Flappers referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, and listened to jazz music. They also wore makeup and skimpy clothes. They lived a life of independence and freedom. They defied traditional ideas of proper dress and behavior. And the flappers surprised society by chopping off their hair, raising their hemlines, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.
Many flappers went to speakeasies to drink and have fun. The rise of flappers came when prohibition was in place. Prohibition was a law that made the selling and making of alcohol illegal. Flappers went away from the values that were taught to them and started doing what they wanted to do.

Flappers became the symbol of the 1920s. Flappers didn’t represent all women, not all American women were flappers. In some parts of the United States, in small towns, women only read about flappers in magazines. When these women read about flappers they usually disapproved of them and did not dare to be so bold. And some supporters of women’s rights believed that the flappers only wanted to have fun and that they didn’t care about the cause of women.