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Increase in divorce rates
Increase in divorce rates
Divorce rate from 1960 to present essay paper
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Changing Family Values
"Imagine that, one day in 1960, all radio and television transmissions had been interrupted by a special message from some Cosmic Census Bureau forecaster: 'Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts and hang on to your hats. Over the next twenty-five years, all standard demographic indicators will rise or fall steeply. Divorce rates, rates of mothers' participation in the labor force, and rates of birth outside marriage will double. Birth rates overall will drop. By the end of the 1980s, more than half of your future citizens will be spending at last part of their childhood in a single-parent home. Oh, and by the way, there will be a sexual revolution, to which all are cordially invited.' Who would have believed it?"
Imagine that...
Imagine a world where people who are completely miserable within the confines of a bad marriage have the freedom to leave.
Imagine a world where women -- WOMEN -- women with children -- dare to enjoy a career that gives their life meaning, that reinforces their sense of self-worth and independence.
Imagine a world where sex isn't a taboo to be hidden behind bedroom doors in suburban houses where meek wives greet misogynistic husbands at 5 pm with a turkey dinner and a smile.
Who could have believed it?
Who could have believed it in a world where women had, in all reality, just recently gained the right to vote for their leaders in this country. Who could have believed it in a 1960s America where women stayed home and raised children and when the children were done being raised they just kept on staying home. Who could have believed it in a culture, that even so far ahead of so many others in the world, expected females to serve, and to do so quiet...
... middle of paper ...
...ice. While we're at it, why don't we just re-institute racial segregation in schools and can affirmative action altogether and strengthen immigration laws and ban girls from attending universities. Let's just take a giant step, or two or three or four or a hundred, back and see how much better life is.
Let's do it and see how much better our kids turn out.
Let's do it and see how long it takes for people to get fed up and want things back the way they used to be.
Change is hard, and in a relatively short time, the economic system of this country and the dynamic of the American family has changed drastically. This is bound to produce some negative effects. That is no reason to be up in arms against feminism and against mothers in the workforce. Do your best with your own children, that's all our parents could do, and that's all we can really ask of anyone.
Coming from a home where the mother held a job yet was still expected to cook, clean, and look after the kids, one can see where the frustration comes from. There are women who slip through the cracks because they struggle to juggle all of their new found responsibilities. The women’s rights movements dropped the ball on how to transition from stay at home moms to working moms with stay at home expectations. This is one area that major improvement is needed and quickly. If women do not receive the help and support they need, they might start thinking they only have one choice and all the progress made will start to regress. Hilary Clinton was a great example of a working mother. Because she worked in politics she was often harshly judged for what she said and for the work she did. People wanted a first lady who kept quiet and supported her husband, the president, in the background. If these are the stereotypes being applied to the president’s wife, what hope do women have of breaking free from what is considered the societal norm? Where was the women’s rights movement to back up the first lady when it would have made a huge impact of young girls and women in our country or even world? This would have been a prime opportunity to spread awareness about how women, even the first lady, are
Pepper Schwartz opens Why is Everyone Afraid of Sex? with "In spite of the visibility of sex in the media and popular culture, despite a widespread acceptance of a variety of sexual practices, Americans still hold a deep-rooted fear of sex." (252) Schwartz then goes on to explain the surprising, but obvious truth. American society portrays a sexual attitude, but is actually hiding a fear of the activity. Schwartz does a great job of showing both sides of this argument. She mentions how sex seems to no longer be a completely taboo thing within the media and society today. Within television, magazines, articles, movies, etc, sexual themes are all over the place. Another factor is that premarital sex is becoming more and more acceptable these
The women's movement was in full swing in America in the sixties. These were the women who were escaping from their kitchens, burning their bras, and working in careers that were traditionally male-oriented, while at the same time demanding payment equal to men's salaries. In her essay: What Would It Be Like if Women Win, Gloria Steinem has many thoughts on the ways feminism could change this country and what the society would be like if her changes were made. An interesting change she is looking to make involves sexual hypocrisy: "No more sex arranged on the barter system, with women pretending interest, and men never sure whether they are loved for themselves or for the security few women can get any other way" (Steinem, Takin' it to the Streets, 476). This new attitude can be found in much of the literature of the sixties. Specifically, in two of the books we have read, women authors have projected this concept of a "new sexual women" into their characters.
... Through “A&P”, John Updike has told of a coming revolution, where the establishments of authority will have to defend each and every rule and regulation that they have put in place. He tells of a revolution where this young generation will break sex from its palace of sanctity. Every single idea that was present in American society that led to the sex driven, often naïve, free spiritedness of the sixties to present day are present in John Updike’s “A&P”.
