A Lady’s Life in 1920s America, Part I: A Summer Saturday

Rise and shine! It’s time to get up and start our day in the life of a 1920s American gal. 

Pull up your stockings and turn up that radio. Let’s go traveling. 

resource list

Books & Academic Journals

  1. Rebecca K. Shrum, “Selling Mr. Coffee: Design, Gender, and the Branding of a Kitchen Appliance,” Winterthur Portfolio 46, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 271-298. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669669

  2. John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century, New York: Hill & Wang, 1978. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Amusing_the_Million/pRC1mjAzFXsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

  3. Michael Brown and Corley Dennison, “Integrating Radio Into the Home, 1923-1929,” Studies in Popular Culture 20, no. 3 (April 1998), 1-17. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23414552

  4. Tom Lewis, “‘A Godlike Presence’: The Impact of Radio on the 1920s and 1930s,” OAH Magazine of History 6, no. 4 (Spring 1992): 26-33. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154082

  5. Roseann M. Mandziuk, “‘Ending Women’s Greatest Hygienic Mistake’: Modernity and the Mortification of Menstruation in Kotex Advertising, 1921-1926,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 38, no. ¾ (Fall-Winter 2010): 42-62. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20799363

  6. Virginia Scharff, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Taking_the_Wheel/kn46oH0Kk-IC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

  7. Chin Jou, “The Progressive Era Body Project: Calorie-Counting and “Disciplining the Stomach” in 1920s America,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 18, no. 4 (October 2019): 422-440. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/progressive-era-body-project-caloriecounting-and-disciplining-the-stomach-in-1920s-america/2F000B1776484433B27F46342A88756E

  8. Helen Zoe Veit, Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469607719_veit

  9. Claude S. Fischer, “Changes in Leisure Activities, 1890-1940,” Journal of Social History 27, no. 3 (Spring 1994): 453-475. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3788982

  10. Margaret Walsh, “Gendering Mobility: Women, Work and Automobility in the United States,” History 93, no. 3 (July 2008): 376-395. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24428395

  11. Laura L. Behling, “Fisher’s Bodies: Automobile Advertisements and the Framing of Modern American Female Identity,” The Centennial Review 41, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 515-528. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740669

  12. Peter J. Hugill, “Good Roads and the Automobile in the United States 1880-1929,” Geographical Review 72, no. 3 (July 1982): 327-349. https://www.jstor.org/stable/214531

  13. Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cheap_Amusements/FeJVVXfF-FsC?hl=en&gbpv=1

  14. Carroll Pursell, “Fun Factories: Inventing American Amusement Parks,” Icon 19 (2013): 75-99. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23788121

  15. Tracey Deutsch, Building a Housewife's Paradise : Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=602b3822-3407-42ea-821d-e54df7ccf4ba%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=330154&db=e000xna

  16. Louis J. Parascandola and John Parascandola, A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2015. https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=21ed4670-910d-4354-a2fd-7b8237019961%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=880038&db=e000xna

  17. Emmanuelle Dirix, Dressing the Decades: Twentieth-Century Vintage Style, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.

  18. Ronald C. Tobey, Technology as Freedom: The New Deal and the Electrical Modernization of the American Home, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5v19n9w0;brand=ucpress

  19. Teresa Riordan, Inventing Beauty: A History of the Innovations That Have Made Us Beautiful, New York: Broadway Books, 2004. 

  20. Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries, New York: Good Housekeeping Magazine, 1922. Digitized by Cornell University Library’s Home Economics Archive, accessed July 22, 2023. https://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=hearth4391380#mode/1up

Online Sources

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  1. Espresso & Coffee Guide, “Coffee History: 1900-1950,” accessed July 16, 2023. https://espressocoffeeguide.com/all-about-coffee-2/worlds-best-history-of-coffee/coffee-history-1900-1950/

  2. Emma Grahn, “Keeping your (food) cool: From ice harvesting to electric refrigeration,” Smithsonian National Museum of American History, April 29, 2015, accessed July 8, 2023. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/ice-harvesting-electric-refrigeration

  3. “Top 10 Candies from the 1920s,” Candy District, accessed July 8, 2023. https://www.candydistrict.com/blogs/sweet-talk-blog/top-10-candies-from-the-1920s

  4. Kara Hanson, “It’s Been 100 Years, and Technology Didn’t Eliminate Housework,” Medium, January 8, 2020, accessed July 8, 2023. https://kshanson.medium.com/its-been-100-years-and-technology-didn-t-eliminate-housework-58ab9f437571

  5. "Auto Camping Now Easy for Women Nature Lovers.” Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), July 18, 1926, page 1, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/auto-camping-now-easy-women-nature-lovers/docview/161840589/se-2.

  6. “Auto-Camping Time Nears: New Equipment Held Boon to Autoist.” Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), May 12, 1929, page 1, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/auto-camping-time-nears/docview/162227900/se-2.

