Dangerous Women:

Flappers as a Political Force

Kelley Serdenes

At the end of World War I, a new breed of women roared onto the social scene. This woman was
unlike any of her demure sisters before her. Her clothes were different, her hair was different, her
makeup was different, her total persona was different. The flappers of the 1920s represented all
of the changes in the lives of women and their attitudes that were happening in that era. The
majority of the world viewed flappers as frivolous, fun-loving, airheads, but contrary to popular
belief, flappers held much more power than they are often given credit for.
The women of the flapper generation gave up their stay-at-home life and entered the work force
as expected when the male population traveled off to World War I. The war brought about many
changes in her life. She adapted to being both homemaker and breadwinner, providing for herself
and her family. All over Europe, womens fashions were evolving to better accommodate their
changing needs. Dresses were made looser to allow for the movement necessary to perform their
jobs.1 The long, Victorian, ankle-binding hobble skirts of the Gibson Girl made way for shorter
skirts (and, in turn, the boxy, flapper dress) that allowed more freedom of movement for walking
about or running after and climbing onto the streetcars they rode to get to their jobs. With their
men gone, women needed the ability to dress themselves, so also gone were the heavy, restrictive
corsets. Pockets were added to dresses to eliminate the need to carry a purse.2 The shift in
fashion was not only a functional shift. It was one that signified a change in attitude. Flappers
drastically changed their appearance. They cut their hair, wore face powder and lipstick, cheek
color, and they outlined their eyes heavily with kohl.3 They experimented with new fad diets to

1 Maria Makela, The Rise and Fall of the Flapper Dress: Nationalism and Anti-Semitism in Early-TwentiethCentury Discourses on German Fashion," Journal Of Popular Culture 34, no. 3 (2000). Academic Search Complete,
EBSCOhost (accessed May 4, 2016), 197.

2 Ibid.

gain and maintain a slim, boyish figure allowing them to fit into the boxy, flapper dresses. These
changes in appearance were also accompanied by lifestyle changes.
Flappers began breaking out of their long-established gender roles. The numerous casualties
experienced during the war taught them how fleeting life can be. Flappers became accustomed
to earning their own way. They had the money to spend and there were more than enough new
opportunities on which to spend it.4 Automobiles were plentiful and men were more than willing
to have a pretty girl ride along with him. These automobiles also provided new experiences; the
occupants were now able to travel farther away from the home and it also provided a secluded
location to be alone. The theater was very popular and night clubs which were previously off
limits now became a common hangout. Their behavior which redefined womens roles was
shocking and considered outlandish for the time.5 Flappers discarded the old, rigid traditional
gender roles of plain living, hard work and religion6 and embraced the new scandalous behaviors
of drinking, swearing, smoking in public, using birth control, and premarital sex. Their new
behaviors embodied sexual and economic freedom. When World War I was over, many women
welcomed the return of their men; they were only too happy to return to their gender-

3 Flapper, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia; (Wikimedia Foundation Inc., updated 10 April 2016, 23:40 UTC)
[encyclopedia on-line]; available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper; Internet; retrieved 05 May 2016.

4 Angela Woollacott, Khaki Fever and Its Control: Gender, Class, Age and Sexual
Morality on the British Homefront in the First World War, Journal of Contemporary
History 29.2 (1994). Sage Publications, Ltd., JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.howardcc.edu/stable/260893, 349.
5 Wikipedia, Flappers.
6 Ibid.

stereotypical lives.7 Not so the flapper. She liked her newfound freedoms. This new woman was
more assertive than her Victorian counterpart and not willing to sit at home. Her post-war
giddiness increasingly frightened traditionalists, who feared that women were out of control.8
This radically different woman shook the sensible, traditional view of women to its core. As
stated in Wikipedia, [she] was pushing the boundaries of gender roles, representing sexual and
economic freedom.9 Men felt the flappers were experiencing a phase which they hoped would
soon disappear. They viewed flappers as someone who was young and irresponsible and once
given the proper guidance (by men) she would return to her prewar, obedient self. That was far
from actuality. While the post war roles of women were changing, the roles of men were not
prepared to change with them. Men were angry that women were breaking out from under from
their control socially, economically and politically. Women were making their own money and
were no longer dependent on the men for a living which frustrated the men.10 Women were now
becoming financially independent. They began competing with men in the business world. After
all, they held the same jobs while men were away at war. In The Spinster and Her Enemies,
Sheila Jeffries noted the theme of male backlash against the increasing social and political
emancipation of women. She [saw] this embodied in changing ideologies of marriage and
7 Melanie Reynolds, "Modern Women on Trial: Sexual Transgression in the Age of the
Flapper," Law, Crime and History 3.3 (2013), Academic OneFile (accessed May 4,
2016), 96.
8 Sandi E. Cooper, Women in War and Peace, 1914-1945 in Becoming Visible:
Women in European History, ed Renate Bridenthal, Susan Mosher Stuard and Merry
Wiesner (New York: Houghton- Mifflin Company, 1998), 448.
9 Wikipedia, Flappers.
10 Woollacott, 341.

increasing denigration of independent unmarried women.11 Obviously, the men found them very
threatening.
According to some, the flappers of the 1920s were not as concerned with political equality as
they were with social equality. In her article Modern Women on Trial: Sexual Transgression in
the Age of the Flapper, Melanie Reynolds says they forged a new social and cultural
consumptive identity rather than a political one.12 Flappers were expanding their social circles.
They would form friendships with all different classes of people from all different countries.
British men had a problem with this as they felt it was patronising with the enemy.13 After the
crushing loss of life in the war, flappers realized how short-lived life could be. They began
exploring activities that had previously been off limits to them such as frequenting night clubs,
dancing all hours and drinking. They were determined to broaden their horizons and live their
lives as they wished, out from underneath the direction of men. Melanie Reynolds states,
Although flappers paved the way for a less serious character of women, in being apolitical they
were arguably no less dangerous to the establishment than their political sisters.14 One could
argue against her opinion that flappers lacked political power based on the drastic changes
flappers were able to bring about to the freedoms and the social lives of women of the 1920s.

