Women's Rights In The 1920s Essay

Throughout history, women have always been considered second-class citizens compared to men, however, the issue of equal rights changed in the 1920’s with the development of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution and gave all genders the right to vote, and with the new Amendment, women started to evolve into a new force to be reckoned with. The women of the 1920’s started to live their lives as men had lived theirs. Husbands and boyfriends were shocked by the transformation of their female partners. Women began to smoke, drink, join the working force, and even murder. Once women had developed a new sense of independence, women did not want to return to being housewives. The 19th Amendment caused American women to gain confidence and rebel against gender roles during the 1920’s, resulting in a surge of women wanting to experience life as men had always done.

On August 18th, 1920, Congress passed the 19th Amendment which stated “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall

not denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on the account of sex”. The battle for women’s suffrage was fought by a group of women called the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The group was run by President Carrie Chapman Catt who once said, “How long must women wait for democracy?” By working for many years, the suffragettes won the vote. Unfortunately, the future generations did not treat the issue of women’s equality with the same urgency and importance as the previous suffragettes did.
After achieving the right to vote, the need to have the NAWSA active was no longer required and so the association disbanded. Yet the battle for equal rights was not completed and the cause was continued by different leagues which were formed during the 1920’s. The two main organizations created were the League of Women Voters (LWV) and the National Women’s Party (NWP) (Knauer). Alice Paul was the president of the NWP from 1920 to 1925 (Knauer). Paul found it essential to continue the legacy of the NAWSA, and in 1923, Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment or the ERA (Knauer). The ERA’s goal was to create laws which would make men and women equal in all aspects of life (Knauer). According to the article From Suffrage to Women’s Liberation, “The ERA was ahead of its time in the 1920’s”. Society was not prepared for women to have the same rights as men did. The ERA was not approved in the 20s, but the ideals of the ERA gave women the shift needed to become independent from men (Douglas).
Unfortunately, society did not appreciate the innovative opinions of women involved with the NWP. The public wanted women to stay within the standards which were set up many years before the 19th Amendment. Women were expected to be “confined to the realm of the home, their responsibility to society lay in raising virtuous sons (future citizens) and dutiful daughters (future mothers)” (Evans). According to Allen, before the 19th Amendment, women were only qualified to be teachers, secretaries, nurses or social service workers. However, with the 19th Amendment women started to get jobs which were male dominant (Evans).
With ladies expanding independence, women began working male-dominated jobs. The women who joined the workforce had different backgrounds, but all women desired independence. By joining the workforce, new opportunities were given to women (Allen). In the novel The 1920’s, women’s new jobs were positions which included advertisers, real estate agents, entrepreneurs, and managers. However, the growth of the women’s labor force stopped evolving because of groups known as labor unions. Labor unions were groups set up by male workers to demand equal pay and fair conditions. None of the labor unions supported women’s equality in the workplace (Evans). Women didn’t receive any equal pay in the workplace because men had control over paychecks (Freeman). No matter what the issue, ladies would not receive equal rights while men and laws held women in check.
With the addition of the 19th Amendment, women left the households to go and vote.

When women left the households, they discovered a new world outside of cooking and cleaning. For the entirety of history, women were expected to clean and cook, and in the 1920’s men could no longer keep women inside the house. The women of the 1920’s era desired to be freed of men’s expectations (Freemen). According to Allen, whether the women went to the movies, a restaurant, or their job, the time spent at home dropped sharply. As people moved into the cities the size of the house decreased from large farmhouses to apartments in high rises (Allen). Smaller apartments made “less claim upon the housekeeper’s time and energy” (Allen). In the novel The 1920’s, businesses were booming with success and money, and so the industry of canned goods was introduced. With the invention of the canned goods, women spent less time cooking and more time out in the city experiencing

life.
“Women in the city seemed to have gone mad” (Perry). With the ladies of the 20s experiencing life for the first time in history, the women underwent a change in their lifestyles. In the 1920’s, the world was introduced to flappers (Lazin). Flappers were strong independent women who wanted to see the world (Lazin). Flappers were often unfaithful to the men in their lives and started to fool around with others (Lazin). According to Allen, all male authority decreased in value to the flappers. When society changed how women were treated, a rebellious side grew from the flappers. The women on the rebellious side ended up on “Murderess Row” (Perry). Reported by Douglas Perry, female murderers were all the rage in the 1920’s with every female murderer usually beautiful and glamorous. Most women thrown into jail would walk out a free woman in a few months time (Perry). The juries in the courtrooms were filled only by men. Men did not believe women could have committed any crime for ladies were too innocent. According to the novel The Girls of Murder City, unable to be actually accused of murder resulted in the increase of women murderers throughout the cities. Women, flappers, and murderers tested the boundaries of society by changing previous standards set before them.
With the 19th Amendment added to the Constitution, American women led the charge to change society. Society advanced with the introduction of the newer generation who shortened their skirts and few became murderers (Lazin and Perry). Women desired more rights and for the first time, women would take their freedoms from men (Freemen). By leaving the household and joining the man’s world, women experienced life as women had always desired. Without an evolution of technology, women could never have gained independence of what was required to become more involved with society. The first real technological advance accessible by the public was the radio.