Women in the 1960s

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the 1960s brought about a great deal of change in American life as we know it today. These changes included the passing of the civil rights bill and the women's liberation movement. Both the civil rights and the women's liberation movement have been explored in a great deal of literature about the 1960s. This paper examines everyday life for women in the 1960s. The author focuses on educational and workforce opportunities in addition to family and marriage.

Outline:
Introduction
Life for women in the 1960s
Education and Job opportunities
Marriage and Family
Women's Liberation Movement
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Although single motherhood was becoming more prevalent it still wasn't as accepted as it is today so many young women got married. Some married women were able to be stay at home mothers if their spouses had good jobs. However, this was usually only the case if the husband had some type of higher education. In many cases if both the husband and the wife only had high school diplomas or did not graduate from high school they both would have to work outside of the home.
"For women who could afford to stay home with their children, much of their daily lives were relegated to managing the home. Women would be responsible for cooking, cleaning, childcare, running errands and the like. Women would also be responsible for ensuring that different community or family functions (eg, birthdays, bridal showers) took place and ran smoothly. Although both working women and housewives were expected to maintain the home, women were becoming increasingly more significant in public life. This was a marked contrast from the 1950's when women's roles were more defined.
"Regardless of whether a woman was a housewife or part of the workforce her daily routine would include taking care of children; whether it be getting them to school, caring for them in the home or sending them to day care. If a woman worked and was also a mother she had to balance work life with home life. In some cases fathers began to take a more active role in the lives of their children but most of the responsibility in rearing children and attending to domestic affairs was left to the woman."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Farber, David. Ed. The Sixties: From Memory to History. University of N Carolina Press. Place of Publication: Chapel Hill. Publication Year: 1994. Pg: 151.
• Hart-Mathews Jane D. 1987. "The New Feminism and the Dynamics of Social Change," in Women's America: Refocusing the Past, 2d ed., edited by Linda Kerber and Jane De Hart- Mathews New York: Oxford University Press.
• Isserman, Maurice and Kazin, Michael. 2000. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. Oxford University Press: New York.
• Kessler--Harris, A. 1982. Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States. Oxford University Press :New York:, 1982
• Kimball R. 2000. The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America. Encounter Books: San Francisco.

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