Women’s change of role in the 1920’s

By Hazel Chan, Tiffany Choi, Lucinda Mok and Sharon Wong

How did WW1 change women’s role in society?When war started, women started to work

outside their homes. (as shipment collectors, accountants, telephone operators…etc.)

Women who worked outside their homes found greater employment opportunities and many were able to move from domestic service to industry jobs.

What was the 19th Amendment? How did women help achieve it’s ratification?

Women were given the right to vote (political participation)

They demanded better wages from their employers

The women’s suffrage movement gained the most votes.

Why did many women lose interest in politics during the 1920s?

Women lost interest because…- During the 1920’s cultural innovation, women of

different races tended to believe unified female political participation was impossible. That dragged down the faith and hope of women who wanted to believe that.

- Compared to new fashion trends and movies , politics seemed uninteresting

- Women were also swayed by social pressure and consumer advertizing of new products and sexier images.

- The result: many women’s interest changed from politics to social life.

How did 1920s social changes affect women?

Women began to challenge traditional ideas of women’s role in society (e.g. unmarried women had their own money to spend)

sexual mores were changing, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud promoted uninhibited sexual expression as a means for curing a multitude of ills.

women’s fashion became an outlet for personal expression and the focus on body image became more important.

Smoking was promoted as a way to help women stay thin.

What were the fashion trends that young women followed in the 1920’s?Skirts became shorter (usually 1 inch above

the knees) Rebellious women who wore short skirts were nicknamed flappers.

Flappers also wore makeupThe clothes they wore revealed more bare

skinWomen cut their hair short, wearing “shingle

bobs” and other hairstyles.

They were…- young, upper middle class, white women,

who were rebellious, wore short skirts, smoked and danced wildly. They displayed signs of independence, sexuality and energetic youth.

Who were the flappers and what kind of reputation did they carry?

It became more common to date, and even ask men out on dates

They had sex outside of marriageThey became more open minded toward mature

movie scenes, and wanted to experience sex.They also started to tell more off-colour jokes.Women started to smoke, and the number of

female smokers doubled throughout the decade.

How did women’s sexual ideas and practices change during the decade?

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Bower, Bert, and Jim Lobdell. History Alive! The United States. United States of America: Teachers' Curriculum, 2002. Print.

"google." 24/10/2010. Google, Web. 29 Jan 2010. www.google.com

Thank youfor your kind attention!(;