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Katelyn O’Neill
Dr. Rice
AP US History Period 2
3 Jan. 2011
Prompt: Were women emancipated in the 1920s? Assess in terms of TWO of the following:
labor force participation
housework
politics
cultural changes
The 1920s were a time of great change in the US. Many of these changes directly impacted the way
women lived and were treated in society in terms of labor force participation and cultural changes. Women had
always been considered inferior to men and were therefore not given the same rights and privileges. In the 1920s,
however, women began to challenge the ways people viewed the female sex. Women’s progress in gaining
economic independence, moral freedom, and freedom of self control demonstrated several important steps that
women took toward becoming liberated during the 1920s, but the discrimination they still faced in the workplace
and in US culture revealed they were still not completely emancipated.
Although women took steps toward achieving economic emancipation by becoming more active in the
labor force, they were still forced to deal with discrimination in the work place. During World War I women had the
opportunity to participate in the Army Corps of Nurses and hold new types of jobs to help care for US troops and
maintain stability in the country while the war took place. Their participation in these new jobs paved the way to the
expansion of jobs available to women in the 1920s. Women took advantage of electrical advances to make their
home lives easier, allowing them more time to take on new careers. More women attended college and had the
opportunity to increase their knowledge and find jobs. Around two million women earned a living by finding new
corporate office jobs such as typists, store clerks, and bookkeepers, as well as personal service jobs; the proportion
of married women in the work force increased by thirty percent. Despite the progress women made in expanding
their freedoms in the economic sphere, the discrimination they still faced undercut their achievements. The image of
the “new professional woman” was highly publicized but it was misleading as many professions, such as physicians,
often did not welcome women. Most women, even the professionals, also faced wage discrimination. Women were
still paid less than men for the same jobs and the anti-union campaign decreased the amount of women workers
belonging to unions. The jobs that most women held were low paying and they still had limited job opportunities
because many jobs, such as those in assembly-line factories, were dominated by men. Women who managed to find
jobs faced segregation in the work place; females working in offices were seated in ways that clearly distinguished
them from their male managers. Job discrimination, especially against married women, prevented them from
achieving complete economic independence. The jobs of most middle class married women were still mainly
domestic and many of these women stayed at home to care for their children. The number of working women in the
1920s increased, but in proportion to the total number of women in the US, the percentage was nearly the same.
Men in the American Federation of Labor discouraged women from working because they did not want women
taking their jobs or competing against them. The Women’s Bureau, a part of the Department of Labor, showed that
the government was not very concerned with making any changes to help women in the work place. The Adkins vs.
Children’s Hospital case rejected minimum wage for women. Overall, women were successful in taking steps
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toward achieving economic emancipation, but they were hindered by the wage and job discrimination they still
faced.
Women during the 1920s made progress in achieving moral freedoms, but the traditional views of woman
morality were still held and followed by many. Females in the US had traditionally been viewed as the upholders of
morality in society and were expected to be conservative and act in the way that was considered proper for women.
In the 1920s, however, women challenged these traditional values and made great progress in moving toward moral
liberation; the Jazz Age represented this period of change. The flapper girl was a symbol of young women’s
rejection of the Victorian woman stereotype. Traditional women’s fashions changed as the short, bobbed haircut
became popular, necklines plunged, corsets were no longer used, and boyish figures became more fashionable.
Hemlines rose and the tops of stockings were visible. Women wore makeup as the cosmetic industry flourished and
they also went to jazz clubs where they danced the Charleston. They began swearing, smoking cigarettes, and
drinking hard liquor which had previously been unacceptable for women. Women attending colleges were allowed
new moral freedoms, such as the students at Bryn Mawr who were allowed to smoke. Although women took more
steps toward gaining moral freedom, many people protested their behavior and still supported traditional woman
values. Sigmund Freud denounced women’s new freedoms and said their minds were dominated by their sexuality.
Moral guardians and members of the clergy denounced smoking and new dances that brought women and men too
close together; the Charleston was considered especially scandalous. Some women who had bathing suits with
hemlines that were considered too short were removed from beaches. Women were still not allowed the same moral
freedoms as men; unlike men, they usually could not speak of their sexual activities without ruining their
reputations. Women were allowed to participate in the 1928 Olympics, but many people argued that it was improper
for women to compete. Simply, women gained more moral emancipation than they had in the past, but many people
who held the traditional views of woman morality still opposed it.
Women in the 1920s had much greater control over their own bodies and affairs than they had in the past,
but social restrictions still hindered their own abilities to make decisions for themselves without interference from
men. Previously, women had little opportunity to take control of their own affairs because the interests and
decisions of men were considered more important than those of women and married women were expected to care
for and obey their husbands; however, in the 1920s this began to change as women spoke out against this injustice.
Birth control advancements gave women the freedom to control their own bodies and make their own decisions
regarding child birth. The Clinical Research Bureau was established in 1923 with the support of the American Birth
Control League. Birth control had been controversial in the past, but in 1936 the Supreme Court declared that it was
acceptable to dispense birth control information. The decrease in the amount of children each woman had during the
1920s demonstrated her new freedoms to limit child birth as she desired. The Sexual Revolution also demonstrated
the way many women broke free from the chaste stereotype of the Victorian woman and openly acknowledged sex
before marriage. They were able to indulge in sex more freely and the process of “courting” was replaced with
dating. Women could now meet with men whenever they wanted without being forced to consider marriage. They
also had the freedom to go out on the town without being accompanied by chaperones. The automobile made dating
more popular by giving women the freedom and power to leave the home whenever they desired. Women had much
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more freedom of self control than they had in the past, but they still faced many obstacles in achieving complete
independence. The number of divorces increased but divorce laws still favored men and many still supported the
idea of the cult of domesticity in which women were expected to confine their affairs to the home. Men still limited
women’s abilities to choose their own occupations by preventing them from taking certain jobs, such as factory
work in which the number of women workers stayed largely the same, and confining them to “pink collar” jobs.
Overall, the increase in self control that women enjoyed during the 1920s brought them closer to emancipation, but
the restrictions they still faced prevented them from achieving it completely.
The 1920s were a time of great change for women in terms of labor force participation and cultural
changes. Women took important steps toward emancipation through the progress they made in economic
independence, moral freedoms, and freedom of self control, but the obstacles they still faced prevented them from
becoming completely emancipated. Although women were not completely emancipated in the 1920s, they clearly
showed they were making progress.
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Works Cited
Bliven, Bruce. “Flapper Jane.” New Republic 9 Sept. 1925.
Boyer, Paul, et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2004.
"The Changing World of Work." EyeWitness to History. 2000. Eyewitnesstohistory.com. 1 Jan. 2011
< http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech1.htm>.
Freedman, Estelle B. “The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s.” The Journal of American
History Vol. 61, No. 2 Sept. 1974: 372-393. Organization of American Historians. Jstor. 1 Jan. 2011
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1903954>.
Kaye-Smith, Sheila. “The New Woman.” Living Age 5 Nov. 1929: 356.
Ling, Peter, "Sex and the Automobile in the Jazz Age." History Today 39:11 (Nov. 1989): 1-18.
Norton, Mary Beth, et al. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States since 1865. New York: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2008. 689- 693.
"The Roaring Twenties." Helicon Encyclopedia of World History. 2010. History Study Center. 1 Jan. 2011
< http://www.historystudycenter.com>.
Schmalhausen, Samuel D. “Sex Among the Moderns.” Birth Control Review October 1928.