The Changing Role of Women in the 1920s (1918-1929)

Responsibility and financial independence

No change had a greater impact on women¡¦s roles than the transition from an agricultural economy to a corporate, industrial one. Through the 1920s, 25 percent of Americans lived on farms. Women in farm families worked in the family business. Middle class urban families, relied on a single mail wage earner. Urban working-class mothers, especially African-Americans, engaged in industrial production or domestic work; by 1920, about 9 percent of married women worked outside the hom

Marrying may not be the only thing that women look forward anymore, they also look forward to entering a profession and earning her living independently of male support. Women were enjoying the freedom that comes from having an independent source of income, many women created a new culture for themselves that centered on consumer culture and mass entertainment.

Although many women participated in expanding women's public roles, women accepted and pressed for change in varying degrees. The symbol of the new woman was a conglomeration of aspects of many different women from across the nation who lived between the 1890s and the 1920s. Among them were glamorous performers, female athletes, "working girls" employed in city factories and rural textile mills, middle-class daughters entering higher education and professions formerly closed to women, and reformers involved in women's clubs, settlement houses, trade unions, and suffrage.

In the ¡§Tender is the Night¡¨, Fitzgerald portrays the changing lifestyle of women in the 1920s. In Book II, in Chapter 8, Nicole experiences some changes. Her appearance changes. She has ¡§fine-spun hair, bobbed like Irene Castle¡¦s and fluffed into curls.¡¨ Apart from this, she also wears differently. She wears a ¡§sweater with powder blue and a white tennis skirt¡¨. This is completely different from the Victorian style. A prominent change can be seen. Moreover, the expression used by her becomes less lady and even vulgar, e.g. ¡§Plunk¡¨, ¡§Gee-iminiy¡¨, ¡§Bull¡¨. This portrayal of women by Fitzgerald shows the liberal freedom of the women in 1920s. Women regarded themselves as liberality.

Some topics in this essay:
Elsie Speers, Sexuality Woman, Bessie Smith, Tyler Rosemary, Night Rosemary, Christian Association, Nicole Responsibility, Southern Europe, Irene Castle¡¦s, Dana Gibson, tender night, twentieth century, women 1920s, role women, middle-class women, jazz age, ¡§tender night¡¨ fitzgerald, white women, partly due, liberal freedom, employment pattern, changing role women, fitzgerald portrays changing, night¡¨ fitzgerald portrays,