  7. Erin Blakemore, “A Glimpse at Women’s Period in the Roaring Twenties,” JSTOR Daily, March 22, 2019, accessed July 8, 2023. https://daily.jstor.org/a-glimpse-at-womens-periods-in-the-roaring-twenties/

  8. Linda Alchin, “Inventions in the 1920s,” United States History for Kids, January 9, 2018, accessed July 8, 2023. https://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/inventions-in-the-1920s.htm#:~:text=The%20list%20of%20inventions%20that,instant%20camera%2C%20jukebox%20and%20television.

  9. Kat Eschner, “The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads,” Smithsonian Magazine, November 9, 2018, accessed July 8, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/surprising-origins-kotex-pads-180964466/

  10. “The First Miss America Beauty Pageant, 1921,” PBS: Miss America, accessed July 15, 2023. http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/e_first.html

  11. Anna Diamond, “A Crispy, Salty, American History of Fast Food,” Smithsonian Magazine, June 24, 2019, accessed July 15, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/crispy-salty-american-history-fast-food-180972459/

  12. “Golden Age of Radio in the US,” Digital Public Library of America, accessed July 9, 2023. https://dp.la/exhibitions/radio-golden-age/radio-homefront

  13. Margaret Walsh, “ Gender and the Automobile in the United States,” Automobile in American Life and Society, accessed July 15, 2023. http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Gender/Walsh/G_Overview2.htm#:~:text=With%20the%20growing%20numbers%20of,access%20to%20the%20motor%20vehicle.

  14. “Driving the Disenfranchised- The Automobile’s Role in Women’s Suffrage,” The Frick Museum, accessed July 9, 2023. https://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/Exhibition-Driving-the-Disenfranchised-The-Automobiles-Role-in-Womens-Suffrage

  15. Robert Scott, “ 1920’s Food: Introduction of Processed Food,” 1920-30.com, accessed July 8, 2023. http://www.1920-30.com/food/

  16. Alexis N. Hall, “Aunt Sammy and Her Radio Recipes,” National Archives: The Unwritten Record, March 17, 2022, accessed July 9, 2023. “https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2022/03/17/aunt-sammy-and-her-radio-recipes/

  17. “Feminine Hygiene Products,” The Smithsonian, accessed July 8, 2023. https://www.si.edu/spotlight/health-hygiene-and-beauty/feminine-hygiene-products 

  18. “White Castle History,” White Castle, accessed July 16, 2023. https://www.whitecastle.com/about-us/our-history

  19. Joy Bennett, “1920s Radio,” Hancock Historical Museum, accessed July 8, 2023. https://hancockhistoricalmuseum.org/i-love-the-1920s/1920s-radio/#:~:text=Shows%20such%20as%20Amos%20'n,Miss%20Brooks%20were%20incredibly%20popular.&text=To%20get%20more%20radios%20in,they%20even%20introduced%20children's%20programming!

  20. Mark Levinson and Dave Davies, interview, “How the A&P Changed the Way We Shop,” NPR, August 23, 2011, accessed July 15, 2023. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/139761274

  21. “Sheet Music for In My Merry Oldsmobile, 1910,” Owls Head Transportation Museum, accessed July 16, 2023. https://ohtm.pastperfectonline.com/archive/1F02F3F8-4D7E-450A-83D1-400287808141

  22. “Model T,” History.com, May 2, 2019, accessed July 16, 2023. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/model-t

  23. “Prohibition Sparked a Woman’s Fashion Revolution,” The Mob Museum: Prohibition- An Interactive History, accessed July 22, 2023. https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/how-prohibition-changed-american-culture/prohibition-fashion/

  24. Barry Samaha, “Shop the Looks from the 1920s That Continue to Inspire Today,” Harper’s Bazaar, November 29, 2022, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/g35335543/1920s-fashion-photos/

  25. “History of Fashion 1900-1970,” Victoria & Albert Museum, accessed July 22, 2023. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-fashion-1900-1970/

  26. “History of Women’s 1920s Fashion, 1920-1929,” GlamourDaze, accessed July 22, 2023. https://glamourdaze.com/history-of-womens-fashion/1920-to-1929

  27. “1920s Dress History, Daytime Dresses- Pictures of 20s Fashion,” VintageDancer, accessed July 22, 2023. https://vintagedancer.com/1920s/1920s-day-dresses/

  28. "How Good Are Women Drivers?: Buffalo Men Blame Them for Traffic Jams.” Boston Daily Globe (1923-1927), December 2, 1925, page 11, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/how-good-are-women-drivers/docview/498670244/se-2.

  29. "Easy for Women Drivers: Two out of every Twenty Offenders are of Fair Sex; But Their Smiles Save Many Women Drivers Trouble Police.” Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), October 23, 1923, page 2, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/easy-women-drivers/docview/161475931/se-2.

  30. “Yes,” Say Experts “No” Say Policemen: Diverse Opinions on Relative Superiority of Men or Women Drivers.” The Hartford Courant (1923-), July 24, 1925, page 4, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/yes-say-experts-no-policemen/docview/554032352/se-2.

  31. H. C. Brokaw, “Women as Drivers of Motor Cars More Careful than Men: Then, Too, they Learn More of Machines before they Set Out; Growing Register of Feminine Drivers." New-York Tribune (1911-1922), June 05, 1921, page 1, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/women-as-drivers-motor-cara-more-careful-than-men/docview/576406711/se-2.

