Peterson A.T., Hewitt V., Vaughan H., Kellogg A.T. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through American History, 1900 to the Present. Volume 1: 1900-1949
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The idea that children were different than adults was a concept that
gained strength around the turn of the century. The concept of ‘‘adoles-
cence’’ did not emerge until the twentieth century. Until then, children were
simply considered small adults. They dressed like adults and were expected
to act maturely. If children seemed to develop differently, many people
believed that to be an indication that the parents were not appropriately
disciplining the child. Parents rarely considered if a child was developmen-
tally able to cope with a job or with marriage. Once married or employed,
childhood was over; adulthood and all its responsibilities had begun.
An increasing number of social activists began to take up the cause of
child workers. The political situation in Europe became a greater concern
to many Americans. When war was declared in 1917, many of the organi-
zations put their agendas on hold until the end of the war. They thought
that they would resume fighting for their principles after the war. No one
knew how much the war would change life for everyone, regardless of
age. Laws regarding child labor would not be seen until the 1930s.
THE
1920S
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
It can be argued that the 1920s would be one of the most revolutionar y
decades in human history. Just a few years before the start of the decade,
more people were transported across greater distances in a shorter period
of time than ever before in history. Women who only five years earlier
had been content to be wives and mothers, had gone to work and done
jobs formerly done only by men. People who were born at the beginning
of the century and who expected to grow up and die in their home com-
munities were moved from their homes to new areas, sometimes even
across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and then return to their homes.
Travel is said to change a person’s perspective, and the perspective for
many Americans had changed drastically by the beginning of the 1920s.
People were moving to urban areas. There they found new technology
and new opportunities. Medicine and technology were enabling the popu-
lation to live longer. Children were staying in school longer because they
were not needed in the workforce. Leisure time was increasing, and peo-
ple were finding new ways to spend that time. Although not everyone
could enjoy all of the cultural and financial opportunities, more and more
people were improving their lifestyles.
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY
The 1920s may have been ‘‘wild and crazy’’ for some, but many believe
that the image of the flapper was typical only of a relatively small group
of young people who had some money and lived in urban areas. People in
rural areas tended to become more fundamental in their beliefs, possibly
as a backlash of the social upheaval created during the Great War.
Regardless of the point of view, the 1920s are usually seen as a time of
social change for the family and the individual.
The ‘‘war to end all wars’’ had an impact on most individuals living in
the United States. Almost everyone was involved in the war effort to
some extent. Many families lost friends and relatives in the war. Some of
the soldiers were affected by the mustard gas used in Europe and were
unable to resume the lives they had lived before the war. Many soldiers
and their wives wanted their lives to return to the way they had lived
before the war, but this was almost impossible for most people.
The suffrage amendment passed in 1920, allowing women to vote.
Attitudes had changed and women’s role had changed with it. Women
had worked in most jobs during the war. Some men expected that women
would be content to return to their roles as wives and mothers once the
soldiers returned home. Although this may have happened in some situa-
tions, many women would have to remain in the workforce because their
husbands, brothers, and fathers had died during the war or had become so
incapacitated that they were unable to be the major financial support of
the family. Other women, having tasted independence, would not return
to the lives they led before the war.
The relative independence that women had experienced during the
war taught them that they could manage on their own, without a man to
protect or care for them. They no longer were dependent on their parents
or husbands. Women started retaining control of the money they earned;
they did not automatically give it to their husbands or fathers. As the
roles of men and women began to change, the attitudes of marriage and
family changed as well.
Compared with modern equivalents, a greater number of young couples
were married during the twenties. Three of five people over the age of 15
were married, partly because of the widespread prosperity of the decade
(Kyvig 2002; Modell 1989). Location also played a factor in marria ge age,
with rural marriages occurring at a younger age and urban marriages at a
slightly older age. Generally, however, women were actually spending more
time in the work world and on their own before committing to a marriage
(Israel 2002). Most me n, however, got married after age 21.
Increasingly, young women believed that they did not have to be mar-
ried and have children by the time they were 20. Many young women
The 1920s
131
delayed marriage and child rearing until they were in their late twenties
or even their thirties. Women realized that their individuality and roles
did not have to depend on the occupation or wealth of their husbands.
