Chapter 1

Hairstyles in the 1920's

This woman is wearing a short bob, popular in the 1920s.

The 1920's were a time of great change for women in this country. Many historians refer to this time period as the "first feminist movement".

Women were beginning to demand the right to vote and express their desire to have a greater say in society. This movement was called the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Women in America during the 1920s embraced the style of the "flapper". Flappers were trendy women who embraced "short hair" fancy fashions and independence. Cropping their hair short was fashionable done to make a statement against what was seen a "traditional" roles of women, something that long hair represented.

Vocabulary: women's suffrage, feminist

What to read more on the Women’s Suffrage Movement?

Check out this book at your school library.

With courage and cloth : winning the fight for a woman’s right to vote By Ann Bausem

This book profile the women who lead the fight to gain women the right to vote and the history of the movement from 1848 through the 1920’s.

Learn more about the 1920's my clicking on this sentence.

The 1930s and 1940s hairstyles

1930's and 1940's hairstyles

This is a picture of the popular “victory roll” hairstyle of the 1940s.

With the 1930s and 1940s women in U.S. faced the Great Depression and WWII.

Many families were effected by loss of jobs and money. Women saw their husbands being sent off to fight in the war. Many women became active in the war effort and went to work in factories. Money for nice clothing was not available for many women. So women made up for this by spending more time on detailed hair fashions.

One very popular look was the Victory Roll. This was designed to imitate the airplane motion of soldiers planes. In this small but significant way, women wanted to send a message of support for their brave men fighting in the war.

Hollywood glamor also persuaded women to spend much time on their hair.

Film and movie stars were gaining in popularity. Movies became a nice escape form the worries of war and women were taken in by the glamor of Hollywood stars. The big screen allowed women to see the elaborate hairstyles of the movie stars and many wanted to imitate them.

My ebook resources

Glossary

feminist movement

1 : a political and social movement to gain political, economic, and social equality for women.
2 : organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests

women's suffrage moment:

This was a movement in America where women joined together and rallied, demonstrated and petitioned the government of the United States for the right to vote.

August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. (historychannel.com)