World War I

During World War I, young women worked outside the home more than they had in the past. These societal changes helped to break down traditional barriers. Women began to drive cars and gender specific clothing began to fall by the wayside after the reliance on women’s work in munitions factories during the war. A kind of cynicism that developed in the aftermath of the World War I and the devastating flu pandemic of 1918 created a youth culture that glorified fast living, dancing, and the exciting sounds of syncopated jazz described by the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in his classic novel The Great Gatsby.