The Roaring Twenties: A History From Beginning to End by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2017-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Women’s Rights, Civil Rights, and Gay Rights

“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.”

—Joshua Zeitz

The 1920s was a decade of change in many respects. Along with the technological innovations that spawned modern forms of entertainment, it was a decade of significant social change. Women, in numerous countries throughout the world, won the right to vote, African-American culture drove much of the artistic expression, and homosexuality became more visible, and to some degree, more accepted.

In the United States, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 granted women the right to vote. Other countries around the world did the same, although in some, such as Great Britain, women were not granted full suffrage until 1928. With this change, the mentality about the roles of women also began to shift, particularly in the United States. Prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, it was commonly believed that women could not pursue both a career and a family. That attitude, however, began to transform as the so-called “new” American woman was less interested in social service and more interested in competing and finding personal fulfillment.

At this time in U.S. history, higher education was rapidly expanding to include more women, and that education refuted the belief that men and women’s social roles were somehow biologically inherent. Co-ed education emerged during this time as women began to attend large state colleges and universities regularly. There were also more employment opportunities for women during this era. World War I had necessitated the use of women in chemical, automobile, iron, and steel manufacturing, but they had been pushed out of those jobs following the war. Despite that fact, the war had shown that women were capable of that type of work, and as demand grew in the booming economy of the 1920s, more opportunities became available for women. Having achieved suffrage, feminists then turned their sights to equal rights. The Equal Rights Amendment was proposed in 1923, and though it did not pass, women were increasingly challenging the traditional roles to which they had been previously relegated.

As the status of women changed, the advertising agencies began to exploit their new-found freedoms. Ads for automobiles began to appear in women’s magazines and advertisers in general paid more attention to women’s buying power. Politicians also began focus on issues considered more important to women, including such concerns as children’s health.

Young women, in particular, played a significant role in changing traditional views as they promoted the sexual liberation of their generation. The writings of psychoanalysts, such as Sigmund Freud, were key in espousing the idea that sex was central to the human experience—including women—and that to restrain sexual desires and impulses was self-destructive. These ideas became mainstream during the 1920s, and are reflected in the behavior epitomized by the flapper.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.