Urgent essay advice! Politics/history students help!

I have an essay due in on Wednesday with the title:
"To what extent was the 1920's an era of liberation for women in America?"

I'm going to structure it by doing an introduction talking about the shift from the progressive era to the new era; then in the actual body talk about why women were drastically affected, then the economic, political and cultural changes that caused this. I'm having a bit of a crisis and can't think about what else to talk about and what approach to take other than those two points. I need to get a first!

Thanks for any help!

Hi James,

I'm a PhD history student at Hull. specialising in gender history so may be able to offer some guidance.

I would make sure that you look at both arguments to then be able to justify the extent of any impact. Look at the ways which the 1920s was not an era of liberation in comparison to the ways which it was.
I would also consider the impact of different groups of women, where some may have benefited but others did not benefit from anything which could be seen to be beneficial to women (class, race etc.)
I would focus on Political, social, economic and cultural factors as the 4 main guidance points.

I hope this is of some help.
Emily

Reply 2

Mayataylor

17

Original post by Uni of Hull Students

Hi James,

I'm a PhD history student at Hull. specialising in gender history so may be able to offer some guidance.

I would make sure that you look at both arguments to then be able to justify the extent of any impact. Look at the ways which the 1920s was not an era of liberation in comparison to the ways which it was.
I would also consider the impact of different groups of women, where some may have benefited but others did not benefit from anything which could be seen to be beneficial to women (class, race etc.)
I would focus on Political, social, economic and cultural factors as the 4 main guidance points.

I hope this is of some help.
Emily

This is really good advice. I’d also advise you to consider how, for example, although laws were beginning to change, attitudes, especially in fundamentally Christian areas, remained the same. It’s one thing if the economic boom meant cars were more easily accessible and cheaper, but you have to consider that some women would not be allowed to go out because attitudes remained the same. Flappers and jazz clubs were also mainly rich, white women in the cities, who were, even then, expected to settle down eventually

Define "liberation".

OP

Thank you for the help guys.

I concluded that it was liberal in the sense that America was searching for a new identity thanks to Woodrow Wilson foreign policy and the Republican new civic nationalism. The preceding progressive activism coincided with this and women benefited from this platform. However they contributed to the consumerist economy possibly causing capitalist isolation and hence household equality but not society equality. And so reduces potential liberty in that sense.

Urgent essay advice! Politics/history students help!

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