Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

My job today is to help guide you through our history resources in the lesson, and I'm gonna be working to make sure that by the end of our time together, you can securely meet our lesson objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the boom years in the USA.

But we've been asking ourselves what was the impact of the boom on the lives of the American people? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the changing role of women in the USA during the 1920s.

There are four keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are enfranchised, Congress, contraceptive, and flapper.

A person is enfranchised if they have been given the right to vote in elections.

The elected group of politicians who make laws for the USA are referred to as Congress.

Any type of device or drug used to try and prevent pregnancy is described as a contraceptive, and a flapper was a young woman who followed new fashion trends and acted independently.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts and will begin by focusing on women and politics.

The USA was founded as a democracy.

However, many groups were not originally granted the right to vote in America.

In 1865, it became illegal to deny a person the right to vote based on their race.

The new law did not make it illegal to withhold the right to vote based on a person's sex, though.

And this was a major problem for women, as it meant that in many parts of the USA, states were able to legally prevent women from voting simply because of their sex.

Women were enfranchised in some parts of the US before 1920.

However, the majority of states either disenfranchised women entirely or did not grant them the same voting rights as men.

For instance, they might need to be a higher age than men in the same location in order to exercise their right to vote.

So let's check our understanding of what we've heard so far.

We have a statement on the screen that says women were completely disenfranchised across the US before 1920.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have now appeared on the screen.

The first says that women were enfranchised on the same basis as men in the majority of states.

The second says that women were either disenfranchised or lacked the same voting rights as men in the majority of states.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

Women were either disenfranchised or lacked the same voting rights as men in the majority of states before 1920.

So this had a major impact on how involved and how powerful women could be in politics because in many cases, they simply could not vote.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed.

This made it illegal to deny people the vote just because of their sex.

This enfranchised women all across the USA, so politicians paid more attention to issues affecting women.

For the first time, the US Congress approved funding for maternity and childcare in 1921.

So let's just reflect on what we've just heard.

Why did the US government approve funding for maternity pay and childcare in 1921? Was it because politicians had been providing similar funding for decades, because politicians hoped to win the support of newly enfranchised women, or because politicians believed they would not have to grant the vote to women if they provided this funding? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

Politicians hoped to win the support of newly enfranchised women.

The 19th Amendment was passed the previous year in 1920, granting women the right to vote, and so politicians had to start taking issues that affected women more seriously.

Many issues continued to affect women's political involvement after 1920 though, this included poor representation and racial discrimination.

If we begin by thinking about poor representation, in the Congress that was elected before the 19th Amendment was passed and sat from 1919 to 1921, there were no female representatives outta 531 members.

For the Congress that was elected and sat from 1927 until 1929, out of 531 members, there were five female politicians.

This shows that there was clearly an increase in female representation in politics, but if we look at it another way, it means that a clear majority of politicians continued to be met.

In fact, from 1927 to 1929, the amount of women in Congress represented just 1% of the entire membership of that political body giving a really clear indication that there was still poor representation for women in politics.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

How did female representation in the US Congress change between 1920 and 1929? Was it that the number of female representatives stayed the same, the number of female representatives increased, but males still made up a majority, the number of female representatives increased until male and female representation in Congress was equal, or the number of female representatives increased until females made up a majority? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

Between 1920 and 1929, the number of female representatives in Congress increased, but males still made up a majority, for instance, whereas there had been no female members of Congress between 1919 and 1921, there were five between 1927 and 1929, but that still represented just 1% of all members of Congress, the over 99% being men.

And it's also important that we consider the role of racial discrimination in limiting the involvement of women in politics even after 1920.

States in the US South resisted enfranchising, African American women.

Literacy tests, tax qualifications, and even violence were used as barriers to voting.

In the case of literacy tests, these were used to say that African American women were not eligible to exercise their right to vote.

In the case of violence, actually, this would sometimes occur on election days, scaring African American women away from booths so that they could not exercise their right to vote.

Up to 3 million women in the South were disenfranchised as a result of this resistance.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

Many blank American women remained disenfranchised due to racial discrimination in the South.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the missing word was African.

Many African American women remained disenfranchised due to racial discrimination in the South.

For instance, in many southern states, literacy tests and even violence acted as barriers to African American women when they wanted to exercise their right to vote.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about women and politics into practise.

I want you to complete the passage by writing the missing words.

You should use the words shown below the passage to fill the gaps.

But I want you to think really carefully about how you're filling in each gap, because whereas we have five gaps in our passage, you have six keywords to choose from.

So there is one there to mislead you.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your work on that task.

So I ask you to complete the passage by writing in the missing words, and your answer should have looked like this.

