Viewed by many at the time as the “sex-crazed kid sister of the suffragist,” a new generation of young women—recently empowered by the right to vote thanks to ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920—were inspired during Prohibition to toss off their corsets, bob their hair, shorten their shirts, and bucking all conventions of “acceptable” Victorian behavior, energetically push against the barriers of economic, political, and sexual freedom for women.
They are now considered the first generation of truly independent American women, thanks in large part to the unusual convergence of suffrage and Prohibition.
In this video presentation sponsored by the Petaluma Historical Museum and Petaluma History Room, historian John Sheehy explores how this unexpected turn of events came about in Petaluma.