Flappers of the 20’s changed the standards of femininity forever in many ways. The major thing that these flapper girls did was make femininity marketable. Before the flapper generation, many women took part in the political realm and fought to have the same rights that men had. However, these flapper women wanted nothing to do with politics like their mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers did. These women found politics boring, and these women only wanted to have fun. These women changed society in many ways, I believe that it was not for the better. These women did many things in the 20’s that still have a huge impact on women today. The flapper girls wanted to promote their sexuality and did so in a very carefree, and careless way. …show more content…
The depression changed everyone’s role in society and people were fighting to stay alive. Women had no room to fight for women’s rights because they were too worried about feeding and clothing themselves and their families. Women who had worked so hard to advance their careers and for political freedom found themselves once again back in the domestic roles that the Cult of Domesticity had laid out for them. Moms were responsible for stretching resources and making sure that everyone was fed. This meant that sometimes women would go hungry just so their husbands and children could eat. Women were also the first to be laid off from jobs and if a woman was able to still work she was treated with immense hostility. Men believed that women should not be “compete with them for jobs and that women belonged in the home” (Pg 10). This led to a huge rise in violence against women. Women were treated like garbage during the Great Depression, and the Cult of Domesticity still prevailed because it was said that women were inferior and that their main goal was to take care of their husbands and children. During the Great Depression women had no choice but to follow these rules because the children were depending on them. It was also horrible to read about how widows or single women were treated. They had the worst conditions and no one cared to help them. People believed that it was their fault and they deserved to be where they were. Overall, it was awful how women were treated during the Great Depression, and because of the Cult of Domesticity, people saw no problem with
As a whole, the 1920’s was a symbol for social rebellion. Prior to the 1920’s, women were conservative in regards to how they dressed; most never showed any ankles or anything scandalous. During this time period, women began to now change. After watching several actresses in theaters act in movies, women began to act like the actresses that they watched. These women, called “Flappers,” drank, smoked, and dressed in what was scandalous back then. Women also rebelled against their traditional domestic roles. Before the 1920’s, women would just pretty much strictly stay at home or work in factories with poor conditions. During World War I though, women stepped up and had to work the higher paying jobs that the men worked, which opened many new doors to women. They now had jobs
Jazz music gave rise to several subcultures during the 1920’s. One of the most well-known being the flapper. The flapper represented the changing role of women in the post war society. Women during this time wanted greater independence. They entered the workforce in an attempt to break away from parental authority and establish a personal identity (American Republic). Many women began to pursue educations and were able to make significant contributions in the fields of science and law. Often represented as shallow and not very smart, flappers were usually well educated young women who only wanted to break free from the restraints of a Victorian minded society. The trademarks of a flapper
Moreover, during the early years of Depression, women lost their jobs before men considering the advancements they did in the 1920s (document 8). At last, the economy in the 1930s was not strong enough to support the nation and people were the worst
Women challenged the social norms during this era. Women became the flappers. They moved into the city. They began taking on roles in the workforce. Flappers were largely controversial during the Roaring Twenties.
Women, during the Great Depression, had the toughest time out of all of the people who lived through the Great Depression for many reasons. Women often had to sell themselves on the street to
Flappers were not in fact only concerned with standing out and being noticed. They were not simply fashion and image-driven, selfish women, but were strong, self-willed, independent young feminist citizens who were fighting passionately for their right to stable equality amidst a prominently male-driven world. These women pushed aggressively for their social, professional, and sexual freedom which they felt were hard-earned and well overdue. Many flappers wished to pursue positions in careers which would otherwise be deemed unacceptable for the average women of the time. They hoped that by breaking away from social normality's that they could eventually obtain equality in all important aspects of life while hopefully also allowing them entry into many professional fields which would normally be unaccessible to women.
Before flappers came along women were very modest. They were brought up to be "lady-like" and did not even date men unless their parents came along. They would wear clothes that were long and fancy and would cover their bodies head-to-toe, because they were not allowed to even show their ankles. Flappers went against all theses customs. Their irresponsible actions included: around kissing men, dancing on men provocatively, and just not caring about what the rules were. Women had limited freedom in the 1900s until the Flappers came along and changed many things for women through the way they dressed and acted, creating the "New Woman" or the 1920s.
At the time women were expected to be the perfect house wife and mother. But society began to change as the economy grew and need more women in the workplace. Especially after the war, women continued to support their families with their jobs. With independence for women in their careers, there was also a totally different life with many different flappers. During this time, many youth and youth culture began to see a change in dancing, music, and in fashion.
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
When the war came to a close, women became fond of their newfound freedom and role in society and wanted to keep working. The women who began to challenge the societal norms generally placed upon women became known as flappers, and since then, roles of women have changed drastically. In modern day, women can vote, go to war, become CEOs, raise children by themselves, dress however they please and so much more.
The Great Depression transformed American society and the way people thought about themselves and their relationship to the country. During this horrendous time period, many people lost many important pieces in their lives like money and jobs. Millions of families lost their savings as many banks collapsed in the early 1930s. They were unable to make rent payments or mortgage and many were removed from their apartments. The Great Depression challenged American families in vital ways, placing great economic demands upon families and their members.
The Great Depression can be a tough subject for most people, but still inspiring to others. The Great Depression was a very difficult time for America as well as women. The women of the Great Depression struggled through many trials, as did many others in the United States, but they were able to get through it all. The women of the Great Depression worked their hardest to stay true to themselves, and their family, as well as, to keep a job, a stable household, and for some, a strong marriage.
The Roaring Twenties also know as a new era which was a great time for a revolution.We think of this “New Era” as a freedom for women. Now women were “breaking down the spheres of Victorian values (Zeitz). ” In 1920, the powerful women's rights movement gave the women right to vote after so many years. Now they started to become more independent and had less restriction put into them.This time period gave rise to the flapper girls who smoke, drank, and had sex as they pleased.Many women became rebels, where they started to wear short dresses and tight bathing suits which exposed their skin, and put makeup on. All these actions taken were considered immoral and disrespectful. The early 20th century was a battle between modernism and
Change and hardship go hand in hand, because when hard times emerge society is forced to change. During the Great Depression the idea of gender roles stirred up a great deal of controversy but it also opened the door for change. It gave society a push into a new direction. In order to survive, a number of people had to move away from their traditional way of living in order to take care of their household (Goutour, November 5, 2013). It was now more acceptable and easier for women to find work, while men on the other hand had feelings of emasculation and hostility due to not being able to fulfill their role as the breadwinner (Hollingsworth & Tyyska,
This was also a time of optimism and desire. Money was a major foundation of society in America. Seeing as the decade was fixated on beauty, power, and wealth, people felt they could forget about their pasts and could become anyone they wanted, as though they could become an elite member of economic or social power. Flapper girls were also a new development of lifestyle during this era. Flappers were a new image for women, ditching the old and traditional lifestyle for a new, outlandish one. Being able to cut their hair short, wear short skirts, go out dancing and drinking without a man with them, and begin to speak their minds was a huge thing. From a world where the man is the one in the house that works and the woman stays home and takes care of the home and children to partying and making more carefree and promiscuous choices in their personal lives, this was a fascinating and empowering experience for some women. Though most women certainly did not adapt the extreme party lifestyle, many women at least adopted the fashion style and wore shorter skirts and got their hair cut into the bob style. For the women, being a flapper made them feel independent and powerful, and they freely practiced manipulation over rich and morally questionable men using seductive and promiscuous means. Due to the fact that so many people