1920s Flappers Research Paper

"I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool... You see, I think everything's terrible anyhow... And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything."

The flapper is an iconic image in United States cultural history. She defined a decade and she symbolized the country’s reaction to a major war. At the end of World War I in 1918, both social and political foundations in American took a dramatic turn. From these changes, women of the twenties began to defy social norms and distinguish themselves from women in the 1910s and 1930s. The women of this decade had a newfound social liberty, as it was a major period of change. Conservatives and liberals were battling
Labor unions continued to form in a middle class plagued by unrest. Women, while breaking traditional molds, were still constricted compared to their counterparts in the 1920s. Compared to the flapper, the prominent women of the previous decade possessed more traditional, physically “ideal” beauty. However, events that took place in the 1910s were a precursor for the liberty that women lived in the twenties. The Woman’s Peace Party, founded in 1915, was the first major peace organization run by and consisting of women. In 1919 The League of Women Voters was founded in order to ensure suffrage for women and to eliminate legal sexism. The 19th amendment was in fact ratified in 1919 as well. This decade marked major gains for women, but did not usher in as untraditional of women as the
Jane Addams was one of the leading female figures of the time, and her ideas were incredibly impactful on society. She believed that the Progressive Era would truly only be progressive and successful if women were the leaders and diplomats of the world. It was of course a rash sentiment at the time, but with the height of the suffrage movement it was also accepted by her many supporters. She was also strongly opposed to individuality in women, which was not emphasized until the following decade. Unlike the carefree frivolity of the flappers, her feminism was much more sober and focused. Addams believed in full participation from every citizen in political and social decisions. Her support was most prominent in working-middle class women who were ready to participate in urban America. The feminist movement was on the rise as the economy industrialized, and the society faced a war leaving women exposed to a degree of