For 72 years, women fought for the right to vote. Their struggle came to an end in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was passed. It may have been the first step towards ending discrimination, but it was still the beginning of many struggles to come. The ideal role of women was to get married, have kids, and stay home to keep the house in order, and leaving the men to run the country and corporations and be the head of the household. Women set out to step out of the norm and go against the general agreement that women belonged at home.
After the 19th Amendment was passed, male politicians were enthusiastic about women’s right to vote and allowing them to serve on juries and hold public office. But the issue that made some feminists hesitant was the Equal Rights Amendment (eliminating discrimination based on sex.). Some women were even against it. These women feared that if the Equal Rights Amendment were passed they would no longer get the special laws such as protective legislation.
The American Federation of Labor was not supportive of working women. It did not want women competing for men’s jobs. Sure enough, women continued to hold low paying occupations. Even female professionals continued to be paid less than men for the same job. Also, they mainly held jobs that were traditionally thought of as “female” occupations like nursing and teaching.
During the 1920s, 1 in 4 women over the age of sixteen we a part of the work force. Out of the women wageworkers 30 percent of them were involved in clerical and sale work. Clerical work, or white-collar positions, was respectable. White women born in the U.S largely filled these positions.
The college girl, the office girl fits the flapper image. She was enticing, fun loving, and had resourced. She was middle or upper class. As workingwomen gained acceptance more and more of them moved away from their families to earn a living. Making enough so that a growing percentage of their earnings could be spent as they pleased. The spheres of public and private meshed into one.
During the 1920s the number of women working rose by 50.1 percent. But as more and more women began working the number of female physicians, surgeons, and dentists decreased. Employment not only had its income benefits, it also confirmed a woman’s middle-class status even if they were a teacher, librarian, or nurse who usually earned less than a skilled factory woman. As a result, women with middle-class status could often find a better professional occupation.
Throughout this time women were able to get an excellent education also. Women attended high-status private schools in social work at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Atlanta University. Educated women became typists for they had knowledge of grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. Typists or stenographers, worked in what they called “pools.” Educated woman were also qualified for teaching and nursing positions. Those without a high school diploma became factory workers, domestic service workers, shop clerks, cashiers, or switchboard operators. Working as a secretary taught a woman endurance modesty, and obedience. Many thought of this as the perfect way to prepare a woman for marriage. Also, after getting married and having children, some middle-class working mothers could afford a nanny; yet working mothers remained a rarity.
While women of the 1920s possessed little opportunity to advance in the working world they succeeded in showing they were capable of economic independence and building the base of the pedestal women stand on. Although the pedestal on which we stand today is not quite level with that of men, women continue to work to close the gap. One day equal rights will have true meaning.

Botting, Laura. “Working Women? Nothing New.” 1999. 6 Jan. 2003.
<http://www.gconline.com/progress99/3womenwr.shtml>.

Nash, Gary B. American Odyssey. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1997.

“Gilder Lehrman History Online.” 19 Dec. 2002.
<http://www.gliah.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=458>.

“The Working Women of the 1920s.” 6 Jan. 2003.
<http://web.bryant.edu/~history/h497/prof wmn/working20s.htm>.