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Women's Suffrage In The 1920s

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What is suffrage? Suffrage is the right to vote in political races. According to History.com Staff in the article “Women’s Suffrage”, up until August 26th, 1920 women lacked suffrage(3). Before then, women were expected by society to play a specific role. Women began pushing against these roles and expectations and making their own. Fashion helped women accomplish this change in the role they had to play in society. Women demanded a change in how they were treated by American culture. According to History.com Staff, the fight for suffrage began long before, including the use of fashion as a way to fight against the idea that women had to be a wife and mother who was focused only on her house and family. The first big campaigns for women’s …show more content…

This was only one step in the plan of American women. They wanted more freedom and less judgement from society. According to History.com Staff in the article “The Roaring Twenties”, “the most familiar symbol of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said what might be termed ‘unladylike’ things, in addition to being more sexually ‘free’ than previous generations”(1). Many women began working in traditionally male dominated jobs. They also became more independent. Along with women, young people in general were gaining more freedom in the 1920s. One factor to this was the increase in cars being bought. Cars were beginning to become safer and produced more. In “The Roaring Twenties”, “Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted.(Some pundits called them “bedrooms on wheels”)(History. Com Staff, 2). …show more content…

The Flapper Men were not the only ones affected by prohibition. By this time, society was becoming more permitting about women drinking alcohol. In fact, one big feature of the famous flapper icon was drinking alcohol. According to Jacqueline Herald in “Fashions of a Decade: The 1920s”, “Undeterred by the disapproval of adults, the younger generation was setting out to have a good time. The emancipated female painted her face and drank cocktails. She smoked cigarettes placed in elegant holders”(28). Women have gained many freedoms since the beginning of their fight for independence. They gained freedoms in fashion. Fashion has evolved since the 19th century allowing women to show more skin and eventually wear pants. They also gained freedoms to be independent, drink, smoke, and speak out. They no longer have to be submissive housewives, and can choose to pursue what they

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In the 1920s there were bold, venturesome, dauntless young women who broke society's idea of women standards to change the whole American culture. The book, Flapper, by Joshua Zeitz discusses the effects that books, movies, and celebrities of this time, had on the average women, which caused this era of flappers. These young women known as flappers weren’t the only change that the post World War One era brought. Throughout the book, these changes are brought up from religion to morals, to other changes, and these changes are what would completely develop new social norms in America.

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In her thesis, she explains how the Flappers reflected the changes in women’s role in the 1920s, and how it was a different from the conservative women of the Victorian Era. She emphasizes how important the Flappers were, and how sometimes they are overlooked. “The role of the flappers in the 1920s was to introduce a new way of life to women, and the flappers provided a model through which women may be able to make a small change in their marriage and life.” As we see here, Flappers were of great importance to the advancement of women roles in society. Even though, Flapper helped change the role of women, which would be considered a feminist issue, they criticized them.

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Lloyd Armbrust reputes that the flappers abandoned the old generation’s unflattering and tight fashion with their flowing dresses with bobbed hair to display their confidence. Flappers would hang their corsets and cut their hair to illustrate how women had the ability to wear what they want and be who they please. They disapproved of the modest dresses women were expected to wear and ridded themselves of the patriarchy’s body shaming notions. Before the 1920s, women were rarely seen in bars and saloons but, as the Prohibition was implemented, Armbrust notes the flappers segregated the bars to drink freely. These women had the ability to defy what society told them and learned that being “selfless” was oppressive.

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The flapper represented the “modern woman” in American youth culture in the 1920’s, and was epitomized as an icon of rebellion and modernity. Precocious, young, stubborn, beautiful, sexual, and independent, the flapper image and ideology revolutionized girlhood. The term “flapper” originated in England to describe a girl who flapped and had not yet reached maturity.

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The 1920s was a time of exhilarating progress in both economic and social areas of society. Prohibition increased the appeal of drinking, creating a booming nightlife industry. People were eager for entertainment, enjoying widespread professional sports and interesting new inventions, like the creation of film and the automobile. Women had just gained the right to vote from the 1920 19th amendment, and were proud to claim their rights. Flappers were young, lively women who contributed to the roar of the 1920s by dressing differently and participating in risky, enjoyable activities previously reserved for men.

