Questions for Women’s Rights

After the Suffrage Movement’s successfully granted women the right to vote, many feminists’ shifted focus from the women’s political rights to other women’s rights issues of the time. Activists arose in the public sphere to champion women’s sexual and reproductive rights. Margret Sanger was an outspoken supporter of accessible birth control. Birth control can be looked at as a metaphor for a women’s independence from policing what they do with their bodies. The birth control revolution was just beginning in the 1920s, sparking controversy across the nation.  Women’s sexual freedom plays an important role throughout the history of women’s rights and feminist movements, as the legality of birth control and abortion would later become key issues in the second wave feminist movement. Birth control was not the only way women sought liberation from their traditional roles. The flapper look also gained popularity in the 1920s because of the flappers enticing, free way of dressing and expressing herself. Flappers wore shorter hemlines and smoked cigarettes, presenting themselves as an attractive opposite to the more restrictive and conservative norm that women had grown accustomed to.  The original suffrage movement and it’s success was an inspiration for disenfranchised women seeking further liberation in society to be active protesters for their causes.