Culturally important marriages of the time included the 1922 nuptials
of Princess Mary and the Earl of Harewood, which because of technolog-
ical advances became the first royal wedding to be broadcast in the United
Kingdom. Consequently, ‘‘the wedding game,’’ in which two children
dressed up and pretended to get married, became popular both in the
United Kingdom and in the United States (Yapp 1998).
Americans witnessed a change in family behavior by the 1920s. In the
late Victorian period, families were hierarchical, with the father as the
leader. The family ideal espoused in the 1920s was the ‘‘compassionate
family.’’ This ideal was friendly and affectionate, and it included an em-
phasis on nurturing children. This ideal became more attainable as the
size of the American family decreased.
The writings of Freud and other psychiatrists and psychologists
became popular, as did Margaret Sanger and other advocates of birth con-
trol. S ex became an acceptable topic of conversation. People would discuss
the scientific reasons for other people’s behavior and support their opin-
ions with research and academic literature. Usually, people could find
something in print that would allow everyone to validate his or her own
personal belief.
For a few years, the birth rate in the United States declined to such a
low that the country was not reproducing itself. Women wanted to con-
trol their bodies and their pregnancies. At the beginning of the century,
few people knew about, or discussed, birth control. During the 1920s, in-
formation about it was more widespread, but not all of the information
was factual. Advertisers catered to the misconceptions.
Pregnant women began to have a life outside the home. Before this
time, most women would be confined to the home once a pregnancy
became obvious. Although ready-to wear maternity clothes had been
available for about a decade, most women would not be seen in public if
they were obviously pregnant.
Pregnancy was causing less fear in women. Although children were
still dying of childhood diseases, the lower birth rate and increased age of
the mother allowed many women to deliver a healthy child. The advances
in medicine also meant that, for the first time, women could be given
drugs and be allowed to ‘‘sleep through’’ the entire delivery process.
Women no longer had to suffer the pain of childbirth. Although this
might have meant that women would be more eager to have children,
women began to want more control over the number of children and the
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY
intervals between children. Women began using birth control devices in
increasing numbers, although many people thought that was inappropri-
ate. Without the fear of pregnancy, many women began to enjoy sex.
The divorce rate began to climb. Women wanted more equalit y in
their relationships and would often leave a husband who did not, or could
not, take care of a family. Premarital sex became more common and
openly discussed. Many of the young men of the day, especially the more
affluent or more educated men, no longer believed that it was necessary
to marry a virgin. The fact that many young couples had sex before mar-
riage had one unexpected consequence: fewer men were visiting prosti-
tutes. This in turn helped lower the rate of sexually transmitted diseases,
but few people thought that the end result was worth the fact that young
people were engaging in sex outside of marriage (Elliot and Merrill
1934).
Women who did marry had lives that were similar yet different from
their mothers. Women still were responsible for the maintenance of the
home. Men were the breadwinners; women were responsible for the cook-
ing and cleaning and all the chores that had been considered as ‘‘women’s
work.’’ What now changed was that most urban women had an assistant.
That assistant was called electricity.
Housework was still housework, but most families were able to buy
appliances on credit. Advertisers were especially skilled at convincing the
American family that they needed all sorts of labor-saving devices. When
faced with the choice of going into debt to buy an electric stove or slaving
over a wood stove, most women probably opted for electricity. Not only
could they cook with the new-fangled electrical marvel, but they could
sew, wash, and iron clothes using new electrical appliances.
These appliances might have saved, or ruined, many relationships.
Instead of having to spend all her time keeping house, a woman now was
able to greet her husband at the end of the day and have time to talk to
him. New-fangled gadgets such as pressure cookers allowed a woman to
change a menu if her husband unexpectedly brought his boss home for
dinner.
After dinner, the couple might be able to have some leisure time to-
gether, attending a show or some other attraction that was available to
them. Many of these attractions were child friendly and the entire family
could attend.
Some men found the new, more assertive woman threatening. Many
men believed that women were frail and needed a man to protect them.
