As a result of the work they did during WWI, Women began to challenge their domestic roles in the early to mid twentieth century. The effects of women’ s role in society changing were seen most as the 19th Amendment to the constitution in 1920 granted women equal voting rights. Experimentation with new looks, employments, and ways of life appeared freeing in contrast to the socially hushed ladies of the Victorian Age. Women developed a carefree attitude toward prohibition similar to men, new dances introduced sexual liberation and embracing androgynous fashions encouraged the challenging of gender roles. The Flapper era presented many positive changes to the lives of women as political equality inspired social equality.
As thought of as rooted in liberalism, the expression “flapper” portrayed ladies who colorfully ridiculed their disdain for what was in those days regarded as societal conduct that was customary. Flappers were ladies who were portrayed by their decision of bobbed hair, short skirts, and their pleasure in jazz music. The age of ladies who grew up amid World War I and the 1920s conveyed new encounters to their adulthood. Some had ventured into men’s shoes amid the war, picking up a feeling of self-assurance and an essence of monetary freedom. About all had taken an interest to some degree in the unrest of conduct and ethics that went with the war and the next decade. However few opted for roles other than spouse and mother. Woman began to adopt a new social essence that portrayed their carefree attitudes and revealed what seemed to be revolutionary or rebellious conduct. Social drinking, dancing, smoking and even a new style of dress and hair were emblematic for women of the Flapper era. According to a scholarly article about the Jazz age by Mary Murphy, “After the war it became harder and harder to say what was and was not ladylike and distinguish between immorality and frivolity.” This evoked mixed feelings out of males as chauvinism socially prevailed despite political equality. As the automobile replaced the bicycle, many began to make associations between women and transportation. The 1928 melody “Henry’s Made a Lady Out of Lizzie” takes the representation of a vehicle as a woman to unprecedented lengths while paying tribute to Henry Ford’s new Model A. The Model A supplanted the Model T Ford, known as the Tin Lizzie. Throughout the song, an automobile is described as a metaphor to a woman. This objectification signifies male popular opinion of the time period and reveals the ideal woman for the misogynistic male, as if she could be bought like a brand new Model A Ford. One line of the poem reads “now she’s full of sex-appeal,” which is a comment on the sexual liberation of women during the time period. Another portrayal of women by men in the twentieth century can be seen in the poem: “Announcement” by Langston Hughes. In this poem, writer Langston Hughes explores the relationships between women, men, and cars within the context of 1940s Harlem. Hughes builds up these relationships in various ways in this poem. A standout amongst the most commended writers of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural development of the 1920s and ’30s in the African American neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. “Announcement” shows up in the Lenox Avenue selection of poems, which particularly brings out the Harlem neighborhood. Here, he reformulates the connections between ladies, automobiles, and sexuality inside the setting of Harlem and black culture. The emphasis on vehicles during that time period reveals the significance of technological advancement and favor or priority of owning a car. In this poem the relationship between money and woman is displayed as he goes on to describe a woman as using him for his money and his car and then leaving him for another man. This is a common perception during this time period as women embraced more freedom and free will.
The Flappers were a symbol of liberation and the modern woman. The most renowned aspect of the Flapper era were the new styles of dancing that best embodied the new sexual liberation that accompanied women of the time period and encouraged a social equality that challenged patriarchy. The new dances of the flapper era, like most change, were accompanied by controversy. In the early twentieth century “unladylike conduct, such as smoking, dancing, short skirts, and short hair inevitably elicited comparisons to prostitutes.” In “Souvenir de Ballet. Polka Bohemienne du Faust,” a sheet music cover, portrayed is two ballet dancers and sisters in costume for the Bohemian polka and one is dressed as a man. “Suggests a tension between the status of dance as, on the one hand, a disciplined, culturally sanctioned form of movement and social interaction and, on the other, a suspect form of pleasure, associated with sexuality.” It was not uncommon for young people, especially among the working class to gather in dance halls across the country. According to historian Kathy Peiss, they experimented with new dance styles that allowed increased physical contact between women and men. Dancing is portrayed as important and holding artistic value but “never delinquency,” in the undated manuscript essay by Ann Barzel, a dancer and, later, dance critic who wrote for publications such as the Chicago Times and Dance Magazine through the late twentieth century. Dancing had never held such promiscuous notions until the roaring twenties brought new types of dances into the spotlight. The popularization of these dances evoked a sultry and controversial essence. Sexual liberation also introduced experimentation with sexuality. This photograph shows writer Gertrude Stein with her partner Alice B. Toklas in Chicago, disembarking from their first plane ride. Stein and Toklas, companions and lovers, were American citizens, but had lived in Paris since 1903. Literary critic Liesl Olson argues that mobility was central to Stein’s persona: “Stein was a figure who navigated the middle of things, who moved freely among different circles: a long-time resident of France who was yet an American, a society lady who yet appeared manly, a Radcliffe-educated woman who was distanced from university culture, and a very famous writer whose major works were mostly unknown.” The literary scene was most often intertwined with the flapper era and produced many celebrated writers and artists. These freethinking individuals pushed toward a progressive social setting for their fellow woman.
During the Flapper era, the modern woman was presented with new fashions. As androgynous styles became popular in the mid twentieth century, traditional gender roles were challenged. Women now not only held political opinion and votes but also made up a percentage of the work force. A photograph of Willa Cather in 1925 reveals the androgynous new fashions worn by women of the time period. The photograph of Cather includes a caption explaining that it was “taken among the cliff dweller ruins of the Southwest…the setting of the her novel The Professor’s House,” published in 1925. While embracing expressive freedoms in the form of dress, women also embraced employment and the freedom to be independent. “Many young women donned the accouterments of the jazz age simply for fashion and fun. Others embraced them as declarations of independence. The allure of new fashions and new freedoms seemingly linked to consumer culture, transcended ethnic and even national boundaries.” Frederick Lewis Allen observed that in many minds of the decade, “Short- haired women, like long-haired men, are associated with radicalism, if not with free love.” The Flapper era was the embodiment of radicalism, as the liberation influenced decades to come for the modern woman. “Improvisation,” a poem written by Carl Sandburg about Fanny Butcher reveals a positive professional relationship between men and women in the roaring twenties. Butcher, was the Chicago Tribune’s literary editor from 1922–1962.
Women were inspired to challenge their domestic roles following the 19th Amendment that granted women equal voting rights. Their carefree attitudes and experimentation with looks, sex and lifestyles, initiated a sexual liberation and way of living that not only challenged traditional gender roles but revolutionized the freedoms of the modern woman. The effects of the modern era can be seen even in today’s society. Although igniting much controversy with their androgynous clothing and social partying—as women in that time were expected to be “ladies” that continued to represent women of the traditional Victorian age. Challenging political and social inequalities, women of the twentieth century rebelled against the socially silenced women before them and conveyed their freedoms through all aspects of their lives. This was a major turning point in history for women’s rights, as suffrage had come to a close and patriarchy would continue to be challenged and reformed.