Women's Rights In The 1920s Essay

Women’s role in society was completely redefined after the passing of the 19th Amendment, women’s suffrage, on August 18, 1920. For centuries, men defined women; the world was male-centered and male-dominated. Male philosophers and social theorists were the ones who identified woman with disorder, savagery, chaos, unreason, and the excluded “other.” According to James Branch Cabell women were considered nothing more than conveniences; they were useful for keeping a household as well as for copulation and pleasure (McConnaughy 112). The turn of the century and its many changes, industrialization in particular, gave a number of women the chance to work outside of the home. Not a few of these women were able to use their inherent intelligence

Now even though this was the situation in the country, alcohol still did play a major role in the modernist versus traditionalist agenda since, bootlegged alcohol was still available mainly by means of crime lords and families such as the notorious, most wanted criminal of the 1920’s, Al Capone. Modernists saw alcohol as an element that provided personal freedom. This was a complete paradox of what the traditionalists believed: they said that alcohol caused crimes and broke apart families and that where there was no alcohol people were generally happier and healthier. Soon, many speakeasies spread throughout the country. “They were given their unique name for the need to whisper, or "speak easy," as patrons attempted to cross their illegal thresholds. A secret knock, password or handshake could get a prospective drinker through a door that appeared to lead to an ordinary apartment, deli, tailor, or soda shop. Once inside, however, there was plenty of drinking and entertainment, including torch singers, cabaret singers, and vaudeville acts” (PBS). Although prohibition was supposedly a restriction of freedom, America has found secret ways to use alcohol as a way of positive and negative personal