Rights (or lack thereof) For Women In The 1920s

One quote at the beginning of The Great Gatsby sparked something within me. Upon reading the quote, “I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17), I began to put it in the perspective of the time period

Scott Fitzgerald wrote it in. The novel was published in 1925, about 5 years after womens’ suffrage. In this time period, women were looked down upon, and thought of as inferior to men. Today this is still prevalent, almost 100 years later. Crazy! The section of the quote that sparked the most interest within me was when it states, “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world”. The belief that women should just be oblivious to the suppression they faced on a day to day basis, and that a woman should simply accept they will never be as intelligent as males was widespread. Even with the right to vote, women still lacked many abilities we take for granted today. Out of pure curiosity and thirst for historical accuracy, I researched some things that women lacked in the 1920s, after granted the right to vote.

One of the biggest rights women lacked was the right to wear whatever clothing they pleased. Women’s clothing in the 1920s was extremely taboo, as it was the “promiscuous flapper era”. In Virginia, a legislative bill (which failed to pass) attempted to prohibit women

from wearing "shirtwaists or evening gowns which displayed more than three inches of her throat”. Seriously? How scandalous is a throat?! In addition to that, Utah legislators set out to fine women whose skirts were "higher than three inches above the ankle". You read correctly, “the ankle”, not the knee. Some cities even created a necessity for permits to wear heels! In Carmel, California, women couldn't wear heels taller than two inches without a permit. At least that piece of legislation wasn’t out of hatred of women, simply an attempt to lessen the amount of tripping and falling related lawsuits. (By the way, that’s still pretty… shall I say, interesting?).

Another major limitation for women was the limitation of jobs available. These “protective laws” which restricted womens’ job choices were for the purpose to not, "negatively influence women’s behavior". Really? If only all you guys could see the amount of times I’ve rolled my eyes whilst researching and writing this post.

The last frustrating aspect of being a woman in the 1920s was not being able to hold a job while pregnant. Legal protections for working moms and pregnant women didn't exist until 1978!!  Women of the 1920s regularly faced unemployment after finding themselves

pregnant. Many employers at that time considered pregnancy to be a “detriment to job productivity”, and fired women long before they actually gave birth. Some working women tried to hide their pregnancies by using the decade's loose flapper fashions to hide their stomachs and growing wombs. Maternity clothing companies even advertised styles to help women be "entirely free from embarrassment of a noticeable appearance”. Pregnancy is a natural process of bringing a human being into the world! It shouldn’t have been regarded as a taboo subject that ultimately would hinder a woman from success.

In regards to how men viewed women in the 1920s, having any  woman realize their circumstances in perspective, I understand why men would fear their awakening and intelligence, and would want them to simply be “beautiful fools”. I’m beyond annoyed at the moment and would love to have a (non)civil conversation with every oppressive man in the 1920s. Luckily for them that’s kind of impossible!!



**Sidenote: I have no clue why everytime I publish something Blogger decides to butcher my carefully organized formatting!!