Flappers

• Attitudes towards the role of women changed

  20th century
• Before WW1, few women had careers
• During WW1


  1. Gave women the opportunity to enter the work place

  2. Played an important role in the war effort
• Women granted the right to vote

  1920
• Flappers


  • New social life
  • Independent lifestyle
  • Wore new fashions
• For many women, there was little change in their status or employment due to economic circumstances, religious or other beliefs
• Before the war, employment opportunities for women were limited and most middle/upper class women did not work
• Women who did work had low paid jobs like cleaning and dressmaking
• Before the war, women were not allowed to pay a part in politics and weren't allowed to vote
• During the war, more than a million women helped with the war effort and 90,000 women served in the armed forces
• Women worked in jobs traditionally done by men like factories, transport and engineering, proving they could do the jobs as well as men
• The contribution by women in the war made their demands for equality hard to resist
• Few women made progress in gaining political power, with Nellie Taylor becoming the first woman governor of a state and Bertha Knight Landes becoming the first female mayor of an American city
• The influence of Jazz culture provided some women with the opportunity to break free from their traditional role
• Advertising and new jobs encouraged the 'flapper' lifestyle, which appealed to youth
• Some women rejected the flapper lifestyle, either being forced to continue their traditional role as a housewife or unable to afford the flapper lifestyle
• In the 1920s, women from the middle-upper class in the northern states challenged traditional attitudes, wanting to become more independent socially and freer in their appearance and behaviour
• There were a variety of women's associations involved in campaigns for equal pay, greater employment opportunities and improved political rights
• The majority of women were uninterested in politics
• The flapper lifestyle was seen as too extreme and was strongly objected to by the older generation
• Women wore tight waisted ankle length dresses, long hair but tied it up in a bun before the war
• Flappers had short bobbed hairstyles, smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol and danced the Charleston
• They also wore shorter skirts, make-up and high heels