Flappers

Several factors were in play in the 1920s for the emergance of what came to know as flappers. Flappers are teenagers and young women who flouted covention and spent their time pursuing fun instead of settling down to raise children in the prime of their lives. Many flappers went to college or entered a workforce and felt entitled to make their own decisions about how to live their lives.



World War I caused a lot of young men not to return home, which left many women without enough men to marry. The horror of the war also impressed young people with the knowledge that life is short and could end at any moment. Many women would spend their time doing what they enjoyed instead of getting married.



Movies made it acceptable to be a fun-loving and free-thinking woman throughout the US and Europe. The 1920 movie The Flapper introduced the term in the United States.

Automobiles were a big factor in the rise of the flapper culture. Cars gave women the freedom to do what they want, where they want. These young women had plent of opportunities for fun, even though there was Prohibition they still found ways to drink.