Emancipation of Women in the 1920's

Emancipation Of Women In the 1920's

The 1920s are for the United States a time of great change in it's society, and one of the most important ones was the change in the role of women.

Today women have the same rights as men, they can get jobs and receive the same education just as men can, but before the 1920s life for women could was rather different. Women couldn't get jobs, only during WW1 one did women start working that needed personnel the majority of men went to war but this didn't last long sine soldiers got their jobs back as soon as the came home.

Women couldn't go to most schools, they couldn't vote and couldn't hold an office in government, so their opinions didn't really matter. Their role in society was to get married and raise the children of their husbands. In other words they had no independence.

So what made all of this change? What was the big step for women that made them equal to men today?

It all started with the 19th Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920 that prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex, meaning that they finally had a say in society.

But this was also for women an opportunity to be independent and start fulfilling their dreams.

You'd think that after decades of inequality between the two sex genders, that the majority of women would start realizing their dreams as soon as they got the chance too but the 1920s isn't marked by the birth of hundreds of female role models but it isn't.

Independence for women came in a time were the focus of American society was on fun al leisure so as a result of this came a generation of girls whose main concern was to have a good time, "The Flappers".

Flappers could be found at the speakesies, underground bars were alcohol was served illegally. They were the new type of women that were known to be fun, carefree, independent and started a new fashion, which was quite controversial for the time.

Before the 1920s woman's fashion was very strict and formal.

Charles Dana Gibson, an American graphic artist, drew at the begging of the 1920s " The Gibson Girl", the personification of the national standard for feminine beauty before the 1920s. It was religiously followed by women of the time and was marked by long skirts and high necklines but Flappers brought controversy by changing the old fashion.

They had bobbed hair and wore short skirts and fishnets stockings, which shocked the altar generation and the conservatives.

The bobbed hair was perhaps the most controversial attribute to the Flapper because it was thought to be "defeminising" probably because it was a rather short haircut in fact