"In 1920, the 19th Amendment made it illegal to deny women the vote because of their sex.

This enfranchised millions of American women and made them more equal with men.

Nevertheless, female representation in American politics remained poor.

Just five members of Congress were women between 1927 and 1929.

Furthermore, racial discrimination prevented millions of African American women in the South from exercising their right to vote." So really well done for all your work on that task, especially you've got every single one of those gaps filled in correctly.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are gonna focus on women and work.

By 1929, roughly 10.

5 million women in the USA had jobs representing a 25% increase compared to 1920.

However, women were rarely paid the same as men.

For instance, in the cotton industry, female weavers were paid roughly $26 per week in contrast to the average male wage of $29 per week in 1920.

During the 1920s, women in the USA also had new opportunities for work.

Mass production created new work for women in industry.

As a use of assembly lines reduced the physical burden put on workers.

More employers were willing to hire women to work in factories.

A growing number of women also became involved in sales.

For example, by 1922, Lillian Sheridan was promoted to become a sales manager at a Ford dealership in Washington.

The majority of women in the US continued to work in low-skilled, low-paying jobs though.

However, an increasing number of women also began attending college and earning degrees.

By 1930, there were three times as many women with college degrees in the USA as there had been in 1920.

This helped some women to gain professional jobs in areas like law, accountancy, and medicine.

However, many male employers remained reluctant to hire women as professionals.

There were less than 100 women working as accountants by 1930.

Instead, most female professionals continued to work in roles traditionally considered female jobs such as nursing and teaching.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing value in the following sentence.

The number of women in work in the USA increased by blank percent between 1920 and 1929.

So what's the missing value? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the missing value was 25.

The number of women in work in the USA increased by 25% between 1920 and 1929.

That meant that by 1929, roughly 10.

5 million women in the USA had jobs.

And let's try another question.

This time we've got a statement that says companies like Ford refuse to hire female workers in the 1920s.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Ford hired women but only to work in the low-skilled jobs on its assembly lines.

And the second says that Ford hired women to work on assembly lines, but also in sales jobs.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was B, Ford hired women to work on assembly lines, but also hired some women to work in sales jobs.

For example, by 1922, Lillian Sheridan was promoted to become a sales manager at a Ford dealership in Washington.

And let's try another question just to make sure that our understanding is really secure.

What barriers stopped many women from entering new professions? Was it that very few women had college qualifications, that professional jobs offered low salaries, or that employers were reluctant to hire women as professionals? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C, a significant barrier that stopped many women from entering new professions was that employers in these careers were reluctant to hire women as professionals.

In fact, if we think about the number of accountants in the USA, by 1930, there were less than a hundred women working in that job.

So we are now ready to put all of our knowledge and understanding about women and work into practise.

I want you to complete the table by identifying at least three examples from the 1920s, which demonstrate that there were improvements in work for women and that there were still issues with work for women.

So pause the video here, identify your free examples for each of those two columns, and then press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay.

Well done for all of your work on that task.

So I asked you to complete the table by identifying at least three examples from the 1920s, which demonstrate that there were improvements in work for women and that there were still issues with work for women.

So if we think about improvements, you may have said that female employment increased by 25%, that more women gained college and professional qualifications, and that some women like Lillian Sheridan became managers.

However, in terms of the issues with work for women, you may have said that women were paid less than men.

That most women worked in low-skilled, low-paying jobs, and that women were expected to remain in traditionally female roles like nursing.

So really well done, especially if you are able to get three examples to support each of our statements like the ones we've just seen.

So we are now ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we are gonna focus on women and social freedoms. There were changes in the social freedoms enjoyed by some women during the 1920s.

This included their freedom to dress, to socialise, and their freedom in relationships.

And we'll think about all of these.

Before the First World War, which occurred from 1914 to 1918, women in the USA usually had to follow strict codes of behaviour, including expectations that they would marry young and start a family quickly following marriage.

However, during the 1920s, women gained more control over their relationships.

For one, it became easier in many US states to get a divorce, allowing women to leave unhappy marriages.

The divorce rate in the USA actually doubled during the 1920s.

Furthermore, women also achieved greater sexual freedom.

In particular, contraceptives became far more readily available and much more widely used during the 1920s, this allowed women to have more sexual relationships and sexual relationships outside of marriage without the concern that they would become pregnant and have to raise a child.

However, despite some surveys showing that large majorities of women supported the use of contraceptives, there were many opponents to birth control.

In particular, the effective opposition of the Catholic church led to many states maintaining laws which banned the use of contraceptives.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.

Greater access to blank allowed many women to escape unhappy marriages.

So what's our missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the missing word was divorce.