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In the 1920s, or aka “Roaring Twenties”, with the outcome of WW1, the pull of cities, and changing attitudes changed the outlook to many young Americans. These Americans were being referred to as “wild young people.” In the rebellious, pleasure-loving atmosphere of the twenties, many women began to assert their independence, reject the values of the 19th century, and demand the same freedoms as men. The Flapper or an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and attitudes of the day began to take over much of the female population.

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This angered many women, causing them to begin to hold conventions and rallies to gain suffrage. Many women began to “throw themselves into rebuilding their communities and families” because of their lack of rights and political abilities (Nashville Public Television). Many women actually believed that women should not gain the right to vote and were against the suffrage movement because they blamed women for how things ended up with their businesses. After these rallies were held people started to believe that women having political power wouldn't be that bad. Eventually in 1920 the 19th amendment stated “the right to vote could not be denied on the account of sex” (Anderson, “1920’s”).

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After the 19th amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote, woman began leaving behind their traditional roles and taking on new responsibilities, fashion trends and claiming their independence.(Doc 5.The New Woman). The younger generation of ladies in the 1920s surfaced into what is know as a flapper. Flappers listened to jazz music, embraced risqué fashion trends, and took part in bold behavior, which challenged their stereotype and led to more tension. The need breed of woman wanted to be accepted by the older generation, who often judged and disagreed with their new lifestyle. (doc 6.

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While a majority of the “old-fashioned” people disagreed with the ways of flappers in this time, others saw it as a declaration of independance. “(…) the New Woman of the 1920s boldly asserted her right to dance, drink, smoke, and date—to work her own property, to live free of the strictures that governed her mother’s generation. (…) She flouted Victorian-era conventions and scandalized her parents. In many ways, she controlled her own destiny.”

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The 1920’s in America can be considered the best and the worst of times. It was the decade that roared. Industries were booming, soldiers were coming home from war, and the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, allowing women’s freedom. According to the on-line article “The Decade That Roared, “young Americans were looking to cut loose and have a good time” (1). On that note, the Eighteenth Amendment passed prohibition, banning alcohol.

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Young females sought to be more adventurous, they were more outspoken, they weren’t afraid of anything and were always willing to do and experiment new things. The classified “New Woman” started to do activities that usually females never used to do before, they played sports, drove cars and danced. Their attitudes made new radical look on women. Women from older generation started to argue about the new generation of women, and disapproved the things they were starting to do. Some women abandoned the traditional, and followed the new women’s rebellion.

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“ A crusade in political education by women and for women, and for most of its existence, a crusade in search of a consistency” this quote by historian Nancy Woloch describes early suffragists efforts to take one step further to equality among men and women (Office of the Historian, 2007). The women 's suffrage movement changed the political, social and economic stance of women in The United States during the early twentieth century. Today women are one step closer to full equality of the sexes because of the women who fought for suffrage. Before this became the huge movement it was still legal for some women to vote in a few states. In Massachusetts and New York emphasis placed on owning property was the determining factor in voting rights.

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However, for any low few teens within the nation’s massive cities, the Twenties were roaring indeed. My first point is The ‘New Woman.’ The most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is perhaps the flapper: a young lady with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank smoked and said what may well term “unladylike” things, additionally to being more sexually “free” than previous generations.

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Throughout the 1920s, the role of women was constantly changing. This change was due to the type of work that they did during World War I. This time brought along the start of flappers. These women smoked in town, did all the new dances, and had sex all of the time. The women’s clothing also changed.

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The 1920s, led by the youth, was a restless time. Americans were tired of the moral restrictions of previous generations and the progressive reform a decade earlier. The “roaring twenties” were exemplified by new economic prosperity, social/cultural changes, and advances in technology. During the 1920s, many Americans challenged traditional ideas of acceptable or proper behavior; this marked the start of the sexual revolution.

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