle class women ran the movement for suffrage because they had the time to be politically active. They were not idle housewives completely dependent on men because they did not have a job (Doc H). They were community leaders (Doc C). The suffrage movement culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1916 which prohibited preventing women to vote. So, the rise of female independence began with underpaid workers and was taken up by the middle
The economy boomed and as industries were producing more, people became wealthier and the wealthy bought more things. In addition, women and minorities accepted jobs while soldiers were off at war. The war caused a shortage of workers, and the number of working women increased by 25%. Women became teachers, nurses, social workers, librarians, and even worked in factories. The standard of life that we enjoy today is rooted in advancements of the 1920s and we don’t even know it. The 1920s brought a new mentality into the world, especially for women. On August 18, 1920, women won the right to vote in America. Before this some men were against Women’s Suffrage because they thought that women would make prohibition a top priority, but by 1920 men didn’t care anymore because alcohol had already been made illegal. “The women of this generation grew up when the rapidly growing industry was glorifying the slender, long-limbed, small-breasted female figure adopted by girls and young women known as flappers” says Penny Colman, author of A History of Growing up Females in America. The flapper look started off with a dramatic change in hair from long to extremely short, know as the bob. A flapper put on bright lipstick, tweezed her eyebrows, and
In the 19th century women began to take action to change their rights and way of life. Women in most states were incapable to control their own wages, legally operate their own property, or sign legal documents such as wills. Although demoted towards their own private domain and quite powerless, some women took edge and became involved in parts of reform such as temperance and abolition. Therefore this ultimately opened the way for women to come together in an organized movement to battle for their own rights in such ways as equal education, labor, legal reform, and the occupations. As stated in the nineteenth amendment, a constitutional revision that established women’s citizen rights to vote.
The 1920s allowed women to have a lot of new freedom, but women were still presented with setbacks that kept them from fully experiencing it. The Clash of Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s website explains how women were more restricted in how they dressed before the 1920s. It describes how women were forced to wear corsets and frilly clothes that were more conservative. This conservative way of dress changed during the 1920s with the flappers (“Image and Lifestyle”). The website goes on to explain that even though women had many new opportunities during the time period, they were still not given important roles at work. “Although the labor movement thrived in the early twentieth century, by 1920 a small fraction of women in the workforce had union jobs, and rarely did the movement take up issues of concern to working women or allow them leadership roles” (“Work, Education, and Reform”). The Clash of Cultures website also explains that there was some opposition to the new free...
How would you feel if all your values and morals made a complete 180, instantly. Well that's how it was in the 1920’s for women. Many things changed throughout the nation that would change our country as a whole. There was prohibition, motorized vehicles, screenplays, women voting, and the idea of the American Dream. These things would change the way women viewed the the country and themselves. Women in the 1920’s drastically changed by status, sexual freedom, and by the way the dressed, shown by Myrtle and Daisy in the The Great Gatsby. Women in the 20’s had a status change by becoming known as flappers. Women were more open and meeting guys was more acceptable. Also women were more revealing of their bodies in the 20’s.
Life was difficult for women in America in the 1930s. Society had specified roles for them and women worked long hours for little pay. Women in the 1930s were expected to stay home and take care of children and had limited career opportunities; those that had careers earned low wages.
The 1920s were marked as a period of change in the United States. The social changes started happening in the United States after the World War I ended in 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and arose many social conflicts. The end of World War I caused a recession, a temporary slump in the economy. Since the war was over, the United States was no longer a wartime economy. Instead, it became a consumer economy. The soldiers came home, but had trouble working because some had shell shock, a psychiatric illness, some went through physical changes and there were fewer jobs. To cope with the depression caused by the war, men started drinking alcohol. Women prior to World War I were housewives. They were not respected and did not
American women enjoy more rights and freedom than any other women in the world. They have played an active role in shaping their history and ensure that suffering and discrimination of women does not take place in the current society. It is this freedom and equality enjoyed by women in America that serves as a perfect definition of the contemporary American culture. While this might be the case for the current society, women in the 1800's and the 1900's had to endure much suffering and tribulations in the American society due to their gender roles assigned to them by the society. They have played an active role in the history of America to ensure that they enjoy freedom, independence and the liberty to do what they want without having to undergo
World War 1 was a time filled with trauma, despair, and hardship. Women had limited freedoms such as being able to vote, being confined at home, and having less than half of the rights men were able to have. Time flew by and as the war ended in 1918, the 1920’s decade of change soon approached. The year was famously known as “The Jazz Age” and “The Roaring 20’s” because of the newly found freedom, social and political changes, and the time of prohibition. Among these powerful new changes was the freedom that women were finally able to vote and enjoy what was about to come.