Bell Ringer Do you think it is important to have a school dress code? Why or why not? Are there any...

Bell Ringer

Do you think it is important to have a school dress code? Why or why not? Are there any rules you think are unnecessary?

The New MoralityThe struggle between tradition and modernity

The New Morality

A shift in the beliefs of many Americans during the 1920s on their ideas of family, relationships, gender roles, religion, and especially, war.

World War IIncreasing role of women in politics

Mass Media

Causes for the “New Morality”

Human Psychology

Mental illness in AmericaBelieved that mental illnesses

were untreatableSocial stigma (eugenics)

Causes for changes in mental healthWWI vets suffering from “shell

shock”Social conflicts increased fear

and paranoiaSigmund Freud

Conscious and unconscious mind Id, ego, superegoLife and death instinctsDefense mechanisms

Women’s Suffrage

Some success at local/state levelsProtests get more aggressive after Wilson’s war speech

for “preserving democracy”National Women's Party (led by Alice Paul) picket the

White House Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Margaret Sanger

Founded the American Birth Control League (would later become Planned Parenthood)

Inspired by mother’s hardships with pregnancy and uterine cancer

EugenicistBelieved that families

standard of living would improve if they limited the number of children they had

Advocate of “the pill”

La Vie Boehme! "Bohemian”:

People who lived unconventional, usually artistic, lives.

Sought to break social barriers, refuting traditional gender norms and sexual stereotypes.

Greenwich Village, NYC

The New Morality for WomenNot the kind of girls you bring home to Mama!

Changes in SocietyWomen in the workforce

During the war, women took over jobs men left behind

Female occupations post-war Teaching Nursing Telephone operator Secretary

Women’s collegesPre-WWI: Genuine fear that

college made women unfit for marriage and motherhood

Post-WWI: new “modern woman” was intelligent and independent

New Roles in the Home and FamilyWomen became the

“purchasing agent” of the familyHousehold tasks become

much easier with electric appliances

Romance and relationshipsHighly inspired by the

romances on the silver screen

The New Girl 19201900

What’s wrong withthis picture?

The Century:The Roaring Twenties