Some men tried to keep women home or make it illegal for them to work,
but most women simply ignored these attempts to keep them at home.
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133
In some cases, the women had to work, because there was no man avail-
able to provide a paycheck. In other cases, many women did not want to
subjugate themselves to men and found ways to get around a communit y’s
attempts to keep women at home.
The stock market crash of 1929 accomplished what legislation and
public opinion could not do during the previous years. More families
stayed home; they simply did not have the finances to do anything else.
Many families could afford relatively inexpensive records and go to a
movie every week or so, but many other activities were too expensive.
Electricity again helped many people pass the time.
Radio kept many people occupied, and the programs would allow
ever yone to gather around the radio and enjoy an evening of listening to
music or other forms of entertainment. D uring the day, women would lis-
ten to a new kind of program called a soap opera. Sponsored by companies
that made washing products, programs such as Stella Dallas would keep
people listening to discover the new adventures of the young heroine.
SEXUALITY AND MORALITY
The decade ushered in a major attempt by government to legislate moral-
ity. On January 16, 1920, the Volstead Act ushered in the era of American
history commonly referred to as Prohibition. The act made the manufac-
turing and sale of alcohol illegal. Almost as soon as the ink was dry,
Americans began searching for ways to evade the legislation.
The convenience of cars transformed dating for young people. They
quickly discovered that the automobile allowed men and women to ignore
the heavily chaperoned dates that had been the primary form of courtship
before WWI. A young man could meet a young woman, they could drive
off, and no other adults would be able to know where they went.
In earlier decades, women encouraged men to be as chaste outside of
marriage as women, but, in the 1920s, that concept disappeared as women
seemed to believe that they had the rights to be as sexually active as men.
Before the war, sexual activity was rarely discussed. In the 1920s, it was a
common topic of conversation. American naivete had changed so much
that the American public became aware of homosexuality, although it held
stigma among most Americans.
The flapper seemed to be the center of sexual confrontation. There
seems to be a variety of origins for the term flapper, but most people agree
that the 1920s use of the word flapper meant a young woman who
embraced the ideas of modern womanhood. She wore short skirts, bobbed
their hair, ignored the ‘‘courting customs’’ of their ancestors, drank illegal
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY
alcohol, dated men she hardly knew, and danced the night away in clubs,
bars, and ‘‘speakeasies.’’ These young women enjoyed the activities and
would not let the morality of their parents’ generation prevent them from
having a good time. Women, for the first time on a large scale, were pub-
licly acknowledging that they enjoyed their activities, the company of
men, and the physical sensations that came with being young.
The old order was shocked and attempted to classify the flapper as less
intelligent or somehow mentally disturbed. Some communities attempted
to arrest young women found alone in cars with single men. Many con-
sidered the behavior of the flapper frivolous and licentious, yet young girls
were literally dying to emulate the flapper style. There were stories that
young girls committed suicide when their mothers would not allow them
to adopt the flapper st yle.
The fashions of the flapper, in retrospect, seem relatively tame com-
pared with the fashions of fifty years later. The dresses were short, but
they also tended to hide the woman’s figure. The dresses were loose and
had a tendency to make the women who wore them look as if they had
the figures of young boys. The dresses hid the fact that women had
breasts. A woman would bind her breasts if they would disturb the flat-
chested look. The short length of the skirt horrified many people who
found the visibility of a woman’s leg to be scandalous, but young women
saw the fashions as liberating. The new styles represented a feeling that
women could do what they wanted to do. They could go where they
wanted when they wanted, have jobs, postpone marriage, and generally
live the same kind of life that men could live. Interestingly enough, men
tended to wear more clothes than women did.
This culture and attitude was partially shaped by literature and the
increasing popularity of the moving pictures. Romance and love began to
be seen as necessary for marriage. In the movies, couples who accepted
arranged marriages tended to be unhappy and searching for love. Couples
who sought love and companionship were portrayed as being happier than
those who married for other reasons. Women were not only portrayed as
being more independent than their mothers, they were also seen as sexual
beings, not simply as mothers and wives.
