American Women History of 1920s Paper The 1920s are often viewed nostalgically as a wild decade, and images of flappers and speakeasies fill our minds. How

American Women History of 1920s Paper The 1920s are often viewed nostalgically as a wild decade, and images of flappers and speakeasies fill our minds. How did changes in the 1920s impact women, both opening up new opportunities for them and limiting them in different ways? How did the images of the 1920s stack up against the realities of the decade that women faced? Don’t forget the additional reading, as well as ethical issues.Write a one page response to this question using examples from the attached readings. Introductory Lecture __________________________________________________
The 1920s offer a new way to view women’s lives. After achieving the right to vote, women appeared to
back away from politics for the most part. Voter participation among women in the 1920s was down,
especially among younger women. The 1920s offer one of the best examples of a generation gap when
looking at the “older generation” of women (like Alice Paul, Jane Addams, and other “New Women” of
the 1910s) as compared to the flapper.
An area where the gap is most clearly seen is
with ideas of morality and sexuality. After World
War I, nineteenth-century morality and virtues
were transformed by the entertainment
industry, which presented Americans with
relaxed sexual mores and attractive stars. Movies
had a wide appeal in the 1920s, and stars like
Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Douglas Fairbanks,
and Mary Pickford captivated American
audiences both with their performances in
feature-length films and with their personal
style. For women, film idols modeled the
“flapper” style, reflecting the notion of the “new
woman” by wearing short skirts and makeup,
smoking cigarettes, drinking prohibited alcohol,
and dancing to jazz. Spurred by their new found
freedoms (such as employment and the vote)
women asserted their independence and
rejected authority and attempts to control them.
Dresses and hair got shorter, as women were no
longer trying to meet the Victorian old-fashioned ideal. Women were showing their legs at the beach
and at the speak-easy, with fancy stockings when dressed up. Women smoked in greater numbers:
before war seen as moral vice, but after war ok for men to smoke, but not women—women trying to
break that double standard.
Prohibition was another way for women to break the double-standard. Making the production and sale
of alcoholic beverages illegal served to actually drive drinking numbers up. As Jonathan Eig writes in his
work, Getting Capone, “By making booze illegal, the government unwittingly glamorized it. The bubbles
in a glass of champagne seemed more scintillating, the foam on a mug of beer more refreshing.
Homemade alcohol had a tendency to taste like battery acid, which led to the invention cocktails; the
addition of sweet flavors and herbs mad the drinks more alluring, especially to women.” Flappers were
major customers in the illegal bars that dotted the American landscape.
For the most part, flappers were urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs in the
changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age were more numerous
than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more operators. The consumer-oriented economy
of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of department stores. Women were needed on the sales floor to
relate to the most precious customers — other women. But the flapper was not all work and no play.
By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and vaudeville shows.
Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the twenties adopted the same carefree
attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart. Ironically, more young women consumed alcohol
in the decade it was illegal than ever before. Smoking, another activity previously reserved for men,
became popular among flappers. With the political field leveled by the Nineteenth Amendment, women
sought to eliminate social double standards. Consequently, the
flapper was less hesitant to experiment sexually than previous
generations. Sigmund Freud’s declaration that the libido was one
of the most natural of human needs seemed to give the green light
to explore.
The flapper had an unmistakable look. The long locks of Victorian
women lay on the floors of beauty parlors as young women cut
their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose dramatically
to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as women used
make-up in large numbers. Flappers bound their chests and wore
high heels. Clara Bow, Hollywood’s “It” Girl, captured the flapper
image for the nation to see.
Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female
declaration of independence. Experimentation with new looks,
jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the socially
silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities
to please themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were
quick to elucidate the shortcomings of flapperism. The political
agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored until the feminist revival of the 1960s.
Many wondered if flappers were expressing themselves or acting like men. Smoking, drinking, and
sexual experimentation were characteristic of the modern young woman. Short hair and bound chests
added to the effect.
For a look at flappers, this YouTube video has a great collection of short clips that encapsulate the
feeling and look of flappers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc. While some portions of
popular culture portrayed flappers as independent and strong, others portrayed them as (essentially)
mindless bimbos. Even the Betty Boop cartoons, which we think about in nostalgic ways now, do not
demonstrate a solid respect for young women in the 1920s.
Although younger women stayed away, for the most part, from political issues, the previous generation
continued fighting. For example, Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party advocated for an Equal
Rights Amendment. The ERA failed time and time again in the 20th century—and has yet to still be
passed.
The ERA stated:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of
this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
Not all women supported the ERA, as you read in the textbook and as the document on the amendment
demonstrates. What ethical issues does the ERA present, and what does it reveal about views of women
at the time?
