This paper is about why the 1920's was an influencial decade.

Essay by tamtam713College, UndergraduateA+, December 2003

download word file, 9 pages 5.0

Why the 1920=s Was One of The Most Influential Decades

AIt was during what we might call the Flapper period, or the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that American popular culture began to capture the imagination of the worldY[America] was inventing its own modernityY@(Mulvey 2). The 1920=s was a time of drastic change in several areas of American culture. Changes occurred because of the new role of women, new kinds of entertainment, a new philosophy about money, and prohibition. The combination of all of these factors made the 1920=s the most dominant decade of the millennium.

Among the uproar with the flapper and young American girls= rebelliousness, American women were making advances in other fields. While husbands were off fighting in the war, their wives were at home and assumed their husbands= roles in offices, factories, stores, etc. When the boys came home, women didn=t want to give up their jobs.

Many women moved into the Awomen=s professions@ of becoming teachers, nurses, librarians, and social workers. Many also became bankers, lawyers, police officers and probation officers (The Americans 620). One veteran suffragist said, AYou younger women have a harder task than ours. You will want equality in business, and it will be even harder to get than the vote.@ (The Americans 621). In all decades prior to this Afight for equality@ era, men only Acourted@ women they intended to marry, but now, dating became a new activity. Because of this, a double standard was set upon women requiring them to observe stricter standards of behavior than men had to. Women didn=t like this new pressure and began to feel rebellious. This was one of the first reasons women started changing their ways of life socially.

With women winning the fight to achieve the right to vote in 1920 with...