Knowra Flapper Flapper A young woman associated with the 1920s who embraced bobbed hair, shorter skirts, and greater social independence. Flappers became symbols of changing gender norms and consumer culture.
New Woman : A cultural ideal of women seeking greater education, autonomy, and participation in public life. Flappers were a conspicuous 1920s expression of this broader ideal.
Cloche hat : A close-fitting, bell-shaped hat fashionable for women in the 1920s. Its shape complemented the bobbed hairstyles associated with flappers.
Gibson Girl : An idealized, fashionable American woman depicted in Charles Dana Gibson’s illustrations around the turn of the twentieth century. Her poised, corseted style contrasts with the flapper’s looser silhouette and rebellious image.
Women’s suffrage in the United States : The movement that secured American women’s constitutional right to vote in 1920. Flappers came of age as women began exercising newly secured political rights.
Roaring Twenties : A period of economic growth and cultural change in the United States during the 1920s. Flappers became one of the decade’s most recognizable symbols.
Bob cut : A short hairstyle in which hair is cut around the head, often near the jaw. The bob became a highly visible marker of the flapper look.
Victorian morality : A set of nineteenth-century social ideals emphasizing sexual restraint, propriety, and domestic virtue. Flappers challenged expectations of restraint inherited from the preceding era.
The Great Gatsby : F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel about wealth, longing, and social life in the Jazz Age. Its female characters and setting helped fix the decade’s modern image in popular memory.
First-wave feminism : A movement focused chiefly on women’s legal rights, including suffrage and property ownership. Earlier campaigns for women’s rights helped shape the freedoms flappers exercised.
Flapper dress : A loose, often sleeveless 1920s dress with a dropped waist and a hem above the ankle. Its silhouette departed from the fitted fashions of the previous generation.
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