  32. Ann Beth Presley, “Fifty Years of Change: Societal Attitudes and Women’s Fashions, 1900-1950,” The Historian 60, no. 2 (Winter, 1998): 307-324. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24451728

  33. Karina Reddy, “1920-1929,” Fashion History Timeline, May 11, 2018, accessed 12/20/2022. https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1920-1929/

  34. “Time Discipline,” Smithsonian National Museum of American History, accessed July 22, 2023. https://americanhistory.si.edu/ontime/synchronizing/discipline.html

  35. Jeffrey Stanton, “Coney Island- Nickel Empire (1920’s-1930’s), Coney Island History, September 6, 2013, accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/nickelempire.htm

episode transcript

Keep in mind that I sometimes edit as I record, so this transcript won’t match the audio exactly. And please excuse any typos!

GETTING READY FOR THE DAY

Today, we’re waking up in a New York apartment on a balmy summer Saturday in 1923.

Just like in all eras and countries, the type of house we’re living in depends a lot on our family’s income and our social situation. The post-WWI era is, overall, one of prosperity and opportunities the likes of which we’ve rarely seen before. Our economy is booming, and the increasingly affluent middle class is enjoying a higher quality of life. Industrial production is growing; soon the USA will account for almost half of the world’s output. Per capita income is on the rise. When we picture the ‘20s, we think of shiny dresses and fine suits, fast cars and luxury. But the era is chock full of contradictions. Some people were Gatsby rich, but many more are George Wilson poor. Many families are living at or below the poverty line, and these boom times seemed to whistle right past some groups of Americans. A report from 1928 will show that over two-thirds of the country’s indigenous peoples lived on less than $200 a year. Of the 25,000 Mexicans who settled in America every year of the ‘20s, most remained devastatingly poor, with many living without flushing toilets or regular access to fresh vegetables and meat. Farmers, too, are struggling, weighed down by long-term debts, high taxes, and a fall in crop prices. In the 1920s, the distribution of wealth shifted toward the already very rich; the share of income the wealthiest one percent of Americans receives will rise from 12 to 19 percent. So the rich are getting richer, the poor are staying poor, and this general prosperity–and the opportunities that come with it–do not extend to everyone. But since we have to settle ourselves somewhere, we’re going to start our day as middle-class gals in New York City, and everything that comes along with it.

Let’s head to the bathroom first, shall we? We’re likely to have a flushing toilet and a shower. But we’re not guaranteed to have electricity or air conditioning or central heating. At the beginning of the ‘20s, only 35 percent of homes are wired for it. By 1932, only about 10% of rural America will be electrified, and about half of those people will have to buy their own country-home power plants. By the end of the 1920s, the overall percentage of wired homes is 68 percent, but it’s much higher in cities. A/C is actually invented in 1922, but it won't become affordable, and thus a household staple, until after WWII. Heaters had been around since the 1800s, with central heating invented in 1919, but it won’t become affordable until the 1950s. Without electricity, we’ll probably be using gas lamps.

RIDING THE CRIMSON WAVE

So what’s in our medicine cabinet? There are a couple of brands that will look familiar to our modern eyes, including Vaseline, Band-Aids, Palmolive, and Maybelline. Today, though, we’ll reach for the Kotex box, because it’s that time of the month. 

(For more information about how ladies dealt with menstruation through the ages, check out our Blood Magic episode.) For now, let’s meet the most popular brand of sanitary product on the 1920s market is Kotex. Although there are others, such as Hoosier’s Sanitary belt (quite literally a belt that holds your cloth against your body), Lister’s Towels (the first disposable pad), Mi Ladi Dainti (a washable pad), and May Kits (a build-your-own gauze pad kit), they are often bulky or downright uncomfortable, and thus they aren’t super popular. In 1927, the Johnson & Johnson company surveys thousands of American women to find out exactly what they want from their sanitary products, and surprise, surprise…women in the 1920s wanted a comfortable, functional pad in discreet, compact packaging. Who could have guessed that?! Interestingly, although Kotex had cornered the market, many women complained that their pads were too large, thick, or stiff. Others reported taking scissors and modifying them, or wearing Vaseline to help with chafing. So why was Kotex so popular if the product wasn’t actually that good?

The short answer? Advertising. Kotex has been running a massively successful advertising campaign in women’s magazines like Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal. Their ads cleverly find a way to market the product without ever explicitly stating what the pads are for. After all, none of us want public discussions about menstruation! Their advertisements promise that pads come in “a plain wrapper,” and that “there is nothing on the blue Kotex package except the name.” Their “Ask for it by name” slogan becomes an important part of the company’s campaign. One 1922 ad reads, “Easy to buy. All embarrassing counter conversation is avoided by saying, ‘A box of Kotex please.’” I mean, god forbid you make the man at the store counter blush. Menstruation is a problem women need help with. In fact, two ads from 1925 and 1926 literally read, “Science’s solution to women’s oldest problem” and, “a simple solution of the greatest hygienic handicaps.” Many Kotex ads used words like hygienic, clean, dainty, and sanitary in order to frame menses (and the old-fashioned ways of dealing with it) as offensive or even dirty. In this way, Kotex ads play on the anxiety of modern women. After all, they are expected to take a more active part in public than in their mother’s day, and encouraged to display their bodies… as long as they appear pleasing to men. 

