US2 Women In Society Flashcards
Why did life change for millions of women in the 1920s?
Many had jobs and were wearing clothes and behaving in a way that was unthinkable a decade before.
Before the First World War, how were women expected to behave?
- most women could not vote and lead restrictive lives
- middle and upper class women were expected to behave politely, and wear sensible clothes. They rarely took part in sport, wore little makeup and relationships with men were strictly controlled.
How did WWI change the role of women in society?
- women had to take over the jobs of men who were away at war
- the money they earned gave them a sense of independence
- this war work partly helped women being allowed to vote from 1920
How many women were employed by 1929?
10.5 million
25% more than in 1920
List some ways in which women’s lives changed after WWI
- more women lived on their own
- some women began to behave and dress differently - wearing more revealing clothes, smoking, drinking in public
- less likely to stay in an unhappy marriage
- more sex before marriage - in 1900x 80% of college students had not had sex before marriage. But 1920, this has dropped to 31%
How did the divorce rate change in the 1920s?
It doubled
How did life not change for many women?
- in the south, they remained poor and didn’t earn enough to buy luxuries
- despite gaining the vote, women were not equal to men - could only work in less skilled jobs, and earned less than med doing the same job
What was a ‘flapper’?
Independent and fashionable women in the 1920s
Where in the US were flappers mainly?
Middle and upper class women from northern states
Why did Flappers shock more traditional members of society?
They saw them as an example of the evils of modern life
Felt that family life, religion and traditional values were under threat
