Gibson Girls and Suffragists Perceptions of Women from 1900 to 1918

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Who were the Gibson Girls and who were the Suffragists? They weren't specific individuals, but rather symbols that defined women from the turn of the twentieth century through the end of World War I. Gibson Girls were flirtatious and feisty. They drove motor cars and donned bloomers to play a new game called basketball. Some were ladies of polite society, while others were immigrants who did their best to be fashionable on their paltry earnings. The Suffragists, on the other hand, were more concerned with social justice than fashion. They fought for the right to vote for all American women, demanded safer work conditions and better wages for working women, and called for better living conditions for impoverished families. As the girls and women of the postwar decade asked themselves ?Who do I want to become? the media of the times tried to influence their paths. Magazines, sheet music, and celebrities idealized femininity and fashion. While the Gibson Girls paid attention, the Suffragists marched into the world to make changes. Learn more about the images and issues that framed perceptions about women in these formative years.