The Lindy hop is an American dance which was born in Harlem, New York City in 1928 and has evolved since then with the jazz music of that time. ... Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway, and Charleston.

A slightly different form of Charleston became popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and is associated with Lindy Hop. In this later Charleston form, the hot jazz timing of the 20s Charleston was adapted to suit the swing jazz music of the 1930s and 1940s.

-Women were mainly seen as homemakers. 

-If women worked they worked until they were married.

 

1921- Agnes Macphail became first female Member of Parliament.

 

-Nellie McClung won a seat in Alberta in 1921 and was the 3^rdwoman to sit in the province’s legislature.

 

1927- Emily Carr was known as a painter of first rank.

 

-Mazo de la Roche- very successful writing career.

 

-Edmonton Grads- best woman’s basketball team in the world, turning back all challengers year after year.

 

1928- Olympic games-great female athletes like Ethel Catherwood and Bobby Rosenfeld won gold medals for Canada.

 

-Canada in the 1920s remained very much dominated by men, and women were denied all sorts of rights and privileges.

 

-Men had all sorts of organizations- ex. Kiwanis and lay organizations of church where woman were allowed to participate only in limited ways.

 

-They held traditional jobs such as domestic servants,secretaries,salesclerks,or factory workers,nurses and teachers.

 

-Women doctors and lawyers were admitted to practice rather grudgingly.

 

-No man in his right mind would put himself under a scalpel wielded by a woman nor put his personal and business affairs in the hands of a lady lawyer.

 

- Women drinkers were unthinkable.

 

- Even if women did manage to break through sexist barriers, they often found themselves forced to adapt to working conditions designed by and for men-ex. No woman’s washrooms.

 

- More and more woman were being employed  as sales help in stores, as filing clerks, and stenographers in business offices and as factory workers because they could perform such duties as well as men at much lower wages.

 

-They earned just over $8 a week (55hrs)

 

-They gained 54%-60% of what men did.

 

-A woman’s real place, it was universally agreed, was in the home.

 

-Women fought for their rights through campaigns, and by groups of intellectually tough dedicated woman who met regularly to compose letters to the government and study the BNA clause by clause.

 

-They organized protests.

 

-One of these groups was the “famous five”.

 

-the flapper era was another kind of declaration of independence.

 

-Many employers discriminated against women minority groups on employment issues.

 

-Japenese and chinese women were banned from entering Canadian colleges,universities, and hospitals

Negatives: 

Positives for women:

Skirt lengths got shorter, clothing was designed to be more freeing

Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic in 1928

1928 Athletics and gymnastics became open to women’s participation.

Negatives:

Shorter skirts created backlash on women and created assumption they were “far more sexually liberated” The term flapper was interchangeable with women prostitute for a while

Women couldn’t legally terminate a pregnancy

Could not purchase the pill until the 50s, movement started in 1914

Couldn't access emergency contraceptive

“How long a women’s skirt or hair was, whether she spent her hard-earned money on cheap stockings or silk ones, whether she swore stockings at all with her bathing costume were believed by some to be matters of great consequence.”