“Dainty,” and “immaculate,” are the keywords featured in this 1924 Kotex ad. The text also frames Kotex as the “modern,” “safe,” and nurse-approved method of managing menstruation, while disparaging other methods and products as “old-fashioned” and even “dangerous.”



“Kotex ad in Hygeia Magazine, November 1924,” in “‘Solving Woman’s Oldest Hygienic Problem in a New Way’: A History of Period Products, by Johanna Goldberg,” NYAM History of Medicine and Public Health, March 4, 2016, accessed July 22, 2023.

As to tampons, they are around in the 1920s, but are mostly used by doctors and nurses to insert medicine into our lady palaces. You’re not going to find a box of them at home for menstrual use. But you also might be turning away from commercial sanitary products, as they’re expensive, and simply making some of your own at home. DIY sanitary belts and pads are absolutely being used, though it’s hard to know how widely.

Our cabinet is also likely to contain all sorts of toiletries aimed at making our appearance more pleasing to the outside eye. Women are spending more time outside the house, and experiencing more casual encounters with potential bedfellows, than ever, and a bevy of ad men have stepped in to make sure we know how to make the most of it. By 1929, the annual sales of toiletries will have exploded, and the number of ads screaming at us to buy them will only be outnumbered by ads for food.

Our magazines are constantly telling us how important youth, beauty, and excellent breath are if we’re going to succeed in life. If we don’t pamper our skin and nails and hair on the regular, disaster could ensue. You’d be forgiven for being worried when your favorite magazines run ads with big titles like “How a Wife Won Back Her Youth: A Surrender to Ugliness That Nearly Cost a Husband’s Love.” Even the sassy, fresh-faced flapper needs to worry, apparently, especially with her paramours coming in for such close inspection on the dance floor. “Will his lips confirm what his eyes are saying?” warns one Palmolive ad. “The kindly candles of last night, the telltale revetments of noon! Do you fear the contrast they may offer?” It wasn’t so long ago that mirrors were fairly cloudy, casting nothing more than hazy reflections back at us, and many people didn’t even have them at home. But now, they’re both more affordable and much clearer, so we have more chances for self examination than ever. Hooray.

We’re likely to have plenty of creams and lotions to slasher on to keep our skin looking fresh and supple. For the 1920s lady, a flawless complexion is key. Beauty products like Cold Creams are said to erase our wrinkles and fight blemishes. For centuries, pale skin has been a marker of wealth and status. The paler we were, the more obvious it was that we didn’t have to toil in the fields. There’s a lot to examine when it comes to the relationship between skin tone, race, and skin care products in America: a frought landscape, to be sure. The prevailing beauty standard in the early ‘20s still skews toward smooth, pale skin, which means there are plenty of skin bleaching agents on the markets, used by white women and women of color alike. We’ll look at this more closely in our episode about cosmetics and the beauty industry. For now, it’s worth mentioning because one major change we see in terms of skincare in the 20s is we are starting to go for a tan. Partly because we’re much more interested in outdoor pursuits, sports, and sea bathing. Coco Chanel is credited by many as the one who makes the bronzed look fashionable. When she takes a cruise in 1923, she makes tan skin look healthy and covetable. A tan becomes the marker of status: only those with time and money for a luxury vacation can acquire it. By 1929, there are self-tanning products on the market for those who want to fake the look at home. 

ALL DOLLED UP (GETTING DRESSED)

But we’ll talk more about 1920s cosmetics, and the industry that fuels it, in a future episode. For now, let’s skip over our pressed face powder and get ourselves dressed! First up, we’ll slide into our underwear, which were referred to as knickers, bloomers, or step-in drawers. These are essentially wide leg shorts with an elastic waist, made of very light and thin material, such as crepe de chine, silk, or cotton. 

Next is our bra, or bandeau brassiere. It’s very similar to our tube-like bandeau tops in our modern day, but these come with straps. Our bandeau brassieres are usually made of lace, silk, or rayon, although brassieres for bustier ladies were made of heavier cotton or brocade. One of the most popular brassieres was the Symington Side Lacer, which can be laced at the sides. By the end of the decade, women will begin wearing bras with actual cups, thanks to a little company called MaidenForm. Whatever brassiere you choose in the 1920s, its ultimate goal is to squash our gourds down, flattening our chests as much as possible. 

We have plenty of other underwear options in the 1920s besides these two. If we were wearing a dress, we might opt for the cami-knickers, which are basically a form of romper. If we were going to visit our parents, we might pull out our corselette. Traditional lace-up corsets are still being worn in the 1920s, especially by older women, but many younger women prefer a lighter corset/brassiere combination. The corselette has side fasteners, shoulder straps, and long elastic panels or light boning, all designed to help us create the 1920s body ideal: tubular, boyish, curveless. 

