Women's Rights In The 1920s

In today’s world, Democrats and Republicans find themselves in heated battles over women’s rights. Abortion is a controversial topic, and leads to a divide within the American people. However, this is not a new concept. A similar fight about birth control took place in the 1920s, in addition to a parallel argument between men and women over gender roles and expectations. With the passage of the 19th Amendment, women gained the right to vote. Thereafter, they became more independent, which led to changes in society. Young Americans more openly discussed and portrayed their sexuality, and as a result premarital sex became more and more common. Having recently gained the right to vote, birth control and the negative light cast on women’s sexuality
Margaret Sanger published letters from mothers in 1928 that described the hard lives they lived because of involuntary motherhood. She hoped that Americans would realize just how much birth control could help those women, and others to come. Sanger received thousands of letters, each from mothers asking for “deliverance from the bondage of enforced maternity." At the time, childbirth complications were common and led to high infant and mother mortality rates. In addition, many of the women who sent in letters had hereditary diseases or physiological defects that they did not want to pass down to their children. Other women were simply too poor to continue having children, as having more children sent them deeper into a life of poverty. Although it went against the societal norm at the time, the idea of voluntary motherhood gained support from many American
Before the 1920s, Americans didn’t discuss women’s sexuality, and men did not view women as sexual beings. However, the start of the women’s rights movement led to women feeling more independent. As Paula Fass suggests in her essay, experimentalism and the restructuring of gender roles and relationships resulted from this independence. Along with the surge of flapper dresses and bobbed haircuts came petting. As expected, petting and the idea of premarital sex being more accepted by society led to a clash between old and new ideals. An article published in 1930 shared women’s thoughts on petting. They claimed that the lack of clear boundary lines in the sexual lives of young adults left their views on petting muddy. The difference in morals between the younger generation and their parents’ generation led to this confusion. However, the popularization of dating still occurred because of the experimentalism going on at the time, and young American women viewed petting as a “safe yet not sorry” way of sexual activity. While petting gained popularity, opposition referred to those participating in it as cheap, or promiscuous. The conflicting ideals between generations led to confusion in young