what was the status of gender roles in 1976? (USA)?

Question

If you can't find anything specific to this date then, what were the gender roles in the 1970's in the USA?

Answer 1

I was 12 years old at the time. An old babysitter of mine whose sister would have been graduating from college around that time tells me that his sister was not allowed to attend a school in line with her considerable academic abilities (but rather expected to go to a place she could commute to), because they could only afford to send one kid to such a school, and her brother had to take precedence because 'he was going to have to provide for a family someday'.

My parents, on the other hand, were very progressive, and I was carefully taught that although society may expect me to be a weak, submissive housewife and childbearer, the truth of the matter is that the only difference between men and women is their plumbing. In other words, I can do anything I like and gender has nothing to do with it. And indeed, it was possible to do pretty much whatever you wanted, even back then, if you were willing to put enough effort into it.

However, this did represent 'going against the grain'; this sort of thinking about gender - that men are strong, ambitious, career oriented, and women are weak, submissive and destined for homemaking and childbearing - was pervasive enough in society at large that my parents felt the need to take very drastic measures to counteract its influence.

For example, at the age of six, I was caught pretending to feed a baby doll my grandmother had sent for Christmas some time before. The doll disappeared while I wasn't looking - with essentially no explanation. I can surmise that my parents did not want me to succumb to the universal assumption that I would have children someday, just 'because everyone else is doing it'.

My reading matter was also carefully, if discreetly controlled: essentially no fairy tales (i.e. no sleeping princesses waiting to be woken up by the valiant prince), only things like "Madeline", and of course more serious material. Used to read both Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys - they were deemed 'acceptable', as was the TV show based on the books, that I watched as a teenager, along with Battlestar Galactica and sometimes Star Wars).

But such things as news from the major TV networks were not considered acceptable (inappropriate and definitely not impartial presentations of all kinds of things, including gender roles), even if assigned as homework for school. In such a case, my parents required me to, for example, listen to 'All Things Considered' on NPR. And to heck with the teacher's lesson plan...

Later I took to reading such things as science and music textbooks for book reports at school. So much for the idea in society at large that science is not a 'feminine' field. The movement to get girls involved in science started around 1977 or 1978, as I recall, at least where I was (suburbs of major city in the Northeastern US).

It was only really in the early 1980s that this extended to the area of sports, and indeed - at my school then, we had girls playing soccer and running cross-country on boys' teams, and we had a boy playing lacrosse on a girls' team (because there weren't teams of the appropriate gender in those sports).

The boy who played lacrosse went on record that if the coach had required him to wear the skirt that was part of the official uniform, he would have done so without complaint - but he was allowed to wear shorts instead (just had to be the same color as the skirts :> ) By this time I think folks were liberated enough that no one thought he was 'unmasculine'.

However, there was another guy who wanted to play lacrosse, but he was quite large and strong and would have made an excellent goalie - enough so that there would have been mass protests (it was bad enough when they let the one guy play - and he was maybe 5'7"/140#, i.e. not significantly different from the girls in size or weight). The coach decided she'd better not risk taking the other guy as her goalie...

Ah yes, another thing: There was still an idea back then that 'the guy takes the initiative', so that my habit of asking a guy to dance if I felt like it was perhaps not considered *scandalous*, but it was definitely unusual (in other words, no one thought I was a 'loose woman', but I did get some flack for being 'unfeminine'). Perhaps even more unusual was what I did if I did not find a partner - I simply danced by myself. (Most girls would have moped around waiting for someone to ask).

So, I guess you would characterize 1976 and thereabouts as a time of transition: the old ideas were still quite strong, there had not been much large-scale ingress of women into 'traditionally male' fields, or even concerted effort to move young women in such directions, but at the same time, if you were willing to go against the grain, it was possible to make other choices and do other things with your life than what society at large envisioned for you. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Man on top

Answer 3

Just starting to change Guys weren't taking it to well LOL LOL

Answer 4

Can't tell you that one, you have to figure it out for yourself.

Answer 5

girls down men above them

Answer 6

do ur homework urself.