By Ollie Signorini

Role of Women in the 1920s

The 1920s decade is known to history as the ‘Roaring Twenties’. Photos from the period show women at work, engaged in leisure activities and wearing casual clothing. The flapper, a morally and socially liberated 1920s woman, wore short dresses made from inexpensive fabrics sewn on newly invented sewing machines. She may have worked in a clerical or factory job, smoked cigarettes, worn makeup and gone dancing in the evening.

Being in the paid workforce was ‘filling in the time’ between leaving school and getting married. It was thought that too great an increase in paid female employment would be a serious threat to the wellbeing of society. Work for the majority of women remained unpaid and unrecognised. Wage decisions made by the Arbitration Court reinforced society

Women in the Workforce

Despite the restrictions on the type of work they could do, women formed an essential part of the 1920s workforce. In 1921 women made up 20.3 per cent of the workforce. During the decade female employment rates increased in the areas of clothing andtextile manufacturing, food preparation, typing and clerical work. The trade union movement, rather than seeking to overcome workplace inequalities, was often hostile to women. The unions feared the threat that lower women

The 1920s was a decade caught between the old and the new. This was the age of the ‘flapper’. Women threw away their corsets, shortened their hair and their skirts, and dressed in comfort. Fashion had finally adapted to the demands of the Australian climate.

Freedom in fashion

Flappers