Jordan Baker Women

The Great Gatsby is a novel about a time in America where businesses and cities were booming, scandals and illegal activities were a daily occurrence, and groundbreaking advances were made in America, but some things remained the same. The 19th amendment was passed in August, 1920, it granted women the right to vote and finally gave them an independence from men, yet nothing truly changed for most women. Many remained submissive to the beckon call of their husband as well as ignorant to injustices their husbands were committing, like adultery. The amendment was monumental, yet women remained acting like Flappers. A true Flapper is a woman who is young (over 18 but younger than 29), smokes cigarettes, drinks cocktails and other alcoholic beverages, …show more content…
The women in The Great Gatsby desperately needed the attention and support of a man, but Jordan was independent. She never desired for Nick to become her husband or to support her financially, she seemed to be doing fine on her own, being a professional golfer. She’s a modern woman, taking advantage of the new found rights and ideals that woman can have their own jobs and still be successful. Jordan still indulged in cynical actions, similar to most other characters in the novel, like cheating in the professional golfing tournaments, but her independence and daring attitude sets her apart from the other characters in the novel. At the end of the novel when she met Nick again after many years she told him “I don’t give a damn about you now, but it was a new experience for me” (177). She has much more courage than Daisy, who when asked to declare her love for either Tom or Gatsby, she was unable to repeat what she had told Gatsby in private, that she didn’t want to be with Tom anymore. Jordan is not afraid of the men who surround her, she is a great example of the types of women who would begin to emerge in the following years to ensure that women would have equal opportunities in all aspects of the