Depression and Backlash in the Wake of Vietnam, 1970s-1980s

Themes:• 1970s-1990s represent a swing to conservatism after the

upheavals of the 1960s

• Politics: Everyone is a conservative, as “liberal” is a dirty word

• Economy:

• deindustrialization changes workforce, weakens unions

• stratification of wealth grows

• Gender: reaction against feminism, but some real gains for women

• Race: ethnic composition of the U.S. diversifies; racism moves underground, into code

THE SEXES: JULY/AUGUST 2010“The End of Men” by Hanna Rosin

Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers

are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For

years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to

women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way— and its vast cultural consequences

We all agree that the proportion of female breadwinners leapt from only 4 percent in 1970 to nearly 30 percent in 2010…. The United

States is undergoing an explosion not of full-time stay-at-home mothers but of single mothers who are often, for better or worse,

the main breadwinners for their families by default. We recently passed the threshold, for example, at which more than half of all

births to mothers under 30 were to single mothers. I’m not sure this counts as feminist progress, but it does count as a profound shift in

the traditional power dynamics of the American family.

Rosin: “Feminists, Accept It. The Patriarchy is Dead.”

The End of the Golden Age • Decline of manufacturing

• 1960: 38% of workforce works in manufacturing

• 1980: 28% in manufacturing

• Elimination of union jobs - shift to finance, information, and entertainment jobsThe demolition of U.S. Steel, Ohio works in 1983

Image: Ohio Historical Society, accessed via http://www.museumofthecity.org/exhibit/deindustrialization-

youngstown-ohio

The End of the Golden Age

• 1970-1980: corporations eliminate jobs

• automation

• move jobs south and overseas

• Unions lose power: real wages decline

"Born In The U.S.A.” (1984)Born down in a dead man's town

The first kick I took was when I hit the groundYou end up like a dog that's been beat too much

Till you spend half your life just covering upBorn in the U.S.A. (repeat X4)

Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my handSent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man

[chorus]Come back home to the refinery

Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"Went down to see my V.A. man

He said "son don't you understand now"Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong

They're still there he's all goneHe had a woman he loved in Saigon

I got a picture of him in her arms nowDown in the shadow of penitentiaryOut by the gas fires of the refinery

I'm ten years burning down the roadNowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

The End of the Golden Age

• Oil crises:

• 1973 Arab-Israeli War

• 1979: Iranian Revolution

• Stagflation - inflation plus economic stagnation

Economic Policy in the

1970s

• Nixon: not very conservative

• expanded food stamp program; linked Social Security to cost of living

• proposed welfare program that would give guaranteed annual income (failed)

• established “floating” currency - instability

• Carter: not very liberal

• deregulation

• domestic spending cuts

• American decline and “crisis of confidence”

Grassroots Responses to Economy

• Bad economy leads to critique of government (not business)

• Conservatives advocate for lower taxes

• 1978: CA Proposition 13 bans increases on property taxes

So how does a bad economic situation caused by deindustrialization affect

gender relations?

The Rising Tide of Conservatism

• Conservatives no longer openly racist in the 1970s

• Shift to focus on individual freedoms - appeal to white suburbs

• “neoconservatives”

• 1960s caused moral decline;

• government does more harm than good

• forceful foreign policy important

The Religious Right

• Evangelical Christians: a Third Great Awakening

• TV and mass mailings are common

• Sexual revolution as primary concern

Falwell and the Moral Majority, Rally 1980 Trenton, NJSource: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/05/16/us/

16falwellCA02ready.html

Gender Rights in the 1970s• 1972: Title IX bans gender

discrimination in higher ed

• Title IX: ”no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

• # of women in workforce expands:

• some because of weakened economy

• some because of end to discrimination

Image: Pat Summit in 1974 OlympicsSource: http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2012/04/38-

facts-about-pat-summitts-extraordinary-career/

Gender Rights in the 1970s: Gay Rights

• Expansion of gay rights movement:

• decriminalization of sex;

• local anti-discrimination laws;

• campaign to come out of closet

Continuing Sexual Revolution

• Increasing divorce rate: 1 million divorces 1975

• Decline in birth rate: 1.7 children per woman in 1976

• Concerns conservatives: “family values”

Divorce Rate, 1950-1980

Median Age at First Marriage

Gender Wars• The Equal Rights Amendment:

• “equality under the law”

• approved by Congress

• ratification fails because of conservative women

• Roe v. Wade (1973) legalizes abortion

• Roman Catholics and other social conservatives fight to reverse

• bitter and sometimes violent struggle

The Reagan Revolution

• Reagan coalition: “Sunbelt suburbanites, urban working-class ethnics, antigovernment crusaders and advocates of a more aggressive foreign policy, libertarians who believed in freeing the individual from restraint, and the Christian right” (834-835)

• Skill at making conservatism sound optimistic; “freedom” as key

• 1984: “Morning in America” - http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1984

Reagan and the Economy

• Reaganomics: “supply-side” or “trickle-down” economics

• 1981: reduced top tax rate from 70 to 50%

• 1986: top rate reduced to 28%

• Air-traffic controllers strike - 1981 fires 13,000

• Unions continue decline; companies increase profitability through outsourcing

Striking Air Traffic ControllersImage Souce: http://www.kingsacademy.com

Reaganomics and Gender

• Deindustrialization and Reagan tax policies mean poor lose real income; middle class stagnate

• Households where women stay home suffer most - economic factors drive women into workforce

Reaganomics and Race

• Legacy of discrimination + growing inequality hurts nonwhites

• Black and Latino workers lose with unions, just as they are able to access good union jobs

• Unemployment rate for blacks: 20% in 1981 (8.9% nationwide)

• Prop 13 + recession = public schools suffer

Art protests growing inequality; official abuse and neglect

Race and National Politics• Reagan: welfare queen,

1976

• 1980s: coding of “the city” and “urban” as black, site of crime

• George H.W. Bush: Willie Horton and Dukakis, 1988

• 1970s-1990s: War on Drugs

Conclusions

• Depression with American foreign policy after Vietnam was reinforced by a weak economy: deindustrialization + stagflation

• These factors led to a backlash against the rights revolution of the 1960s, even as activists continued to push for expanded rights.

• The backlash against civil rights hit African Americans hardest - open racism changed to coded language, and a bad economy made things worse.