The Emergence of the New Woman

The 1920s was a period marked by great societal changes as America moved toward a more homogenized culture thanks to the emergence of popular culture such as television, radio and motion pictures, magazines, and mass advertising and consumerism. Along with the emergence of popular culture, or maybe because of it, emerged the New Woman, a cultural icon that many continue to associate with the era. During this time period, there existed a conflict between modern and traditional values, and this conflict led to the expression of contradictory roles for women. To the chagrin of many, women were shedding the Victorian ties that bound them to the domestic roles of wife and mother and were becoming more prominent in the public arena; they worked outside the home, smoke and drank alcohol in public, became increasingly involved in politics, and were unafraid to flaunt their femininity and sexuality.

What was new about the "new woman"? The most important change that women underwent during this era was that they had an increased presence in the public sphere. Because women were no longer relegated to the domestic sphere, they were able to venture into jobs, became more involved with politics, and became involved with the new consumer culture of the time.

Women in the Workforce

Throughout the 1920s, the number of women in the workforce increased steadily.  By 1930, 10.7 million women were working outside the home, making up 22% of the workforce.  Most working women were single, widowed, or divorced; by 1930, 1 in 6 married women worked outside of the home. 

By 1930, women earned 40% of the bachelor's degrees awarded. Most of those women became teachers, nurses, and social workers which were already traditional female occupations. Fewer than 20% of educated women worked in the better paying skilled factory jobs. Changes in technology and scientific management created opportunities for women in white collar service industry jobs. These low paying, low status, and low mobility occupations included work as secretaries, salespeople, telephone operators, and beauticians. Because these jobs were labeled "female only", even in hard economic times women were able to be hired for these and other new occupations.

One important gain for working women was the creation of the Women's Bureau in 1920. The Women's Bureau was part of the federal Department of Labor and it tried to improve working conditions for women from inside the government and provided data about working women.

These working women were empowered by earning an income and a small percentage of women even joined labor unions. This earning of an income allowed young women to become consumers in this newer economy through the purchase of makeup, ready to wear clothing, and household appliances as well as through commercialized forms of entertainment such as going to dance halls, movie theaters, and amusement parks. 

Involvement in Politics

In 1920, women had won the right to vote. However, voter turnout for women was relatively low in the national election and their vote didn't have a distinct effect on the outcome. Women did not vote in large numbers, nor did they vote as a bloc. To try to encourage women to play a greater part in politics the nonpartisan League of Women Voters was formed, as a reorganized version of the National American Women's Suffrage Association. 

Health, Rights, and Working Conditions

The divisions of the 1920s were reflected in the fate of two pieces of legislation. 

In 1921, Congress passed the Sheppard-Towner Act which had the aim of reducing the infant mortality rate; the law provided for public health centers where women could learn about nutrition and health care. According to an article written by Katherine Madgett for The Embryo Project Encyclopedia, "The Act provided federal funds to states to establish programs to educate people about prenatal health and infant welfare. Advocates argued that it would curb the high infant mortality rate in the US. Many states accepted funding through the Sheppard-Towner Act, leading to the establishment of nearly 3,000 prenatal care clinics, 180,000 infant care seminars, over three million home visits by traveling nurses, and a national distribution of educational literature between 1921 and 1928. The Act provided funding for five years, but was repealed in 1929 after Congress did not renew it. Historians note that infant mortality did decrease during the years the Act was in effect. The Act also influenced provisions aimed at infant and maternity welfare in later legislation, such as the Social Security Act of 1935" (source: https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/sheppard-towner-maternity-and-infancy-protection-act-1921). 

The second piece of notable legislation from this era that would have an affect on women was an equal rights amendment, proposed by Alice Paul in 1923. The proposed equal rights amendment, which never passed, led to bitter disagreements among women. Many feminists supported it, but other feminists opposed it because they believed it would do away with special laws that protected female workers.

Flappers

The image of the flapper is iconic to the 1920s era. The flapper represented more than just a style of dress, the flapper represented this new woman. Flappers represented modernism and the clash of values in the changing status of women in this era. The flappers were free-spirited and flouted convention; they cut their hair in short styles, wore short skirts and dresses and shirked the corsets worn by their mothers, they listened to jazz and blues music, they danced the new dance crazes of the time, they smoke and drank in public, and they became sexually liberated in the 1920s.

The flappers, of course, were not the norm although popular culture would have one believe as such. Flappers tended to be middle-class and upper-class urban women. Women in the mid-west and in many other rural settings still clung to the Victorian model of marrying young and managing a family and household rather than having the time or the disposable income the flappers had for leisure activities.

The 1920s brought about an era where women were more free than they had been in the past, but women would still have a long way to go to be seen as equal to their male counterparts.

Next time here on the blog, we're going to examine prohibition, one of the most aspects of the 1920s.