Life — February 26, 1920 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1920 illustration depicts a romantic scenario playing on leap-year tradition. The caption references the custom that in leap years (occurring every four years), women could propose to men—reversing traditional gender roles. The image shows a woman serenading a man through a window at night, a reversal of the conventional scenario where men typically performed such romantic gestures. Two figures observe from the window above, likely amused witnesses. The satire mocks the idea of women taking active romantic roles, treating it as comical role-reversal. Published February 26, 1920, this reflects early-20th-century attitudes about gender and courtship, finding humor in the notion of female agency in romance—something modern readers would recognize as reflecting outdated social assumptions about women's passivity.