Fashion, Gender Roles, Oh My! A Further Look at My Thesis Topic

          The evolution of women’s fashion in the 20^th century has always been of interest to me. I have researched extensively on the different avenues my thesis could potentially take. However, upon meeting with Dr. Lent and discussing my proposal, I have further defined my lens for examining fashion and its historical ties. We discussed how women are represented in the media as well as other mediums and how various fashions were associated with a variety of statuses. Some of these statuses include “the working woman”, “the single woman”, and “the young and married woman”. For my thesis, my working research question is: In what ways does fashion and how it is represented in different mediums reflect women’s roles in American society over the span of the 1920s through 1980s?

An advertisement for Mulsified Shampoo circa the 1920's suggesting that a young woman's role in society was to be aesthetically appealing to others.  (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/484066659919696877/) 

        I believe that after World War I, there is a cultural shift in women’s roles as well as a movement to adopt more contemporary fashion styles. I will still be using the source material of Vogue magazines as well as a few other magazines housed in the RIT Archives. Along with my thesis, I may include a virtual exhibition on Wordpress to document social issues of these times and their significance to the respective clothing and women’s roles. I will also compare and contrast decades to one another.

         I am incredibly honored that Dr. Lent, the director of RIT’s Museum Studies program and a professor in the Department of Performing Arts and Visual Culture, has agreed to serve as my primary advisor to my thesis. My next steps in regards to my thesis are to find my secondary thesis advisor and research potential books and journals to gather pertinent information for my thesis. I am looking forward to developing my thesis further and diving into my research.