Men, according to the popular media, preferred a woman who would
be an equal partner in a relationship. The movies even portrayed worka-
holic men as being somewhat unattractive to women. The goal, according
to the movies, was that a couple would be companions, sharing each
other’s activities.
In the print media, the tabloids became increasingly popular. These
magazines and newspapers would report on any activity that exploited
The 1920s
135
sensationalism. Other periodicals, such as Bernarr MacFadden’s Evening
Graphic, specialized in photographs of scantily clad individuals. MacFadden
was a health and fitness fanatic, who found the athletic human body
beautiful. In many situations, the pictures would be of MacFadden’s own
body, but athletic people barely clad or wearing body-hugging clothing
were regularly featured. The publication encountered difficulties with a
variety of obscenity laws, but it continued to depict photographs that
highlighted the human form.
MacFadden also began publishing ‘‘women’s magazines’’ that empha-
sized love stories. The heroines of the stories were supposed to be told by
an ‘‘ordinary ’’ American woman; however, the stories were created by writ-
ers, many of them males, on MacFadden’s payroll. By the end of the
1920s, each issue of the magazines was selling at a rate of more than
2 million copies ( Jones 2005).
GROWING UPINAMERICA
Although families were still the primary social unit, multigenerational
families were becoming less frequent, but they were still common. Chil-
dren, as a rule, tended to grow up in the communities in which they were
born, although more and more families were moving to follow available
work. Many families were headed by a woman at the beginning of the
decade, primarily because of the death or disability of a husband or father
during the war.
Technology and a growing middle class allowed many young people to
remain in school. By the 1920s, people advocated a high school education
for all Americans. Although this would not become universal for several
years, the idea that youths could remain in school without entering the
workforce allowed youths to remain young longer than any generation
before theirs. Adolescence, a new concept, also seemed to indicate that
youths would clash with the beliefs and morals of their elders.
The burgeoning group of adolescents, the young men who had
returned from the war, and the young women who had supported them-
selves and their families during the war did not want a return to the cul-
ture in which their parents were raised. They flocked to the automobile,
urban areas, and the newly developed illegal bars called speakeasies. These
situations allowed women to experience a degree of sexual freedom that
their ancestors never had, and they embraced that freedom with a ferocity
that helped to change the American culture.
In the 1920s, for the first time in history, children could dream of
becoming famous in activities that did not even exist before they were
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY
born. Rural children could dream that they might one day live in a city.
Both rural and urban children could dream that they might be movie
stars, radio entertainers, or pilots. Children of the 1920s had options that
their ancestors could never even imagine.
The education of children became the center of a national debate dur-
ing the 1920s. John Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, dared
to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution in his high school classes. What
originally was a local issue became front page news for most papers across
the county. Although Scopes lost the trial, the case demonstrated the
polarization of the country. Many educational systems noticed the contro-
versy the trial caused and refused to purchase any text that mentioned
Darwin or the theory of evolution. Textbooks would not change for
another fifty years, although the controversy never diminished.
Most young people in their teen years were spending more time in
school and less in the workforce. They also had more leisure time. Much
of that time was spent in frivolous activities such as seeing how many
people could fit into a vehicle, swallowing goldfish, dancing for hours in
dance marathons, sitting on flagpoles, or standing on the wings of planes
while the plane was flying. Young people would try almost anything if it
was considered ‘‘new and different.’’
In the 1920s, many American families were able to live a lifestyle that
only the wealthy could afford in the nineteenth century. Although this
improvement meant that life was simpler in many ways, life also became
more dangerous for children. In the nineteenth century, most parents
knew that their children would be safe in their communities: everyone
knew each other, and stories about children’s behavior, good or bad, would
ultimately be told to the parents. In the 1920s, parents were no longer
sure what experiences their children would have.
Urban life, although it brought improved technology and a major life-
style change, also meant that one’s neighbors might not be the same from
one year to the next. Parents who wanted to raise their children to prac-
tice ‘‘old-fashioned values’’ could not know whether the children’s teachers
or classmates or even the children down the street might practice some
new and ‘‘horrible’’ custom, such as wearing makeup. With the rampant
production of illegal alcohol, the crimes, and relatively flagrant sexual ac-
tivity of the flapper and her beaux, parents were fearful of the activities
that they could not control.
