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The 1920s saw a series of radical social changes in American society. During this era, people saw the clashing between the old and the new in various areas of American life. In some area, new values came to dominate and challenge traditional views, such as how women challenged old gender norms and how African Americans culture flourished and gained massive popularity. On the other hand, some conservative values seem to have triumphed over modern ideals, such as with the debate on the origin of human kind.
Many women took out to challenge the traditional views in the 1920s. After World War I, women’s contribution to the war helped them to successfully advocate for their right to vote. They became more assertive and contributed more to American politics and set out to claim more freedoms to their life. Many rejected the “Cult of Domesticity” and explored new work opportunities. They also fought against traditional standard by dressing and socializing more liberally. The flapper style came out
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During this era, fundamentalist Christians were gaining influence in American society. They promoted strict adherance to the Bible in all aspects of life, believing that everything cited in the holy book is true. When it came to the origin of human, this fundamentalist belief put them in opposition against secular thinkers. While the fundamentalists believed that god created the world and all its life forms in six days, secularists believed in Darwin’s theory of evolution, in which humans evolved from apes. The rejection of evolution theory became so strong that the state of Tennessee banned its teaching in 1925. When a biology teacher named John T Scopes taught evolution in his classroom, he was arrested. The Scopes trial became a notorious event for the debate between creationism and evolution. While it revealed some weakness in the argument for creationism, it seems to have not mended any rift between the two
From coast to coast people were reading the exploits of a new type of woman called flapper. Prior to World War 1 Victorian ideals still dictated the behavior of American women and girls. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the traditional role of women. Women were the guardians of morality. They were made of finer stuff than men. They were expected to act accordingly. Young girls must look forward in innocence to a romantic love match which would lead them to the altar and to living happily ever after. Until the right man came along they must allow no male to kiss them. Flappers did the opposite. Flappers danced the Charleston, kissed their boyfriends while they played golf and sat behind the wheels of fast cars. The liberated usually young female disdained the traditions of her mother and grandmother before her. Flappers would smoke and drink alcohol, she cut her hair and wore short dresses. They also changed their views on courtship rituals, marriage, and child rearing. With these they could have the same freedom as men could. The time period also saw a highly physical change in women’s lives like how they dressed and looked. For the first time in American history women could choose to be free from long hair and voluminous clothing. Before the women changed they wore very restrictive clothing consisting of long skirts with layers of petticoats over tightly laced corsets that produced an hourglass figure with wide hips and a narrow waist.
John Scopes, a substitute biology teacher was arrested and charged with violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee law which prohibited teachers from teaching the Darwin Theory of Evolution in a science-related course. The American Civil Liberties Union created a plan to find a teacher willing to teach evolution in order to test the Butler Act, which forbade the essence that anyone teaching any theory that shunned the Biblical story of creationism. Scopes agreed to be arrested and have the case be taken to court. However, Scopes had simply reviewed the textbook chapter on evolution. The traditionalists would see this as a threat to their interests and the issue hit the country stronger than a tornado. Everyone was glued to their radios—it was the first broadcasted radio trial--except the campers and hundreds of reporters near the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. Traditionalists would be outraged by the appearance of speakeasies, flappers, illegal boozing, popular activities of the Roaring Twenties and especially the Darwinian Theory. Their strong Christian beliefs from the Holy Bible stated how God created the world and man and woman. A traditionalist’s beliefs would not accept the idea of evolution because the Bible said that Man did not evolve but was created by God—the Divine Creation in one day.
After the war, the American people made the change from "old" ways to "new" ways. Many factors, such as new technology, fundamentalism, new looks and church led to tension between the old and the new. The 1920s were a time of conflicting viewpoints between traditional behaviors and new and changing attitudes.
Some people hated this idea of the Flapper and they blamed the war for these women’s new behaviors. After World War I, young women and young girls started to act free and go against their families. “Some people in society blamed the war for triggering this rebellion of youth and they claimed it had upset the balance of the sexes and, in particular, confuse women of their role in society and where they truly belonged” (Grouley 63). Some people hated the idea of the flappers and these women had become. These women, the flappers, in the 1920s felt free after the 19th amendment was passed. “Since the early twentieth century, the sexual habits of these American women had changed in profound ways” (Zeitz 21). Flappers drank, partied, and had romantic evenings with men. All of which were illegal for women. In addition, they were an embarrassment to society and they were able to get away with anything. “Flappers were a disgrace to society because they were lazy-pleasure seekers who were only interested in drinking, partying, and flirting” (Dipalo 1). For instance, Flappers went to clubs, drank, and hung out with men and were too lazy to do anything. Therefore, one consequence of the war was the creation of a new woman and this led to a movement like no other.
War is often followed by change; World War I is no exception. World War I is often labeled the cause for the rise of a feminine revolution-“the flapper”. Before the term “flapper” began to describe the “young independently-minded woman of the early Twenties” (Mowry 173), the definition that is most prominent today, it had a 300-year long history. The young woman of the 1920’s was new and rebellious. In her appearance and demeanor, she broke the social constructs of her society.
