The Changing Roles Of Women In The 1920's

The Women’s Rights Movement made its first major sign of progress when the 20th Amendment of the Constitution was passed; allowing women the right to vote. This feat was only achieved because of the peaceful protests of these powerful women. And because of these women, an entire gender is now able to actively participate in the government that represents them. Without the free society of America and the people’s

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

Let’s take a look at the women’s of the 1920’s, the changes that took place in fashion and the roles of women in society. Women’s fashion will be compared from early days up until the 1930’s, with a brief comparison of the roles of women before and after the 1920’s. A discussion of the different avenues that opened up for women after 1920 and the impact that it has had on modern day women will also be covered within this paper. you need a stronger introduction

After World War I ended in 1918, the United States became a world superpower with a thriving economy. The 1920s was a time of prosperity, symbolized by technological advances, consumerism, and leisure. Along with this affluence, came a movement towards modern values, and as people migrated to large northern cities, these modern values became concentrated in urban areas. As a result, an enormous cultural shift took place that greatly altered the lives of Americans, including women. Women experienced significant political, social, and cultural change beginning in the 1920s, a decade which came to be known as the “Roaring Twenties.”

The 1920’s which was also called the Roaring Twenties was a era of economic prosperity and dramatic social change. The 19 amendment that was ratified on August 1920 gave the right of women to vote and the impact of World War I resulted in women questioning traditional morals and values, becoming rebellious. When men left for the war it caused women to have new jobs such as working in factories. Also, “the number of women attending college rose to 10% of the population by the end of the 1920's." Due to women having the opportunity to have jobs and go to college women became more mobile. The corset limited women to be mobile in this era which caused the production of coresets to quickly decline. Less women wearing corset made their figure to be more boyish and straight. The women of this era was called the Flappers, free spirited women, representing the new change of how women looked. The Flappers “lacked hips, breasts, and a defined waist”. They would dress in dresses above their knee and ankle showing more legs and having bare arms. They would also stray away from having long hair and cut their hair into a bob to symbolize freedom and independency. As a reason of women questioning traditional values they began to drink, smoke and be more sexual in this era. The 1920’s was also the age of Jazz which influenced women to go out and dance and women having more flamboyant and exuberant moves. In the 1920’s to be equal among men they had to have a figure of men,

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.

In the years of 1848 to 1920 all that was important in the U.S. was giving women the right to vote. Right to voting was very important to women because it was thought to a beginning of a world of equality between men and women. The idea of equality helped create Women's suffrage (also known as woman's right to vote). In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists mostly women, but also some men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights to voting. Furthermore during the 1800’s and 1900’s “Women and Women’s Organizations” worked for broad based economic and political equality for women. Women didn’t gain the right to vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919 which also helped empower some women to create the “National League of Women Voters” in 1920 to educate women about their rights and additionally it sponsored Women’s Equality Day which is held on the 26th of August to celebrate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Right to

The early 1900s were filled with many new social ideas and changes. New faces arose during this time, and many new ideas changed the shape of society. Among these were race relations, the role of women in society, and the ever-heated modernism versus fundamentalism debate.

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.

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.

This new generation of activists fought with this new agenda for almost 20 years until a few states in the West began to extend the vote to women. The Eastern and Southern states still refused to give in, but this didn’t stop the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1916, Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the NAWSA, worked vigorously to get women’s organizations from all over the country together and fight side by side. “One group of activists, led by Alice Paul and her National Woman’s Party, lobbied for full quality for women under the law” (Divine). She used mass marches and hunger strikes as strategies, but she was eventually forced to resign because of her insistence on the use of militant direct-action tactics (Grolier). Finally, during World War 1, women were given more opportunities to work, and were able to show that they were just as deserving as men when it came to the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, allowing women to vote. This drawn-out and arduous battle opened a new window of opportunity for women all over the country. Significant changes in both social life and job availability began to create what is now referred to as the “new women.”

Long before the women’s suffrage movement began picketing in front of the White House on January 10, 1917, women had begun the battle for the right to vote at a women’s rights conference in 1848 at Seneca Falls. At the Seneca Falls conference, women pressed for the right to vote based on the grounds of equal opportunities and justice for women. During this time in American History, we will learn about the roles that several influential women played in the battle for their right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement played an important role in American History, and it was just the beginning of a long battle that women fought to improve their roles in society.

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.

In the mid to late nineteenth century, America was full of potential. Settlers were cultivating the west, blacks that were once captive were no longer enslaved, and a woman’s role in society was undergoing a transformation. The reality of this all was, blacks were not considered equal status with whites, American Indians were being pushed out west and women were still considered second-class citizens.

Change of Attitudes Toward the Role and Status of Women During the 1920's and 1930's