Next, we’ll pull on our rayon stockings. Rayon, you say? Not silk? That’s right. Rayon was invented way back in 1846, and began being manufactured in the United States in 1911. It was called “artificial silk” until 1924, when the name rayon was coined, and is popular as a far less expensive alternative to silk. There are those who consider it inferior: After all, rayon is QUITE shiny, isn’t it? Good thing we have talcum powder, which we often used to matte our shiny stockinged legs. We are going to hold up our stockings with elastic garters that fit snugly around the thigh. 

When it comes to what we’re wearing, you’ve probably already got an image in mind: a sparkly, columnar, body-skimming sleeveless dress, decorated with fringe that gives us the occasionally scandalous flash of a kneecap. It’s the iconic flapper look of the 20s, but it’s not what everyone is wearing, especially during the day. We talked about that look in some detail in the Flappers episode, so make sure you tune into that one. But to think that ALL women in the 20s are wearing flapper fashion is like saying that all women in the 60s were wearing miniskirts. It was not only cutting edge, but edgy: a statement rather than the status quo. A lot of the boldest high fashion flapper looks were, and still are, reserved for the elite. But the 1920s does bring a kind of democratization of women’s fashion: those who might not have been able to dress the latest styles before can increasingly afford to do so. 

It helps that the fashions of the 1920s are, by and large, so much more practical and comfortable than what came before. During World War I, a huge number of women stepped into the jobs left behind by men fighting in the war effort. They worked in factories and drove buses, and generally got some pretty important stuff done. They couldn’t very well do with in big skirts that might get sucked into a machine! They needed more practical, functional clothes to work in, including a variation on knickers - aka, slacks. Once the ladies had experienced life in trousers, they weren’t about to go back to bustle skirts. Indeed, a lot of them weren’t going to go back to spending most of their time in the kitchen. As we’ll find out more about in our next episode, way more women in the 1920s are working outside the home. They need fashionable and/or practical clothes to go to work in. That means no more Victorian whalebone corsets or the Edwardian Age’s complicated bustles. Instead, we get a no muss, no fuss approach that is more suited to what we’re doing: work, sports, driving, and dancing.

Women played tennis, too! French tennis players Suzanne Lenglen and Julie Vlasto in Cannes in 1926, 1926. Source: Wikimedia

This simpler approach to women’s wear in high fashion arguably started with a designer named Paul Poiret, whose innovative designs were all about getting rid of the corset and the Edwardian S bend. But make no mistake: this guy wasn’t all about women’s liberation. “I freed the bust,” he proudly said of his designs, “but shackled the legs.” It is visionary designer Coco Chanel who really takes the 20s look to a whole different level. Born in 1883, she grew up quite poor in the French countryside, without money or connections. But she didn’t let that stop her from having adventures. The quintessential New Woman, she had no time for the fussy fashion of old. She preferred men’s fashion, and found ways of making it work for her.  “One day I put on a man’s sweater,” she would tell one journalist, “because I was cold…I tied it with a handkerchief at the waist,” and soon she was surrounded by admirers wanting to know where the outfit came from. “If you like it,” she supposedly said, “I’ll sell it to you.” She opens a tiny shop in France, and her simple, comfortable fashion becomes highly coveted amongst the wealthy. Chanel brings in elements that were previously reserved for men’s clothing: sailor’s collars, reefer jackets, mechanics’ dungarees. She feminizes tweeds and flannels, once the province of men’s hunting jackets and button downs. Every outfit seemed to suggest that men and women are…could it be…equals? Our favorite sassy lady journalist Lois Long praised the fashions, saying that now women had clothes they could wear while doing almost anything, “suitable for participation in all save the very strenuous sports, such as mountain climbing, lion hunting, and the exploration of the Arctic.” Of course, not everyone loves this blurry of sartorial lines in fashion. One grumpy man complains that “women no longer exist; all that’s left are the boys created by Chanel.”

One of the most influential changes we see in women’s fashion in the ‘20s is the introduction of what we might consider sportswear. Women with money have always had more time to indulge in sports than her working-class sister, but she’s mostly always done it in impractical clothes. A keen rider and outdoor enthusiast, Chanel isn’t interesting in clothes that’re hard to move in. Designs like Chanel’s give women clothes that are easier to truly move in; she does more to free our busts than Poiret ever could.

But here’s the pressing question: are we 1920s ladies wearing pants? Sometimes, but only in certain situations. We might wear men’s-style knickers if we’re playing golf, say, or horsebackriding, or if we’re a lady aviator jumping behind the wheel of a plane. Schoolgirls might wear knickers as part of their uniform. Women at home or at the beach might slip into some silk pajamas: if you’re a fan of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, picture those flowing white pants she’s often wearing. These palazzo-style, high-waisted numbers will grow increasingly popular for their comfort factor, almost like leggings have done in our era, becoming something the daring woman might wear to a house party with friends. But only the edgiest and most devil-may-care lady is going to wear pants to work, or out dancing. It’s going to take several more generations before ladies in pants becomes anything less than a scandal.

