Comparative Essay Sample: Feminism in the Roaring Twenties and in Modern Day

The movement of feminism, beginning with the strong females like Alice Paul and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who led women suffragists into the 1920s Compared between the 20’s and modern day in America, women have made large progress in equality and rights, but continue to push for more today.

During the 1920s, women were becoming more and more accepted doing activities or going places they were previously unacceptable in. From the ongoing suffragist movement and birth control movement, was born the idea of feminism. Feminism was a contraversial movement at the time, and now. It was quite radical at the time to look for legal change for women, nevermind societal change. Many young unmarried women of the time adopted flapper lifestyles- taking to things like drinking alcohol, driving automobiles, ; feminism halted in the 40’s and 50’s and feminism came in its second wave into the 60’s. This happened once again in the 90’s, the 2010’s, and some debate that a fifth wave began around 2020. The modern idea of “girl power” (which surfaced in the 90s and is still prevalent today) showed that girls and women included, were strong as individuals and as a group. A main difference between the feminism of the young women of the 20s versus modern day is that modern day feminists “reject feminist ideology, or, alternatively, moves beyond it seeing no need for feminism now that women have achieved much of what they were originally fighting for” (Ferriss and Mallory, 88). Within the time of the last century, many advancements have been made in the law, and society to gain gender equality, such as the normalization of women in the workplace, and the legalization of birth control. There are many opportunities that women now have in the modern world, when compared to the roaring twenties. This makes it that for some people having the opportunities to, for example, be in the workplace versus being  a stay at home mom. This idea is termed by many to be post-feminism- which looks to resolve all future debates on womens right and roles, because they have made complete progress. What is important to remember though, is that on the other side of the spectrum in the 20’s, married women and mothers were being portrayed as having the “moral influence and ensured national virtue and social order” (Baker, 184). This is very similar to the idea of post-feminism. This ideology has been lingering for the whole century, and shows the similarities between feminism in the roaring twenties and in modern day.