The Flappers In The 1920's

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Women in the 1800s faced gender inequalities and countless restrictions while exercising their rights. They must obey what men wanted or asked for, did every domestic work required for children and men, thus hardly having any rights. Before World War I, woman had difficulties finding their positions in society since they were simply viewed as inferior. Women had little opportunities for jobs in the business world. Even if they received the opportunities to work, men still discriminated against them harshly. However, during World War I, men were required to serve in the army, hence, women started to work in factories, industries, and different types of jobs to replace the vacancy of men’s positions. Women gained more and more confidence as they…show more content…
This was also influenced by the flourished economy in the United States that Americans started to spend money to seek for happiness and to relax. During the age of Roaring Twenties or the 1920s, the new image of the young, single, urban, northern, middle-class women (ushistory.org) were created and were later named the “flappers.” “The term flapper originated in Great Britain, where there was a short fad among young women to wear rubber galoshes left open to flap when they walk”(encyclopedia.com). Flappers started to change in their different perspectives and ideas that were incomparable to the “Gibson girl” in previous ages and did activities that only men did before the 1920s. First, flappers had a new hairstyle called bobbed hair, which was the cutting of hair to their shoulder length (ushistory.org), a style widespread among them. As the flappers cut their hair shorter, the Gibson girl, who had long and beautiful hair, was shocked. Second, flappers changed their tastes in clothing and their appearances. They wore high heels, short dresses up to their knees, and they also wore make up most of the time. Flappers were always active at night, busy with going to jazz clubs and vaudeville shows (ushistory.org). Usually, they drank alcohol, enjoyed doing new dances, or listened to new jazz music in clubs instead of staying at homes with their husbands or children in order to make themselves feel happier and to release their pressure thoroughly. Also, they could smoke, date anyone freely, and practiced more rights like the freedom of speech, in which they started talking about sex in public. Flappers created the image of the new and modern women at that time that the people from previous generations and men were shocked because they had never seen this before. Women became more valiant that they took risks and were careless. Yet, “[m]any women celebrated the age of

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