Women were taking to the road in droves, using the automobile to socialize with their female friends and escape the house for an adventure or two. Sometimes they even did it wearing pants! Image: “June 13, 1922. Washington, D.C. Viola LaLonde and Elizabeth Van Tuyl.” from “1920s Women and Their Cars,” History Daily, accessed July 22, 2023.


The era’s fashion is a lot simpler to achieve than what we wore in bygone eras. With shorter sleeves (and sometimes no sleeves), hemlines creeping up, and much simpler lines, they require less costly fabric. Back in 1884, most dresses required some six yards of 48 inch fabric. By the mid 1920s, it’s come down to under three yards of 54 inch fabric. And the lines of these styles are simple enough that the thrifty gal might make them on her sewing machine at home, even if she’s less than confident with the needle. By the 1920s, all the ladies magazines are offering sewing patterns and courses to their readers so they can create their own high street looks on the cheap. We also benefit from the easier, higher-volume clothing production that emerges in ready-to-wear. The war taught us a thing or two about producing high quantities of clothing, and doing it with new and cheaper materials. Thus department stores and mail order catalogs give even the fashion-forward country gal a chance to buy a silk crepe skirt without breaking the bank. 

Part of the problem with accessible fashion is that it puts the pressure on everyone to participate in it, particularly if she wants to be successful and popular. On average, we are spending more money on clothes than we did before the ‘20s, and we’re feeling fashion peer pressure more keenly. As one 1920s mom complains: “The dresses girls wear to school now used to be considered party dresses. My daughter would consider herself terribly abused if she had to wear the same dress to school two successive days.”

The daywear look Chanel helped cement as the 1920s daytime uniform is chic but casual: we might wear a pleated skirt and a sweater blouse, or even a loose-belted cardigan. If we’re wearing a dress, it’s likely to be drop-waisted, and since it’s daytime, it is very likely to have sleeves. We’ll slip on a very low Cuban heel, and we will absolutely not be leaving the house without our cloche hat. This fitted, brimless, bell-shaped number frames the face, and perfectly complements our bobbed hair. 

BREAKFAST TIME

Our tummies are rumbling, so let’s go make some breakfast. Our kitchen isn’t stocked with all the latest inventions, like the bread slicer, garbage disposal, and the KitchenAid mixer. In fact, many of the new household items featured in mail order catalogs are too expensive for most of us and won’t become affordable until the 1930s. We do have a toaster, though. We might also have an ice box. Ice will come to our place every day or so, cut in giant blocks from frozen lakes, stored in warehouses, and delivered to our door by brawny delivery men. Refrigerators have been invented, but they are mainly used in hotels and restaurants. By the end of the 1920s, only 8% of households will own an expensive electric refrigerator; many won’t even have ice boxes. Which means that, in many cities, we prefer to shop for food daily rather than trying to store it.

For breakfast, we’re likely to have something light. Before the 1920s, breakfast was a hearty affair, meant to fill you up for a long day of manual labor. Now, though, breakfast consists of toast or cereal, because most people are working in offices or factories rather than the fields. Based on the many sample menus found in Good Housekeeping’s Book of Recipes, published in 1922, we’ll definitely be having coffee, courtesy of Maxwell House, who is already using their trademarked slogan, “Good to the Last Drop.” No electric drip coffee makers here, though: (those will arrive in the 1970s). We might be making our coffee with an electric pumping percolator, which produces very bitter coffee, so we will definitely be adding all the cream and sugar. We’ll also likely have some toast. It might even be Wonder Bread, first brought to market in 1921, which will go on to become the first pre-sliced bread to be sold nationwide. That said, we will see that classic combo or bacon and eggs on some tables, thanks to marketing genius Edward Bernays. He’s hired by the Beech-Nut company, a packaging firm who invested heavily in bacon production, to persuade 5,000 doctors to promote the combo as particularly healthy. But we ladies are more likely to reach for pre-packaged, supposedly health-increasing cereals like Wheaties or Kellogg’s Bran Flakes. After all, we’re all about counting our calories.

GETTING TRIM

Diet fever seems to have swept our nation. Why? Well, first, because being underweight is less of a public health issue now that there is an abundant food supply. And while women are MUCH more active when it comes to sports in this era, people are a lot less active generally, thanks to automobiles and white collar jobs. For the first time, chronic diseases like heart disease surpassed epidemic diseases like polio as the leading causes of death among Americans. A series of public health campaigns began to inform the public about the importance of exercise and mindful eating. Then, when America entered World War I in 1917, food had to be rationed, and dieting was encouraged as both healthy and patriotic. The government created food conservation campaigns featuring the daily recommended caloric intake based on your sex, age, and physical activity. Wartime weight loss clubs formed, and magazines ran articles like “Are you a fat hoarder?” and “How dare you hoard fat when your nation needs it?” Although the war ended in 1918, diet culture continued, thanks in part to modern fashions. Off the rack, mass market clothing starts introducing standard sizing, which seems to cater mostly to thin women. Women’s bodies are increasingly on display in the 1920s. That means no more hiding in your giant hoop skirt. 