Greater access to divorce allowed many women to escape unhappy marriages.

In fact, the divorce rate in the USA doubled in the 1920s.

And let's try another question.

Why did contraceptives remain illegal in many American states? Was it because contraceptives were too dangerous to use, because few women supported the use of contraceptives, or because groups such as the Catholic church opposed them? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

Surveys actually showed that a majority of women supported the use of contraceptives in the 1920s, but many states maintained bans on the use of contraceptives because there was effective opposition from groups such as the Catholic Church.

Some young women who embraced change and new social freedoms in the 1920s became known as flappers.

Flappers followed new fashion trends often taken from Hollywood and actresses like Clara Bow these new fashion trends including cutting their hair short, wearing makeup, and short skirts.

In fact, whilst many fashionable skirts in 1919 had been just 15 centimetres above the ground, most fashionable skirts worn by 1927 were knee-length.

Flappers often went to bars and nightclubs where they smoked, drank, and danced with men until the early hours of the morning.

This was in contrast to the expected behaviour of women before the outbreak of World War I.

When single women had been discouraged from going out by themselves and women publicly drinking and smoking had been considered unacceptable.

These changes challenge traditional ideas of femininity and how women should behave.

Nevertheless, the flapper lifestyle was not common across all parts of the USA and nor was it common amongst all groups of women.

Flappers were mainly women from upper and middle-class families in cities in the north.

Poorer women, including those from African American and recent immigrant backgrounds rarely had the time or the money to become flappers.

Furthermore, there was a strong reaction amongst Americans who held onto traditional beliefs.

For example, the president of Florida University said that the short skirts worn by flappers are born of the devil and are carrying the present generation to destruction.

So let's ensure we have a really secure understanding of what we've just heard.

I want you to study the image on the right.

Write the missing word in the following sentence.

The woman in the image was likely to be described as a blank in the 1920s.

Think really carefully about how the woman is dressed and also how she's behaving to help you identify what the missing word might be.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said the missing word was flapper, the woman in the image was likely to be described as a flapper in the 1920s.

We can see some key characteristics of the flapper girls in this image.

For one, the lady is shown dancing with a man.

We can also see that her skirt is about knee-length, which is much shorter than had been typical before the 1920s.

We can also see the woman in the image smoking and wearing a short haircut, typical of flapper girls.

And let's try answering another question.

This time we've got a statement that says a limited number of women became flappers in the 1920s.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the lifestyle was too expensive for many women to afford.

And the second, says that few women saw the movies that influenced flapper lifestyles.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay.

Well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A, the flapper lifestyle was too expensive for many women to afford.

Most flappers were from middle or upper-class families and had the wealth to follow the trends that were so characteristic of how flappers dressed and how they behaved.

We are now ready to put all of our knowledge from today's lesson into practise.

So I want you to answer the following question.

Which of the following changed more significantly for American women in the 1920s, their work or their social freedom? Explain your answer with reference to both bullet points.

So pause the video here, write your response, and press play when you're ready to reflect on your answer.

Okay.

Well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked which of the following changed more significantly for American women in the 1920s, work or social freedom? Your answer may have included, new opportunities for social freedoms were more significant than changes in work.

For example, many young women were described as flappers because they followed new fashions like wearing knee-length skirts and often stayed out late dancing and drinking with men.

These behaviours challenged the traditional restrictive ideas about appropriate feminine behaviour for American women.

However, many groups of women such as recent immigrants or African Americans, lack the time and wealth to follow flapper lifestyles.

So these types of new social freedom benefited women unevenly.

You may also have written new opportunities for women to work were more significant than changes in social freedoms. For example, the amount of women in work increased by 25% from 1920 to 1929.

Admittedly, most women were paid less than male workers in the same jobs.

Nevertheless, rising female employment led to many more women earning wages.

These wages improved standards of living, but also helped women support themselves, giving them more independence from men.

Because changes in work was so widespread and led to many benefits, they were more significant than changes in social freedoms. So really well done if your own response looked something like those models, which we've just seen.

And that means we've now reached the end of today's lesson.

So in a good position to summarise all of our learning for today.

We've seen that women were enfranchised in 1920, but their political role remained quite limited.

More women entered employment in the 1920s, including in areas such as industry and sales.

On average, women continued to work lower-skilled, low-paying jobs, which paid them less than men.

Flappers enjoyed new social freedoms to act and dress more freely, and there was opposition to the new social freedom of women, and many women were unable to access these new opportunities.

So really well done for all of your work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources, and I look forward to seeing you again in the future as we think further about the boom in the USA and question how did it affect the lives of the American people in the 1920s?.