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Changing Gender Roles In The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: 1920s culture and social changes

The 1920’s was an amazing decade in american history. Life was great and the economy was booming. It didn’t seem that anything could ruin life at this point, but for men things were about to change and for most that was not good. Women were trying to change their role in society from just being in the house, taking care of children, and pleasing their husbands. They did this by cutting their hair short and wearing loose fitting dresses. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, changing gender roles are shown through the female characters and how they act towards and get treated by men.

Daisy, Tom Buchanan’s wife, changed her looks to the short hair and loose dresses but was still in a place where she was being dominated by her husband and she was okay with it. In one of the articles that I read they wrote about how the Buchanan’s marriage resembles the normal 1920’s relationship, “Daisy is in a relationship where she’s unhappy...women were dominated by their husbands and unhappy.” (article) this quote shows that during this time period marriages were not good for women because they were dominated by their male counterparts and Tom and Daisy show that through their relationship. This …show more content…

Men did not want women to change the way they lived because it had always been this way and change scared them. As stated in one article, “Women’s rejection of any aspect of their traditional role inevitably would result in the destruction of the family…”(article) This shows that men were afraid of the way that women were gaining freedom. They, the men, didn’t want women to be able to start to think for themselves because they thought that that would ruin homes and families. The changes that occured in the 1920’s were a huge step forward for America and it shaped the way society would be for many years to

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