Advertisements, magazines, and films of the time aren’t helping. We are surrounded by images of the thin, curveless “flapper-esque” ideal, and a growing conversation about the body, self-discipline, and self improvement. In 1925, The New York Times reports that the penny scales in department store bathrooms received so much traffic that they’re more profitable than their gumball machines. Such scrutiny is formalized thanks to the Miss America pageant, which begins in 1921 as a way to foster tourism for Atlantic City, and whose purported aim to find the “most beautiful bathing girl in America” puts women’s bodies on display. The first Golden Mermaid trophy is won by 16-year-old Margaret Gorman, who, like all the other contestants, has her measurements taken in front of more than 100,000 spectators. Yikes. 

What are American women doing to trim up? Many are playing sports. For the first time in America, light physical fitness is considered a modern and fashionable form of recreation. Physical education classes, organized sports clubs, and college teams for women all begin in earnest. We even see some professional female athletes: they compete in eight events in the 1920 Olympics, and four bring home gold medals in swimming and diving. But for your average gal, high intensity exercise is still a no no… most of us aren’t pumping iron or doing anything like CrossFit. It’s considered too strenuous for a woman’s femininity. Instead, walking, cycling, swimming, golf, and tennis are recommended to achieve a svelte, graceful figure and a youthful glow. (As long as that glow isn’t from sweat, of course.). Exercise is considered a great way for us to stay healthy, but if we really want to lose weight, the experts say we need to focus on dieting.

There are plenty of mass market diet products to try: the reducing corset, the electric massaging roller, diet pills, laxative chewing gums, and dieting cookbooks, as well as fads like three-day liquid diets and steam baths. Other than that last one, I think I’m out. The most common method of losing weight, though, is calorie counting, thanks to Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters. Dr. Lulu’s calorie counting book, Diet and Health with Key to the Calories, was published in 1918, and it sold 2 million copies, making it America’s first best-selling diet guide. It includes advice like, “a daily reduction of 500 calories is equivalent to the loss of 2 ounces of fat, which amounts to 4 pounds per month, or 48 pounds per year!” 

Peters’ readers are mainly white upper- and middle class women who can afford to pick and choose what they eat. But she also gets letters from working women who want to share their progress, as well as young girls. When a 14 year old writes in about limiting herself to just 1,000 calories a day, Dr. Lulu congratulates her: “...it makes me happy to know you are following my advice and getting out of the fat girl type.” Way to raise the self-esteem of young women everywhere. When letter writers complain of headaches, dizziness, or hunger pangs, she tells them they’ll soon become accustomed to it. In fact, she recommends: “2 cups of moderately hot water with the juice of lemon, a cup of fat-free bouillon, or half an apple.” Cool, thanks. I’ll try that. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Lulu isn’t the only one pushing the fat-shaming agenda. When one mother writes to a ‘20s advice columnist, saying that she doesn’t know how she can be expected to diet when she is so tired from her household and childcare duties, the response she gets contains zero empathy. The columnist says that she knows a vivacious woman with five children who wears the same dress size as her teenage daughter; with only one child to look after, the woman really “ought to look like a flapper and act like one.” 

The weight loss narrative is all about willpower and mastery of the body. Nina Putnam writes in her 1922 book, Tomorrow We Diet, “You can get as slim as you want to, but two things are required of you—two little eensy weensy things. Self-control and intelligence.” Interestingly, the ideals driving diet culture are very similar to many of the other popular Progressive ideals at the time: self-control, moral righteousness, and asceticism. No surprise, when you consider that these same ideals help drive the country into the arms of Prohibition. And so dieting becomes a project of moral superiority and self discipline for both men and women, especially because doctors are telling them that losing weight will increase energy, efficiency, and even intelligence. But the dieting craze affects women SO much more than men, because they are being told that losing weight will make them more attractive to their husbands, which will of course improve their marriages. We 1920s ladies are indoctrinated by the pervasive idea that being thin means being happy. And we wonder why body image issues are so rife.

TUNING INTO THE RADIO

Now that we are finished with our (low calorie) breakfast, let’s crawl out onto the fire escape and listen to our downstairs neighbor’s radio. It’s 9:30 a.m., which means our neighbor will be tuning into one of our favorite programs, Housekeeper Chat, which is typical of the radio programming directed at women in the ‘20s. This program was created by the US Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Home Economics and Farm Radio Service, a government branch dedicated to assisting farm wives. Housekeeper Chat is hosted by Aunt Sammy (Uncle Sam’s wife), a role played by different home economics specialists. Each Housekeeper Chat features 3 sections: “backyard gossip,” “questions women are asking,” and “what shall we have for dinner.” So many listeners write to the show to ask questions and request copies of the recipes featured that the USDA compiles them into a book and distributes more than 100,000 copies. 


Here we have an ad for one of the earlier models of the radio, featured in a 1923 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. This model clearly still ran on batteries and required headphones, although thankfully most of the wires and tubes have been hidden within the receiver compartment.

“Radio Corporation of America ad in the Saturday Evening Post, April 14, 1923,” in “Vintage Advertising: RCA’s 1920s Radios,” The Saturday Evening Post, June 14, 2017, 2016, accessed July 22, 2023.

