Women of the 1920's
Flappers
Women began to really emerge during the 1920's and the most noticeable way was through flappers. Flappers were women who flaunted their femininity and youthful spirits and models to try to change gender roles for women.
Women before the 20's were just beginning to gain certain rights through women's suffrage movements. Rights such as being able to work, equal pay, longer work hours, and better, overall work conditions. The women were still seen as lesser than that of men and usually stayed at home to raise the children and take care of house work. The flappers came out in the 1920's to represent young women's spirit and entrance into a new era of womanhood. Flappers were daring and brought a new face to the idea of social females.
Women before the 20's were just beginning to gain certain rights through women's suffrage movements. Rights such as being able to work, equal pay, longer work hours, and better, overall work conditions. The women were still seen as lesser than that of men and usually stayed at home to raise the children and take care of house work. The flappers came out in the 1920's to represent young women's spirit and entrance into a new era of womanhood. Flappers were daring and brought a new face to the idea of social females.
Flappers had short hair cut in a "bob" style, short skirts and dresses often with feathers and sequins, and they brought a new meaning to the idea of make up and cosmetics. They used more make up than ever before and were also known for their strings of pearls and necklaces they wore. To keep up the daring style the flappers posed, the women began to take on habits that men did, such as smoking, drinking, and using slang. Women also began to dance, which was lead on by the new popular style of music called Jazz.
The women were seen as more sexual and less virtuous when it came to having the traditional morals of abstinence. The Victorian style was the way that the flapper's mothers taught them in and they taught them the traditions of old Victorian manners. But by the time girls were nineteen they over looked those old Victorian traditions and transitioned to the lifestyle of a flapper. Flappers were found very attractive to men who were looking for a daring, seductive young woman who still had a scent of young innocence.
Speakeasies were flooded with not only men looking for booze, but women called Flappers. The speakeasies were filled with flappers who were looking for places to dance, drink, smoke, and flaunt their new style of womanhood.
The women were seen as more sexual and less virtuous when it came to having the traditional morals of abstinence. The Victorian style was the way that the flapper's mothers taught them in and they taught them the traditions of old Victorian manners. But by the time girls were nineteen they over looked those old Victorian traditions and transitioned to the lifestyle of a flapper. Flappers were found very attractive to men who were looking for a daring, seductive young woman who still had a scent of young innocence.
Speakeasies were flooded with not only men looking for booze, but women called Flappers. The speakeasies were filled with flappers who were looking for places to dance, drink, smoke, and flaunt their new style of womanhood.
This women's movement of fashion and femininity in the 1920's impacted the greater society by changing how America viewed the individual woman. The flappers led to a change in how America viewed women by transitioning from the Gilded Age woman to a Roaring Twenties woman. Women during the Gilded Age were seen as virtuous and as stay at home women. It was rare for women during that time to work labor or be doing anything else other than tending to the home and being a house wife. In the 1920's the woman and, especially the flappers, led to a change in that view by becoming more daring and self confident in their rights as women. By dressing in short, tight, dresses with lots of sequins and feathers and by wearing more make up, the flappers were able to change how women viewed fashion and how appropriate fashion was seen. Not everyone agreed with the style of clothing the flappers wore but it led to a change in how the women moved from being conservative house wives to more free, night life women, looking for fun.
The flappers also led to a change by smoking, drinking, and dancing. Women before would have never considered doing habitual things like that that men did. Prohibition began with the influence of some women who wanted liquor to be outlawed because of how it made some men and husbands act once they were intoxicated. Women would have never considered drinking booze. The flappers changed that perspective by pouring into speakeasies to get their own booze and to party. It helped changed the views of some women that liquor could be accepted. Flappers went out most nights to speakeasies to party and be a part of the growing social night life. The women were seen as more independent by the ways the flappers acted and it helped lead to more feminist movements for equal rights. Woman became more scandalous and open with their sexuality, which lead to more socially acceptable ways for women to act and more independence. The Flappers were the prime example of a movement for more open rights for women and for a night life party woman looking for a good time in the social world.
The flappers life style and fashion lasted for only a decade and many former flappers became wives and mothers in the 1930's. Though their style did not last long, the impact from their desire to make social changes for women carried on throughout the decades.
Citations
Hatton, Jackie. "Flappers." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 112-113. U.S. History In Context. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
Latham, Angela J. Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2000.
Flynn, Matthew J. "Flapper." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 381. U.S. History In Context. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
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