We live in a time where one is not defined by their gender. Where being born a boy or a girl does not predetermine your life. Today, your gender does not affect your hopes and dreams. You may become anything if you have the drive and determination to get there, because this America. We believe in equality, weather you are addressed as a lady or a gentlemen. However, it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when women weren’t thought of as equals. Women had to fight and rally to rid America of “separate spheres”. These women have gone down in history as the “New Woman”. This term is to address the ladies of 1920’s who took America by storm. They had laws passed, made women a permanent member of the United States workforce, and changed the attitudes toward the place of women in society forever.
At the beginning of the decade women across America now had the right to vote due to the 19th Amendment. This was because of The Women’s Suffrage Movement which was the push to get women’s right to vote. Women then became more involved in the government. More emphasis began to be put on social improvement, such as protective laws for child labor and prison reform. One of the social improvements was known as “Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement”. This was a group of women who felt that outlawing the consumption of alcohol would protect wives, families, and children from alcohol abuse. Eventually this movement was successful. However, it lead to the prohibition. Then the amendment that outlawed the consumption of alcohol was overturned. Even by the end of the 20’s women in politics still had little power, but they had begun the journey equality in our political system.
Through out the decade women also demanded to become a permanent member of the workforce. During World War I women had taken to the workplace to help fill in the “men’s duties” while they were at war. When men returned, women did not leave the workplace. They had began to continue jobs once graduated from college until they were married. They began working as nurses, secretaries, and in the garment industries, all places thought to be a “feminine job.” Although, looking back to only work in “feminine roles” seems foreign to us, to them it was such a progressive change. It gave a new outlook to young women of America.
Lastly, the entire persona of women changed in the 20’s. The flapper was born. A young woman, not married, who wore short skirts and shorter and lots of make up. She could be found often in a speakeasy with a cigarette hanging off her finger tips and some illegal moonshine in her hand. However, it wasn’t just what the women wore that made her a flapper, a woman had to have enough money and free time to play the part. It was a more progressive and liberal women. She wasn’t buttoned up and conservative. She was a woman, and if she wanted to be as free as a man, she well could be.
The 1920’s was the time of “New Woman”. An era that has led us to be where we are as a society today. An era that led us to not be defined by our gender. An era that led us to a time of empowerment and true freedom.
My pictures include on the right a campaign during Women's Suffrage to get the right to vote and of a flapper in the bottom left.
My sources:
"Women in the 1920s in North Carolina." Women in the 1920s. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://ncpedia.org/history/20th-Century/1920s-women>.
"Women in the 1920s." Women in the 1920s. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.slideshare.net/KateSimon/women-in-the-1920s-10247493>;
Comments
Excellent job!!