Women, Education, and Popular Culture

1. Women, Education, and Popular Culture

2. The Flapper • “Flapper” was a term for an urban woman who adopted new attitudes, fashions, and ways of behaving • Felt hats, waistless dresses just above the knees, skin-toned stockings, strings of beads • Women had their long hair cut into short bobs and sometimes dyed it black

3. Flapper Behavior • Flappers openly smoked and drank in public • Talked openly about sex – not something “polite” women did at the time • Danced provocative dances – fox trot, camel walk, tango, Charleston, shimmy • Ideas about marriage changed and reflected more of an equal partnership • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0&feature=related

4. Double Standard • Even though women were getting many more freedoms, a double standard (different standards for women and men) existed at this time • Not many women actually adopted the flapper attitude – it was mainly an ideal of rebellious youth • Casual dating was adopted by some men and women during this time • Men had greater freedom in dating than women did

5. The Double Standard at Work • When men came back from World War I, many employers fired women workers and gave men back their original jobs • Many women turned to so-called “women’s professions” – teachers, nurses, librarians • Some worked in business as typists, file clerks, secretaries, etc. • Few worked in management jobs, and virtually all women earned less than men in similar jobs

6. School • In 1914 1 million American students attended high school, but by 1926 it was 4 million • Prosperous times allowed more children to go to school and not work for the family • Higher educational standards were necessary for many of the new industrial jobs • High schools began offering new courses, including vocational training • Taxes increased to fund schools

7. Expanding News Coverage • Literacy increased with better education which caused increased newspaper circulation • Many large city newspapers started buying up small local newspapers, giving news coverage a broader feel • Magazines, with a wider circulation, began to cover national and international news

8. Radio • Radio was the most powerful communications medium of the 1920s • People could now hear news as it happened – something that had never occurred before • People began to hear world news, and the world heard America

9. 1920s Popular Culture • The 1920s began the age of popular fads – crossword puzzles, flagpole sitting, dance marathons • This was also the beginning of sports superstars – boxing and baseball in particular

10. New Pioneers • Charles Lindbergh first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean • Gertrude Ederle first woman to swim across the English channel

11. Entertainment and the Arts • Silent movies and later “talkies,” movies with sound, became very popular • Music composer George Gershwin gained fame for merging traditional European composition with American elements like jazz • Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe created the beginnings of American art

13. Literature • Sinclair Lewis – ridiculed Americans for conformity and materialism • First American to win Nobel Prize • F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby • Revealed negative sides of the period • Lost Generation – a group of American writers who fled American life for Europe • Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald