Roles Of Women In The 1920's

During the first World War I women were left at home to try and figure out how they were going to care for their families. Their husband, father, and brothers were sent off to war. Many companies around the United States were left with production needs and little to no employees to do the job. In a time period, where women are expected to be confident and independent, they had to also realize they had little to no power in society. They had societal rules that they must stay at home to cook, clean, and care for the children. With the men who were prominent in their lives coming and going from war. These factors caused the birth of a new era. This is the era where women were emerging. Women were changing by being more independent sexually and expressing their emotions through music, poetry, and movies.

The 1920s was a period of changes exactly as the Progressive Era. Everything was developing very fast. The economic boom caused a high living standard, therefore, people earned more money and wanted to live a modern life, in view of the fact that, they could afford it, especially in the cities which offered more stores, job opportunities, and saloons and bars for entertainment. People wanted to have fun after World War I, take a rest and just hang out together, for that reason it caused a moral decline, the enormous consumption of alcohol caused a lot of crime and women had a new way of living. The two biggest changes were the rights for women and prohibition.

Throughout the 1920s, marriage was thought of to be a symbol of love and happiness between a married couple. Along with that came the expectation of starting a family and a new chapter in the couple’s lives. Most marriages that took place were based on romance instead of just marrying just to get money, which was rarely seen. Gender roles had an impact when getting married and starting a family. Living in the 1920’s brought more positive, as well as negative, impacts when it came to restarting the economy. Gender roles in marriage decided who stayed at home to take care of the children along with house duties and who went to work to provide for the family. Throughout these times, gender roles either imposed by society or created within the home, have altered dynamics within the home and society.

The 1920s had a big impact on American life all around; however, one of the biggest changes during this time period was in the roles of women. During this time period, women started dressing different, leaving the house, getting jobs, and gaining rights. On top of all of that, they had a bigger role in education, they began taking parts in politics, and divorce became more of a common thing. This may not seem like a big deal to people today, but this was very important at the time. Prior, women had next to no rights. They lived to wait on and please their husbands. Women rarely even left the house. This time period could be said to have paved the way for modern day feminism and women’s roles. This was the time period when they began to be free and stop worrying about how society thought they should live. However, the question still remains: Did the changing roles of women in the 1920s really have a significant effect on women’s roles today? In the next few pages, one will be given examples of women’s role before, during, and after the 1920s. In each paragraph, the roles, rights, impacts, and more that women had at these times will be explained. To conclude, a comparison on how women were thought to act in these different time periods will be made in order to come up with an answer for the question stated above.

In 1920 women gained the right to vote in America which was a big step for Women’s Reform. During WWI women had taken over the jobs in America and even joined the military to help fight

For many centuries, women and men were not treated equally. After the Civil War, women had many essential successes that helped them earn respect. Throughout all of history women have not been seen as true equals to men. Women did not realize the extent of the matter at hand until after the Civil War.

In this paper I plan to discuss six events/movements in which I feel played a significant role in the advancement of women in America’s history. Three events from 1865-1920, and three events from 1920 – present.

Women faced an ongoing battle to be seen as equal by men for a long time, but they eventually proved themselves to be more than a piece of property to their

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

On the 18 of August, 1920, the 19th Amendment went through. The U.S. Constitution permitted American women to vote. Before the U.S. made these changes women had to suffer plenty to get the rights they have now a days. One of the biggest struggle was having the freedom to have a voice in the United States of America. This part of history is known as woman suffrage. The women in the U.S. did everything possible to obtain the rights they deserve.

During the 1920s the United States hoped for a “return to normalcy”. World War I had a huge toll and created a number of changes in the society of the nation. Under the mass production, the consumer revolution, and aid of business of the 1920s economy prospered. Women made significant advancement during the decade by gaining suffrage, and changing their roles and image in society. Along with women making advancements African Americans were doing the same, by mixing their culture into society through jazz, and also with the Harlem renaissance the U.S. began to have different views on them. Throughout the single decade after the end of World War I the U.S. experienced significant changes economically, socially, and politically.

From the beginning of time, women have always received less opportunities than men because back then women did not have the same rights as men. It was not until around the 1920’s when Mary Combs was born that things began to change; due to new technologies and laws passed, significant changes in women’s lives were not only happening in the home but also in the work force, education and politics. In the first 20 years of Mary’s life, we will discover how the rights that women were beginning to receive challenged the ideal feminine role of society during those times. In the 1920’s the population of Hazard, Kentucky was increasing, and during that time Mary Comb’s family moved there for a job in the coal industry.

Before WWI, women had limited job options with low pay, such as teaching, leaving many women stay in their traditional roles as wives, mothers, and domestic workers. However, when men enlisted in WWI and the war effort needed workers to make supplies, ships, tanks, bombs, etc, many women found themselves doing the same jobs as men. When the men returned from the war, they took back their jobs, but this caused many women to no longer be satisfied by playing their traditional roles. This created consequences, were women fought for their right to vote, greater educational and job opportunities, be able to hold jobs with higher power, and improved labour laws and health care. After many challenges to get equal rights, most women were finally able to obtain a right to vote in 1919, and gain entry to higher job opportunities while being considered as ‘persons’ in 1929. Compare to Canada today, there is one thing that has continued throughout the years, and that is the fight for equality. However, the change is that women are no longer fighting for equal education and health care, but equal pay and the ability to hold higher positions. For example, in 1921, Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected to the House of Commons, resulting in 1 woman out of 235 seats. After the shift of values, Canada has taken some steps by

A woman of 1920 would be surprised to know that she would be remembered as a "new woman." Significant changes for women took place in politics, at home, in workplace, and in education.

Women’s fashion was a social controversy in the 1920’s. This controversy was influenced by women’s clothing, swimwear, hairstyles, makeup, and attitude alone. This attire and new found character traits added a certain attitude and confidence to these women, starting what would eventually be remembered as a revolution.