There were some new activities for children and young people. Comic
books became common during the decade. Superman became a hero for
many boys, although many parents did not like the idea that Lois Lane was
an independent woman. Young people had other, real, everyday heroes,
The 1920s
137
such as Charles Lindbergh, Jack Dempsey, and George Herman ‘‘Babe’’
Ruth, who were idolized for their individual skills and accomplishments.
THE
1930S
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
During the Great Depression, marriages were often postponed to save
money by those with limited resources and, in some instances, rushed by
those with greater financial capabilities. For those with little means,
parents and families occasionally offered a ‘‘parental subsidy to solidify the
marriage contract’’ (Modell 1989). This could include the option of living
with in-laws, parents, siblings, or friends to save on expenses. Some
favored a longer engagement to ensure a real commitment and a good
match.
Since the 1920s, activists had been advocating that couples should
have thorough medical exams before marriage. They hoped that this
would ensure that a new husband or wife did not learn about their loved
one’s fatal disease on their honeymoon. In 1938, New York passed a law
that required a medical exam and blood test before a couple could marry,
and other states soon followed suit. Once married, couples generall y
stayed that way for both emotional and financial stability. Generally,
divorce was too expensive for couples to consider. Gift registries were also
established for the first time in department stores after a 1935 marketing
campaign by Lenox China (Whitaker 2006).
The most famous wedding of the era was nearly royal. The marriage
of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee,
made headlines when Windsor chose to abdicate the English throne to
marry Simpson in 1937.
The Depression had a dramatic effect on the makeup of households.
When Americans saw their savings evaporate, they often moved in with
extended family members. This was especially true of young married cou-
ples and elderly parents. Single people in their teens and twenties often
lived with their parents to save money. Sometimes families would send
their children to live with famil y members in the country. It was not
uncommon for one parent to abandon the family when they faced the
prospect of poverty.
Many families had to sell the furniture and luxuries as they moved
from place to place looking for work. Sometimes families would be forced
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY
to live in housing that was substandard by any measure. Many families to-
gether would create small communities of nothing but old boxes or old
crates or train cars. Plumbing and electricity were almost nonexistent, and
women would have to cook much the same way that their grandmothers
did, on open fires.
For the first time in this century, men found their gender role chang-
ing. With the scarcity of jobs, they frequently had time on their hands.
Their wives often picked up extra jobs such as doing laundry or serving as
maids. This disrupted men’s status as the breadwinner of the family,
which angered most men. This role reversal was not welcomed by men or
women. They usually tried to maintain a patriarchal household regardless
of the economic str uggles they experienced.
SEXUALITY AND MORALITY
The crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed seemed to dampen
the sexual attitudes of the country. Many people were either looking for
work or working long hours to maintain a living wage. Many people
could not afford the more ‘‘frivolous’’ activities that they had enjoyed dur-
ing the 1920s. The economic depression also helped fuel a mental depres-
sion in men.
The austerity brought on by economics kept many people close to
home. Activities that remained popular were the movies and music. For a
relatively small price, people could attend a weekend matinee and forget
their daily lives for an hour or two. The actors in the films were attractive,
and most of the movies were lavish, costume scenes, adventures, or
fantasies.
In the 1920s, movies pushed the boundaries of what many Americans
considered decent. In response, the United States Motion Picture Produc-
tion Code, also known as the Hayes Code, was passed in 1930. When the
code began to be enforced in 1934, it prohibited content that would lower
the standards of the audience that watched it. It kept filmmakers from
showing nudity, ridiculing religion, discussing sexual perversion and vene-
real diseases, and showing explicit representations of methods of crime,
such as safecracking. The code even discouraged ‘‘scenes of passion’’ that
were not essential to the plot.
Although premarital sex was frowned on, young couples still engaged
in it. From 1930 to 1934, one in every six first-time births was conceived
before marriage among 15- to 29-year-olds (Bachu 1998). Young people
were having sex and solving out-of-wedlock pregnancy by getting
married.
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139