The Changing Role of Women in the 1920’s

This source is a picture of four women dressed in flapper dresses (shorter dresses that showed off more of their body). In this source I have recognised that these women may be dancing the Charleston. This could have also been danced to jazz music. This source tells us that women weren’t accompanied by men anymore (without chaperones); this gave the impression that they were single and could whatever they want. It also tells us that the fashion in the 1920’s changed, women had their hair cut much shorter, into bobs; they stopped wearing corsets and tight under garments and the hemlines on skirts and dresses rose.

This gave them more choice and freedom to show off. Without chaperones women could spend their time out dancing rather than being stuck at home. The photograph taken by the US fashion magazine is not reliable in the changing role of women because fashion magazines look at fashion, not the change of roles for women in the 1920’s. If this source was in a newspaper it would have been more reliable because it would give you information on the changing role of women.

A fashion magazine is the lifestyle that women aspire to rather that what they actually have. However, this source is also reliable because it gives us the idea of what the fashion style was like at the time. This applies to at least a few women otherwise there wouldn’t be a picture of the latest fashion. As the picture in the photograph is not a painting it should be accurate. This is useful because it shows us what women wanted to aspire to. It also shows us the progress and changing attitudes younger women in the 1920’s.

From my own knowledge I would have thought these women tended to be young, rich, urban women that may have drank or smoked in public to draw attention to them. This may have been because they were unaccompanied by men. On the other hand, this only shows one role of women. Most women, particularly the ones that lived in the countryside followed the traditional roles of women. This source is very hard to see how much the role of women has changed because there is no comparison from before the 1920’s to the 1920’s.