The Case for Birth Control, by Margaret Sanger
first published in the Woman Citizen, Vol. 8, February 23, 1924, pages 17-18.
Everywhere we look, we see poverty and large families going hand in hand. We see hordes of
children whose parents cannot feed, clothe, or educate even one half of the number born to them.
We see sick, harassed, broken mothers whose health and nerves cannot bear the strain of further
child-bearing. We see fathers growing despondent and desperate, because their labor cannot
bring the necessary wage to keep their growing families. We see that those parents who are least
fit to reproduce the race are having the largest number of children; while people of wealth,
leisure, and education are having small families.
It is generally conceded by sociologists and scientists that a nation cannot go on indefinitely
multiplying without eventually reaching the point when population presses upon means of
subsistence. While in this country there is perhaps no need for immediate alarm on this account,
there are many other reasons for demanding birth control. At present, for the poor mother, there
is only one alternative to the necessity of bearing children year after year, regardless of her
health, of the welfare of the children she already has, and of the income of the family. This
alternative is abortion, which is so common as to be almost universal, especially where there are
rigid laws against imparting information for the prevention of conception. It has been estimated
that there are about one million abortions in the United States each year.
To force poor mothers to resort to this dangerous and health-destroying method of curtailing
their families is cruel, wicked, and heartless, and it is often the mothers who care most about the
welfare of their children who are willing to undergo any pain or risk to prevent the coming of
infants for whom they cannot properly care.
There are definite reasons when and why parents should not have children, which will be
conceded by most thoughtful people.
First — Children should not be born when either parent has an inheritable disease, such as
insanity, feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, or syphilis.
Second — When the mother is suffering from tuberculosis, kidney disease, heart disease, or
pelvic deformity.
Third — When either parent has gonorrhea. This disease in the mother is the cause of 90 percent
of blindness in newborn babies.
Fourth — When children already born are not normal, even though both parents are in good
physical and mental condition.
Fifth — Not until the woman is twenty-three years old and the man twenty-five.
Sixth — Not until the previous baby is at least three years old. This gives a year to recover from
the physical ordeal of the birth of the baby, a year to rest, be normal and enjoy her motherhood,
and another year to prepare for the coming of the next.
We want mothers to be fit. We want them to conceive in joy and gladness. We want them to
carry their babies during the nine months in a sound and healthy body and with a happy, joyous,
hopeful mind. It is almost impossible to imagine the suffering caused to women, the mental
agony they endure, when their days and nights are haunted by the fear of undesired pregnancy.
Seventh — Children should not be born to parents whose economic circumstances do not
guarantee enough to provide the children with the necessities of life.
A couple who can take care of two children and bring them up decently in health and comfort,
give them an education and start them fairly in life, do more for their country and for mankind
than the couple who recklessly reproduce ten or twelve children, some of them to die in infancy,
others to survive but to enter the mill or factory at an early age, and all to sink to that level of
degradation where charity, either state or private, is necessary to keep them alive. The man who
cannot support three children should not have ten, notwithstanding all pleas of the militarists for
numbers.
Eighth — A woman should not bear children when exhausted from labor. This especially applies
to women who marry after spending several years in industrial or commercial life. Conception
should not take place until she is in good health and has overcome her fatigue.
Ninth — Not for two years after marriage should a couple undertake the great responsibility of
becoming parents. Thousands of young people enter marriage without the faintest idea of what
marriage involves. They do not know its spiritual responsibilities. If children are born quickly
and plentifully, people consider that the marriage is justified. I claim that this is barbaric and
wrong. It is wrong for the wife, for the man, for the children.
It is impossible for two young people to really know each other until they have lived together in
marriage. After the closeness and intimacy of that relation there often comes to the woman a
rude awakening; the devoted lover becomes careless and dissatisfied. If she becomes pregnant
immediately, she becomes physically disturbed, nervous, and irritable. The girl has changed, and
the boy who knew her as a happy smiling sweetheart finds her disagreeable and disgruntled. Of
course thousands of people learn to adjust themselves. Nevertheless, I maintain that young
people should marry early and wait at least two years to adjust their own lives, to play and read
together and to build up a cultural and spiritual friendship. Then will come the intense desire to
call into being a little child to share their love and happiness. When children are conceived in
love and born into an atmosphere of happiness, then will parenthood be a glorious privilege, and
the children will grow to resemble gods. This can only be obtained through the knowledge and
practice of Birth Control.
P.S. — The American Birth Control League desires that the instruction in birth control should be
given by the medical profession. Only through individual care and treatment can a woman be
given the best and safest means of controlling her offspring. We do not favor the indiscriminate
diffusion of unreliable and unsafe birth control advice.

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