Not sure where I'll go with this, but I am really enjoying the revived interest in the 60s generated by MAD MEN (and book clubs recommending Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson). My problem is that for those of us who lived the 60s as "formative years" (I was born in 1953), the present in the show is prelude to our past and long past history to our present.
The lack of choices for women in MadMen is more disappointing because we know how much has changed but I worry how little has been accomplished. Women have infinite choices today, but children are often just one of them. I've started a new venture offering my "sitting services" to professional women as a 'last minute mom'. I realized that I enjoyed children and flexibility, so this would be a useful way to combine my need to fill my time productively with my preference for doing things I want to do. The hard part is how MANY women call themselves "stay at home moms" who in fact want childcare help every day....
Mad Men comments on Jacqueline Kennedy that women would hate her as the better looking sister who married better than you....but we all know that turned out not to be true. Women wanted to BE Jacqueline Kennedy as she spoke multiple languages, raised two children (and publicly endured fertility issues), and had the perfect home and lived in Camelot. With history as prelude, we conveniently forget that Jackie had a philandering husband (See Don Draper, Roger Sterling and Pete in Mad Men). When she lost her husband, Jackie sold out to Aristotle O to preserve her lifestyle (or presumably that played a role in the decision making).
So -- when we look at the limited choices for women in Mad Men - housewives (Betty and Roger's wife --interesting term ...), career women (Rachel), working girls (Joan and Peggy), young wives (Pete's wife Trudy and others by reference only) -- we see limited options but clear expectations. So what's changed? The options aren't limited, but aren't the expectations the same?
So let's talk 60s.....Thoughts?
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The 1960's was a decade whose stage had essentially been set by the aftermath of World War II:
A. Many of the technologies that had been developed for military purposes had to be, and were, adapted to "Cold War" military uses and/or civilian uses. This included the UNIVAC line of computers, which took up from where the ENIAC left off and brought computer technologies to the non-military sector.
B. Many veterans of WWII military service (including my father) unexpectedly found that Uncle Sam would finance their college educations under the so-called "GI Bill." They got their degrees in the late 1940's and early 1950's, and, as a result of that education, became economically upwardly mobile. Their children (including me and TOL) were the baby-boomer generation that came of age in the 1960's. The expanded availability of a higher education caused many WWII vets to have far, far higher expectations of their children than their own parents could have of them.
C. Many African-Americans, having proven themselves as soldiers and sailors (and let us not forget the airmen from Tuskeegee) during WWII, and having benefited from the aforementioned educational funding, began to question the racial discrimination and segregation that had become the norm in many areas of the United States. They found empathizers and allies in many non-African Americans who, though nominally of the white race, had also suffered discrimination.
D. In order to finance WWII, the personal income tax rates rose, and became exorbitantly steep in the higher income brackets. During this time, employers were conscripted to withhold income taxes from the paychecks of their employees, in order to ensure collection of the tax. This caused the Federal tax receipts to change from being primarily excise tax-based to primarily income tax-based. In 1954, the entire Internal Revenue Code was recast anew (the Code of 1954 is essentially the one in use today) to reflect the realities of an income tax-based system. Most, but not all, of the excise taxes of the 1954 code were repealed in 1965. [In this regard, I remember the tax stamp that used to be on every deck of cards, and which you had to destroy when you opened the box to get the cards.]. This new tax regime would play a behind-the-scenes role during the 1960's (as indeed, it continues to do today).
And so, the 1960's saw several events that would impact all subsequent years. These include, but are not limited to:
A. The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Many court decisions from the 1950's, most notably the Brown v. Board of Education case, set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and its implementing regulations and Executive Orders. These developments ultimately led to a more diverse society, which by nature is more economically prosperous than a segregated one.
B. The Kennedy Assassination: Almost every child who came of age during the 1960's can tell you what he or she was doing on November 22, 1963, when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. We all can talk about how it shattered our dreams and illusions, and how it broke down our sense of innocence and security. A less discussed effect of the JFK assassination is that when it thrust Lyndon B. Johnson into the Oval Office, it gave America a President who proactively pushed for the demonetization of silver (JFK had vehemently opposed this). Most of us who grew up during that era remember when dimes and quarters and halves were actually made of silver, and when you could go into a bank and buy a silver dollar for $1.00. Johnson changed this, and the demonetization of silver had a profound effect upon our economy which persists to this day.
C. The Space Race: In addition to the mass public appeal associated with sending astronauts up into space, the race to put a man on the moon required many watershed technological developments. Many if not most of these basic new technologies (including but not limited to computers, electric motors and power supplies, and navigation systems) have been put to use and have improved the length and quality of our lives.
D. Along with the Space Race came developments in conventional terrestrial aircraft, which were quickly put to civilian use in air travel. The government policies shifted from favoring a thriving railroad industry to favoring a thriving airline industry and trucking industry. The merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad in 1968 signaled the end of big time rail travel for people, and the shift to airplanes and trucks.
The 1960's, then, were years of transition which impacted every segment of society, of the economy, and the government.
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