Why are we mooching off our neighbor? Why don’t we have a radio of our own? Radio communication has been around since the start of WWI. The technology advanced rapidly, and by the 1920s, radio receivers are starting to be mass produced for the average consumer. But like so many other new-fangled gadgets, they’re expensive. In the early part of the decade, radios are about $150, more than $2,000 today. They’re also impractical: run on what looks like a small car battery, which often leaves acid burns on the floor. It’s only after 1925, when manufacturers create a receiver that plugs right into the electrical (AC powered) current of the household that radio sales really start to take off. But just because they’re AC powered, doesn’t mean radio sets are attractive. Golda Goldman, writing in Radio News magazine in 1926, describes the latest radio her husband brought home as, “something which made the living room look like the garage just after the Ford has been taken apart.” Turns out that many women won’t allow their husbands to bring radios home because they don’t want a bunch of ugly wires and speakers and tubes in the living room. Imagine that! Once manufacturers realize they have to make radios appeal to feminine design tastes, and start creating sleek radio sets with compact components disguised as cabinets and furniture pieces, sales skyrocket. Gee, look what happens when you take women’s opinions into account! Still, the “Golden Age of Radio” won’t really begin until the 1930s, when radios become cheap enough for the majority of Americans to afford.

The radio offers Americans new ways to connect and communicate. Children’s serials, vaudeville acts, soap operas, and situational comedies like Amos N’Andy are all common radio entertainment. In 1922, the Yankees-Giants World Series draws a record one million radio listeners. Sports are a massive source of entertainment in American culture in the ‘20s, and people love being able to listen to the big game when they can’t attend the event itself. This is especially true for Black Americans, who are often barred from sporting events due to segregation. You might also turn on the radio for political news, market reports, weather forecasts, lectures on home economics, farm reports, and classical music concerts. The New York Philharmonic even has a weekly radio concert!

COOKING UP LUNCH

We’re going on a picnic later with some friends, so let’s start cooking. What are we making? Probably some 1920s staples: an orange pecan salad, baconized meatballs, and apricot jelly cake: all popular summertime fare. But where are we buying our food? This is worth dwelling on, as grocery shopping in the 1920s is mostly considered a woman’s job. Here in the city, we get most of our food from public street markets, peddlers who sell their wares door to door, and tiny neighborhood grocery stores. This means most of our food is fresh, and grocery shopping is done pretty much every day, especially if our ice box is small. 

When we walk into our tiny, local store, there are no aisles stocked with food. Instead, we’ll walk up to the store counter, and we’ll tell the grocery clerk exactly what we need. Then, he’ll go into the backroom and get it for us. And because most items are sold in bulk, the clerk will have to measure things out for us. If we want cheese, he’ll weigh it; if we want vinegar, he’ll pump it into a small bottle for us. This means you end up developing a personal relationship with your grocer. That is part of the reason you can get away with purchasing your groceries on credit. After all, your grocer knows where you live! 

These local grocers offer other services, too, such as letter writing, translation services, cooking advice, and neighborhood gossip. And if you are too busy to pop down to the store, you can also place a phone order and get your food delivered, although most women are too suspicious of the staff filling orders incorrectly or substituting high quality goods for lower quality ones to do this very often. They prefer to go to the store counter themselves and barter for the best cut of meat. Haggling is a regular part of grocery shopping in the 1920s. 

Interestingly, prices aren’t advertised at your corner store, so you don’t actually know what your bill is going to be. This is a problem when food prices go up after the war. The cost of potatoes, for example, rises 147 percent between 1913 and 1923. This is true of other things, too, like rent and clothing – all cost about twice as much in 1923 as they did in 1913. Thus, the average 1920s family is probably spending a third of its income on food. Enter the chain grocery store. Packaged, processed food is now hitting the shelves, including many of the brands we can find in the store today: Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Log Cabin syrup, Campbell's Soup, Wonder Bread, Popsicles, and Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Flour, Baby Ruth candy bars, Haribo Gold gummy bears, Dubble Bubble bubble gum and - my favorite - Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. These items can all be found at Piggly Wiggly, Kroger, or Safeway, national grocery store chains that grow exponentially during the 1920s. 

They offer self-service, and that is attracting women in droves. The idea of women selecting their food items without ANY HELP is seen as rather “modern,” so much so that many chains run ads emphasizing its progressiveness. Many of these ads remind Americans of women’s important role as the “consumer” of the family; A&P even runs a series of ads in the Saturday Evening Post designed to convince men that grocery shopping is just as difficult as an office job. “Daily the wife must purchase the family food needs. Countless brands, grades, and prices are confusing, yet she must decide. And she does, wisely and profitably. Give her credit.” Compliments will get you everywhere. 

In a few hours, we’ll hop in our friend’s fancy automobile and head out on an afternoon adventure. Let’s leave our travels there for now. In our next episode, we’re going to put on our suit set and head to work in the 1920s, exploring all the ways we 1920s ladies get to business - and the struggles for equality we have to endure. Until next time.






Kate J. Armstrong