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Women's Rights In The 1920s Essay

885 Words4 Pages

Women’s role in society was completely redefined after the passing of the 19th Amendment, women’s suffrage, on August 18, 1920. For centuries, men defined women; the world was male-centered and male-dominated. Male philosophers and social theorists were the ones who identified woman with disorder, savagery, chaos, unreason, and the excluded “other.” According to James Branch Cabell women were considered nothing more than conveniences; they were useful for keeping a household as well as for copulation and pleasure (McConnaughy 112). The turn of the century and its many changes, industrialization in particular, gave a number of women the chance to work outside of the home. Not a few of these women were able to use their inherent intelligence …show more content…

Now even though this was the situation in the country, alcohol still did play a major role in the modernist versus traditionalist agenda since, bootlegged alcohol was still available mainly by means of crime lords and families such as the notorious, most wanted criminal of the 1920’s, Al Capone. Modernists saw alcohol as an element that provided personal freedom. This was a complete paradox of what the traditionalists believed: they said that alcohol caused crimes and broke apart families and that where there was no alcohol people were generally happier and healthier. Soon, many speakeasies spread throughout the country. “They were given their unique name for the need to whisper, or "speak easy," as patrons attempted to cross their illegal thresholds. A secret knock, password or handshake could get a prospective drinker through a door that appeared to lead to an ordinary apartment, deli, tailor, or soda shop. Once inside, however, there was plenty of drinking and entertainment, including torch singers, cabaret singers, and vaudeville acts” (PBS). Although prohibition was supposedly a restriction of freedom, America has found secret ways to use alcohol as a way of positive and negative personal

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“When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality”(Capone). Prohibition was a national constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Prohibition costed the Federal Government approximately $11 billion in lost tax revenue, and costing over $300 billion to enforce the law. Alcohol being this expensive

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Women and children who were part of domestic violence often blamed alcohol for the events they had gone through. Men who thoroughly enjoyed alcohol fought to get rid of the amendment. There were two sides of this new amendment one for and one against. Both had many supporters and both parties had strong opinions for it. However, at the end of Prohibition’s reign a strong consensus were strongly for the removal of this

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From the late 1910s to the mid 1920s, the government of Canada began its noble experiment, the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture, storage, transportation and sale of alcohol. Prohibition was led by the Temperance movement, who blamed alcohol for society's ills of the time, such as domestic violence and public drunkenness. This law was repealed around Canada soon after. This essay argues that Prohibition created a wave of change, such as the introduction of large-scale organized crime, and the corruption of law, war against culture, that helped shape the culture of Canada far during Prohibition and even after the Repeal. Prohibition , a well intentioned attempt to rid Canada of society's ills, was not only a war on alcohol, but

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Dry Manhattan Prohibition In New York City Summary

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2224 Words | 9 Pages

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

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