Women gained the right to vote in the United States in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment. After World War I ended, a new type of carefree woman, called flappers, emerged in both the United States and Great Britain. Flappers wore makeup, short skirts, bobbed hair, and engaged in activities like smoking and drinking in public. The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1923 to guarantee equal rights for both men and women. Higher education for women also increased dramatically in the 1920s, with the percentage of college degrees earned by women rising from 19% to 39% in less than a decade.