It’s not like women couldn’t work before, they could, but they didn’t have too much social freedom like getting divorced or not having children. Their voice wasn’t as important as men. Most of the time, men had to decide everything in the family and had control over the family. Coontz believes that today women have more control over their own lives and they can choose however they want to live their lives. Kuttner also agrees that “most Americans, after all, believe women should not be consigned to the nursery and the kitchen” (122).
Brave New World is still popular today because much of its futuristic technology and morality predictions have come true. Sex has been made safe for the purpose of pleasure by reliable methods, there is better care of pregnant women and of infants, household labor-saving devices and advances in medical treatment, infertility, and abortion. This frees women from restrictions, and grants them sexual freedom. Even though marriage has not been abolished, its numbers have fallen drastically
Cohen, Nancy. “How the Sexual Revolution Changed America Forever.” Counterpoint Press. 5 February, 2012. Web. 25 May. 2014
... last 60 years are the roles that each spouse play in the relationship. In earlier days, women were expected to clean house, cook, stay at home with the children, and wait hand and foot on their husbands. But, within the last 60 years women have become key assets to the work force. Men don’t necessarily expect women to be their live in maids anymore. Both men and women in 2014 cook, clean, and take care of the children. I now see more men with their children at sporting events, and taking them to and from practice. Now, roles have changed. In today’s world men and women share the responsibilities of taking care of their family. A lot has changed since 1970 within the American family, and I think America has finally figured it out. Taking care of a family can be tough at times, but if there are two to share the responsibilities, then it seems to work a lot smoother.
Women are now treated as equals. Women hold many positions of power and make world changing decisions. Women are also treated as equals in the house. They are no longer expected to serve the man and do as he says. Finally, women are now allowed to have to have jobs. While taking care of the children is still one of the main goal in a women’s life, it is not just the women’s job anymore. It is no longer abnormal for a woman to go out and get a job and the man be the parent who stays at home and takes care of the children. While there have been many advancements and changes along the way, this is just the
...of sexuality in the public arena. As they left the hallowed domestic sphere, women increasingly perceived sexuality as a political, and not simply a private, issue. (4)
Novak, Mary H. (1998, July 24). Kyoto Treaty A Giant Leap into the Economic Abyss. Houston Business Journal, 29 (10), p. 27A. [Online]. Available: http://insite.palni.edu/WebZ/Authorize:sessionid=0.
While in some cases this may be true, to understand poverty as a whole, one must consider the fact that many impoverished people actually work full time and do their best to live healthy and productive lives. This is one of the major reasons why government welfare programs exist, to aid and work with the poor to help individuals and families achieve economic stability. One of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program is SNAP – Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. SNAP, which is run by the US Department of Agriculture, has two central focuses: to teach and to assist. SNAP works with state agencies, schools, and organizations to help educate people on how to make healthy decisions and live healthy lives. This program broadly assists individuals and households with low or no income by providing a monthly allotment that can be used to purchase food. This money, often given in the form of an "Electronic Benefits Transfer" card, can be used in grocery stores to buy groceries. However, SNAP tightly restricts what can and cannot be purchased with SNAP money. The list of prohibited items includes hot foods, food that will be eaten in stores, alcohol, household supplies, pet food and more (FNS website). While SNAP helps about 44,000,000 people or 22,000,000 households on a yearly basis, the benefits are limited and heavily regulated by the government (FNS website). Another
Marshall Cavendish Corporation. Sex and Society. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation , 2010. Print.
The sexual revolution of the 1960’s made a big impact on society as a whole, changing and shaping it to much of what it has become today. Although this change has provided progress for the society it has also created new challenges that civilization must now face. Due to the new issues brought on by the previous sexual revolution it can be said that the sexual revolution is not yet over, as it is still revolutionizing society today. We are currently part of our own sexual revolution, one that deals with issues brought on by the previous one as well as issues that have never been tackled before, such as situations brought on by the relatively new media. This revolution seeks to change the opinions on women’s rights, sexuality and gender, and the social media. The sexual revolution is now, and it is affecting the North American society as a whole. It is widely known that society is ever-changing, so it is inevitable that new challenges will cause change; in a society that can never stay the same there can never be only one revolution. The sexual revolution of the 1960’s only served as a starting point for a plethora of sexual revolutions that are to come.
There was a time when the woman 's expected role was based on staying at home. Now there are many more working mothers. This has caused changes in many attitudes. Those that