NHD Topic Essay

Topic Essay


How did fashion help women gain there independence after the revolutionary war? When you think about women gaining independence most likely fashion does not come to mind. However fashion played a major roll for women gaining independence. This was the starting point for the women of the United States of America slowly but surely gain there independence.
During the revolutionary war while the men were off fighting, the women were left back at home with no choice but to step up and take on the roles of the men in order to survive and provide for their families. Since women were playing the part as men they finally began to wear the pants in the household, literally. In these days it was tradition for women to wear long dresses that covered the ankles. It was unheard of for a woman to wear pants. It was considered a crime for women to expose themselves. This was the starting point of a long journey for women on the path of gaining independence. Soon after the war more and more women started to wear pants and shorter dresses exposing their ankles. Women were even supposed to wear long plastic dresses as swimsuits. There has been many court cases where women were being arrested for the way they dressed, simply showing their ankle. How ever this did not stop them and they continued on fighting for independence, even through fashion.
I choose this topic because I thought it would be a unique way to show how women gained independence. Women have done so many things on the path of gaining independence; however it has never been looked at through a fashion point of view. The way women dress today has definitely changed compared to the traditional women from back then. This topic relates to this years National History Day theme because the conflict would be women not being able to express their self freely by wearing what they wanted and the compromise being women taking a stand for what they believed in and slowly beginning to gain their independence simply by the way they dressed.