Changing Role of Women
Who represented women’s rights & gender equality more?
Traditional Values (Fundamentalism)
Dressed and acted conservative
While many Americans embraced the new morality of the
1920s, others feared that the country was losing its traditional
values. They viewed the consumer culture, relaxed ethics, and
changing roles of women as evidence of the nation’s moral
decline. Many of these people, especially in rural towns,
responding by joining a religious movement known as
Fundamentalism.
New Modern Values (New Morality)
The decade had opened with the passage of the 19th
amendment, giving women the right to vote
New household appliances reduced housework, and greater
numbers of women now went to college
More women worked outside the home and began to assert their
independence, and demand the same freedoms as men
This brought about changes in manners and morals
- young women began drinking and smoking in public
- began talking openly about sex
- they rejected restrictive clothing and adopted a new look
Flapper
Flappers, an emancipated young woman of the 1920’s who
embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day
Wore short dresses, close-fitting felt hats, skin-toned silk
stockings, sleek pumps, a lot of makeup and strings of beads
Their hair was cut into short boyish bobs
They went out on dates or to dances with no chaperones
They danced the Charleston, fox trot and shimmy with
abandon…all actions that would have ruined their reputations a
few short years earlier!
Changing Role of Women
Who represented women’s rights & gender equality more?
Conservative/Traditionalist
Flapper/New Woman of 20s