11 Lesley A. Hall, "Impotent ghosts from no man's land, flappers' boyfriends," Social
History 21, no. 1 (1996), Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed May 4,
2016), 55.
12 Reynolds, 96.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid

Most of this change came about when they were finally given the right to vote. In Britain,
women over the age of thirty had been granted suffrage in 1918. It was not until 1928 that this
right was granted to women over 21 as well, many of whom would be considered flappers. After
the passing of the Flapper Vote in 1928, members of the House of Lords feared how it would
impact the elections. According to the Associate Press in an article titled, Eyes of Britain on
Flapper Vote in the Spokesman-Review on March 18, 1929, For the first time women voters are
in the majority and will decide the election.15 As discussed by David H. Close, The core of the
conservatives dislike of the Flapper Vote was their low regard for the political mentality of
young women. This was illustrated by a cabinet ministers attempt to appeal to them in the 1929
election with such patronizing statements as: to the average girl voting is a dull subject, and
the easy way for a girl to choose a candidate is by looking athis face, manner and clothes16 If
the cabinet members didnt think the newfound power of the flappers would bring about change,
they would not waste their time petitioning them. While flappers may not have been marching or
protesting they did exercise their power by voting and by daring to challenge convention, they
broke new ground for the future of women socially, sexually and politically. These women were
leaving their old values behind and adopting new ones, demonstrating that women of the 1920s
were evolving and the country was going to have to do so with them.17

15 Associated Press, Eyes of Britain on Flapper Vote. The Spokesman-Review,

March 18, 1929. Accessed May 10, 2016. https://news.google.com/newspapers?
nid=1314&dat=19290318&id=xhBWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=keIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6254,3364
387&hl=en.
16 David H. Close, 1977. The Collapse of Resistance to Democracy: Conservatives, Adult
Suffrage, and Second Chamber Reform, 1911-1928. The Historical Journal 20 (4).
Cambridge University Press: 915. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.howardcc.edu/stable/2638413.

Although it originated in the United States the collapse of Wall Street and the Great Depression
of the 1930s impacted Europe as well. It brought an abrupt end to the Flapper Era of the 20s.
Women no longer had the money they once had to support the wild nightlife and the nonstop
activity. Although the flapper era was short lived, her influence and power to change the destiny
of women was long lasting. As stated in Wikipedia, Although the end of the flapper era had
vanished almost overnight, its symbol for womens liberation would live on. No longer would a
woman have to be a homemaker. The freedom to choose her role in society was created.18 It
was the free spirited, independent flapper who started women on the journey to becoming the
modern woman of today.

Bibliography
Associated Press, Eyes of Britain on Flapper Vote. The Spokesman-Review, March 18, 1929.
Accessed May 10,
2016.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?
nid=1314&dat=19290318&id=xhBWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=keIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6254,3364387&h
l=en.
Close, David H. 1977. The Collapse of Resistance to Democracy: Conservatives, Adult
Suffrage, and Second Chamber Reform, 1911-1928. The Historical Journal 20 (4).
Cambridge University Press: 893918.
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.howardcc.edu/stable/2638413.
Cooper, Sandi E., Women in War and Peace, 1914-1945 in Becoming Visible: Women in
European History, ed Renate Bridenthal, Susan Mosher Stuard and Merry Wiesner (New
York: Houghton- Mifflin Company, 1998), 439-460.

17 Women in the Roaring Twenties, Historpedia, accessed May 9, 2016,

https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/historpedia/home/personal-groupidentities/women-in-the-roaring-twenties-fall-2012.
18 Wikipedia, Flappers.

7
Flapper. in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia; (Wikimedia Foundation Inc., updated 10 April
2016, 23:40 UTC) [encyclopedia on-line]; available from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper; Internet; retrieved 05 May 2016.
Hall, Lesley A. "Impotent ghosts from no man's land, flappers' boyfriends," Social History 21,
no. 1 (1996), Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed May 4, 2016), 54-70.
Makela, Maria. The Rise and Fall of the Flapper Dress: Nationalism and Anti-Semitism in
Early-Twentieth-Century Discourses on German Fashion," Journal Of Popular Culture 34,
no. 3 (2000). Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed May 4, 2016), 183-208.
Reynolds, Melanie. "Modern Women on Trial: Sexual Transgression in the Age of the Flapper,"
Law, Crime and History 3.3 (2013), Academic OneFile (accessed May 4, 2016), 96.
Woollcott, Angela. Khaki Fever and Its Control: Gender, Class, Age and Sexual Morality on
the British Homefront in the First World War, Journal of Contemporary History 29.2
(1994). Sage Publications, Ltd., JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.howardcc.edu/stable/260893, 325-347.
Women in the Roaring Twenties. Historpedia, accessed May 9, 2016,
https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/historpedia/home/personal-group-identities/womenin-the-roaring-twenties-fall-2012.