Flappers

What was a flapper?

Some women in 1920s America began to challenge the old ideas about women. They became known as flappers.

Who were flappers?

Flappers were influential, but they only represented a small proportion of American women.

• ❖ They were usually quite young.
• ❖ They were usually unmarried.
• ❖ They were more likely to come from wealthier parts of society and be middle or upper class.
• ❖ They were unlikely to be from ethnic or racial minorities.

What did flappers look like?

Flappers changed their appearance to challenge ideas about women and to look modern and free.

• ❖ They cut their hair short and sometimes coloured it.
• ❖ They wore bright makeup.
• ❖ They wore shorter skirts.
• ❖ They rolled their stockings down to the knee.
• ❖ They aimed for a slender, 'boyish' figure.
• ❖ Film star Clara Bow became a role model for flappers. She was known as the 'It Girl'.

How did flappers behave?

Flappers challenged behavioural norms for women at the time.

• ❖ They went out unaccompanied to nightclubs, dances and parties.
• ❖ They drank and smoked in public.
• ❖ They danced in a way that was seen at the time as quite risque and sexual.

What were the effects of flappers on American women in the 1920s?

Flappers challenged traditional attitudes, and so changed ideas about women at the time.

• ❖ Women became more independent and could go out without a chaperone.
• ❖ Women were able to make more obvious changes to their appearance.
• ❖ More women had sex before marriage.