Insights Into Society During

Introduction

The topic that this research focuses on is “Some aspect of society during the teenage years of a relative of your grandparents' generation.” This topic would provide an analysis of the way of life of people who lived in past generations which would also help identify the differences between different generations that anyone would look to research into. Differences between generations, usually, are by-products of those historical circumstances that are unique, that are experienced by members of an age cohort, and that is particularly during those periods when they formed opinions. There are instances when that could be a result of period effects that were experienced by older generations that were not experienced by subsequent generations. In some cases, outsize effects could be brought about by the historical moments one generation goes through.

Our understanding of how public attitudes are shaped helps us gain an understanding of what drives generational differences. Having a proper understanding of the drivers of generational differences would go a long way in strengthening individual understandings of the shaping of public attitudes.

Research topic

The focus of this research is on the flappers that were famous among the women in the 1920s. This was a period that saw the rise of a new crop of women that were bold and that were no longer comfortable with their traditional positions in households as housewives. This research seeks to establish a better understanding of the flappers and further determine what effects they had on future generations of women.

Documentary sources

The primary data sources used include a letter that was written by Ellen Welles Page in 1922 and the article “Flapper Jane” that was written by Bruce Bliven in The New Republic. I chose these two sources because I found that they were the most relevant in relation to what I wanted to research. Primary sources provide a window into the past-access that is unfiltered to the record of social artistic, political thought and social achievement during the specific periods that are being studied, that were produced by people during those periods. Through this, one is brought into close contact with documents and objects that are unique and profoundly personal often which provide a real sense of what being alive at that time felt like. The primary sources that were used in this research helped me to relate in a way that was personal to the past events which went a long way in promoting an understanding that was deep of history as a series of human events. Primary sources are snippets of history and as such, they encourage students to look for additional evidence through research. Events are made more real by first-person accounts and as such, they foster response and active reading.

Teaching standards in different parts of the world are observed to support using primary sources to pass lessons as they require students to be both analytical and critical as they endeavour to read and further examine different objects and documents (Sen, 2017). It is worth noting that often, primary sources tend to be inadequate with little context. As such, students are at all times required to use prior knowledge and further work with primary sources for purposes of coming up with patterns.

Through inquiring into the primary sources, I was encouraged to wrestle contradictions and further do a comparison of multiple sources that were representations of points of view that were differing and as such confronting the past’s complexity. Through this I was able to construct knowledge as I formed conclusions that were properly reasoned, based my conclusions on evidence and connected the primary sources to the contexts in which they were created and further synthesised information from different sources (Cohen, 2016).

The primary sources that were used in this case were obtained through Google Advanced Search which enables users to return their searches to return fewer results that are more relevant. The information that was obtained was judges to determine its accuracy and to further establish that the obtained information was appropriate and reliable (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015).

Summary of findings

The documentary research data provided insights into what the flappers’ way of life really was in the 1920s. Flappers broke away from the Victorian image of womanhood in the 1920s. These were young women who had new ideas on the way to live. They chopped their hair, dropped the corset and layers of clothing, put on make-up, created the dating concept and were observed to become asexual people. These changes were drastic and quite shocking. Almost all articles of clothing were trimmed and further lightened in a bid to ease movements.

From both sources, it is evident that these changes were a result of the World War 1. While the young men were fighting death and enemies in the faraway lands, the women also bought into the fervour that was patriotic and entered the workforce aggressively (Bliven, 192). Both the young women and men of the generation had broken out of the structure of the society during the war and found it extremely difficult to return. After the war, the women were anxious just like the men to avoid returning to the roles and rules that were traditionally theirs in the societies. In the Gibson Girl age, women never used to date; they would wait until a proper young man formally showed interest for them with intentions that were suitable. However, with the war, a lot of young men had been killed which left the women with few suitors. With that the women changed their lifestyles and they younger generation was observed to break from the set of values that were held dearly in the past. Women now began parking their corsets when they were going to dances and underwear’s that were referred to as “step-ins.”

Ellen Welles Page brings something to our eyes that is greatly ignored that there were different degrees of flappers. There are super flappers, the normal-flappers and semi-flappers, all the different divisions having their own variations. Ellen considered herself as a semi-flapper. She was within the age limit of flappers. Wore hair that was bobbed and that was considered to be flapper-hood’s badge. Powdered her nose. Wore skirts and scarfs that were fringed, and waists that were adorned with Peter Pan collars and “finale hopper” shoes that were low heeled. Spent considerable amounts of time in automobiles. Adored dancing. Attended proms and hops and crew races and ball games and other affairs that were carried out in men`s colleges. However, she never used lipstick or rouge nor did she pluck her eyebrows. She also did not smoke. She admitted to having tried smoking at some point in her life and she did not like it. She also did not tell “peppy stories” nor consume alcohol. She also did not have a line which was then considered as an infringement of the regulations and rules of flapper-Dom that was not pardonable (Page, 1922).

Ellen presents us with a version of the flapper that was not extreme that was respectable both among the young and the old.

Ellen calls out her teachers, preachers, parents, friends and grandparents of denouncing and publicly condemning the flappers instead of helping them to work out their problems with acting and thinking that is sympathetic and constructive.

Summary

The liberation of women from dresses that were restrictive was a suggestion of liberation of another sort. The women were now encouraged to move out of their houses by the freedom the flapper had acquired to walk and breath. That was an extreme manifestation of the lifestyle changes of the women in America that were made visible through dress. These changes were interpreted as signs of change that was deeper in the feminine ideal of the Americans. While the flapper era vanished, it left behind a symbol of the liberation of women that lives even to date. Women are no longer required to be homemakers; rather they have the freedom of choosing their roles within societies. While many people were actually against the era that was quite radical, looking back and comparing with the situation today, the flapper dress played a role that was critical in bridging the gender gaps within societies, and that led ultimately to the direction of the rights of women. That has seen women rise even to take up the roles of men in the places of work.

For researchers, sampling is indispensable. The resources, effort and money involved never permit the researchers to study all the members of populations. It is additionally, not necessary to study all possible cases to gain an understanding of the phenomenon being considered. At all times, samples must always be representative if the researcher is able to generalise with confidence that is reasonable from the sample to the population (Palinkas et al., 2015).

Problem specification errors that come about when researchers do not have a proper understanding of what or who they are surveying.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Insights from Social Psychological Theories.

References

• Bliven, B., 1925. Flapper Jane. New Republic, 9, pp.65-67.
• Cohen, A.J., 2016. The Civil Rights Era Philly Style: Using Primary Sources to" Document Race. Special Themed Issue Teaching African-American History, 36, p.33.
• McCusker, K. and Gunaydin, S., 2015. Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), pp.537-542.
• Page, E.W., 1922. A Flapper's Appeal to Parents. Outlook, 132(607), p.69.
• Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015. Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
• Sen, B.K., 2017. Block-1 Documentary Sources.