Partying, drinking, and dancing; these are the adjectives most commonly associated with the life of a flapper. While these descriptions are accurate, they do not inform people of the advantages and gains flappers made for the female gender. The flapper embodied the idea of freedom from the usual duties of a young female in the 1920s. These women were no longer tied down with the expectation that they immediately become a wife and mother, as well as being conservative and modest. By diving into a look at the fashion, music, and lifestyle of the flapper during the 1920s it will become obvious that they were not only independent, liberated, and enjoying many more freedoms than they had previously throughout history, but that they also helped to pave the way for future generations of women’s quest for independence.
In the 1920's women's roles were soon starting to change. After World War One it was called the "Jazz Age", known for new music and dancing styles. It was also known as the "Golden Twenties" or "Roaring Twenties" and everyone seemed to have money. Both single and married women we earning higher- paying jobs. Women were much more than just staying home with their kids and doing house work. They become independent both financially and literally. Women also earned the right to vote in 1920 after the Nineteenth Amendment was adopted. They worked hard for the same or greater equality as men and while all this was going on they also brought out a new style known as the flapper. All this brought them much much closer to their goal.
The late 1900s were a time of tremendous cultural change and instability in American history, but this change did not begin until after the relative unison of the late forties and fifties. After World War II (1939-1945) ended, a desire for normality led to large scale compliance to social constructs, with people reentering existing expectations such as men working, women tending the homes, and minorities functioning only as second class citizens. Because of these social barriers' reestablishment, conformity was simply the norm.
In 1925, a teacher named John T Scopes was arrested for teaching the Theory of Evolution as this contradicted religion and their beliefs that God created the world.
The trial began on July 21, 1925 when John Thomas Scopes challenged Tennessee for teaching creation, and how it is not scientific enough (“A Debate,” 2005). This shows that Scopes wanted to change the teachings of science, which doubt the existence of God. In 1981, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) had filed against the state of Arkansas for teaching creation years after the Scopes Trials had ended (“Victory Arkansas,” 1982). The statement shows that people still had firm faith that was shown by teaching the true way that all living things were formed through creation despite whether it was illegal or not. One of the most intriguing cases in American history, Edwards vs. Aguillard, when “the Act” was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (“Edwards vs. Aguillard,” 2005). As though many would say this is true, it also doubts the existence of God by trying to execute the creation law that all states had followed before Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution. The Scopes Trials played a huge part in the American society, which only made a wrong turn away from God by changing how elementary and secondary schools teach that humans were not created at the form that humans are seen
Women’s role in society changed quite a bit during WWI and throughout the 1920s. During the 1910s women were very short or liberty and equality, life was like an endless rulebook. Women were expected to behave modestly and wear long dresses. Long hair was obligatory, however it always had to be up. It was unacceptable for them to smoke and they were expected to always be accompanied by an older woman or a married woman when outing. Women were usually employed with jobs that were usually associated with their genders, such as servants, seamstresses, secretaries and nursing. However during the war, women started becoming employed in different types of jobs such as factory work, replacing the men who had gone to fight in the war in Europe. In the late 1910s The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had been fighting for decades to get the vote for women. As women had contributed so much to the war effort, it was difficult to refuse their demands for political equality. As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution became law in 19...
simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU, tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from all over to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet, below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning.
Time flew by and as the war ended in 1918, the 1920’s decade of change soon approached. The year was famously known as “The Jazz Age” and “The Roaring 20’s” because of the newly found freedom, social and political changes, and the time of prohibition. Among these powerful new changes was the freedom that women were finally able to vote and enjoy what was about to come. Instead of being confined at home, the women joined labor forces, worked with wages, and experimented with different types of behavior that would have been unreasonable a few years back. Along with these dramatic changes were their fashion styles. This style changed their rights and relationships with others completely. With that change, a new woman was born. There were not many ways for women to stand up for themselves and what they believed in. They had no voice but in the 1920’s, women found a way of freely expressing themselves and changing their relationships with others all with the start of fashion.
“Women’s roles were constantly changing and have not stopped still to this day.” In the early 1900s many people expected women to be stay at home moms and let the husbands support them. But this all changes in the 1920s, women got the right to vote and began working from the result of work they have done in the war. Altogether in the 1920s women's roles have changed drastically.
The south was especially against the idea of Darwinism being taught in school because they believed it would unravel or undermined their faith in God and the bible, and it would be responsible for a moral breakdown of the youth. These people were known as fundamentalists campaigned for the government to pass laws that prohibited the subject of evolution being taught in schools. They were able to secure a major victory in three southern states known as the bible belt. The stage was set when a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, decided to teach evolution in a public which was a crime in the state of Tennessee because Tennessee was one of the three states to pass laws on banning the teaching of evolution. The famed trial came to be known as the “Monkey Trail.” Luckily for Scopes, his attorney was criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow, while William Jennings Bryan helped the prosecution. Mr. Scopes became a shadow in his own case as the focus was on the duel between Darrow and Bryan. After this debate between theology and biology ened without a definite, clear result, Scopes was still found guilty, proving a hazy, fuzzy victory for the fundamentalists. This case did not support the fundamentalists’ cause that American culture should only be influenced by religious customs and teachings and