Women Of The 1920s Research Paper

The 1920s was a time of social change for everyone, especially women. Before the 1920s, women were seen as housewives, mothers, and wives. However, during the 1920s, women’s views of themselves began to change. They started to pursue careers and attend universities; their clothes began to change to a more liberating style, and they began to do things that were not seen as ‘womanly’. Feminism became a popular term as women began to advocate for themselves. Women's roles during the 1920s changed from housewives and mothers to feminists and career women who challenged social roles. An excerpt from “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives an example of how women were treated before the 1920s. In the excerpt, we learn of an unnamed

From this excerpt, we get the idea that women before the 1920s often never fought for themselves and went along with what the men said. However, this idea did not last for long, as women began to change their roles in society, starting with their style of clothing. Before the 1920s, dresses were longer and covered everything including shoulders and ankles. Hairstyles consist of long hair pinned up elaborately with pins, bows, and headbands. However, during the 1920s, women’s dresses began to get shorter, and showed their legs up to the knee. Some women cut their hair short, into a style called the ‘bob’. In a poem called “The Flapper” by Dorothy Parker, she says “She dared to shorten her skirts (at first just to the ankles, eventually up to her knees) and bob her hair in a short cut.” Parker uses the word ‘dared’ to emphasize the fact that this was not normal. One example of the newer style is found in a Coca-Cola advertisement (Figure 1). The hairstyle in the advertisement is an example of the bob, and the woman’s dress shows her knees and shoulders. This style helped women feel as though they could express themselves more, in their style of clothing, and other aspects of