The Pivotal Developments of the 1970s

Every decade provides unique cultural developments that are influenced by the past and that yield significant impacts on the future. Although some decades feature dramatic events that might make the era seem more important or consequential than other eras, each decade and each generation of the past was equally essential in establishing the current conditions of our generation and our culture. The most pivotal developments that occurred in the 1970s and that had the most significant influences on our current society were the increased equality for minorities, the expanded rights for women, and the intensified distrust of the American government.

One of the most significant developments of the late 60s-early 70s was the civil rights movement and advancements that developed during the period. The racial integration that seemed like such a radical and extreme change in the 1960s became the norm and the mainstream in the 70s, as the era yielded an enhanced respect for minorities and a wide acceptance of racial integration. The desegregation of facilities is a primary benefit that was largely initiated in the 1970s. During this period, white people and black people began regularly sharing the same institutions and facilities, such as schools, stores, restaurants, water fountains and bathrooms (Schulman 55). African Americans were also permitted to enroll in various college universities in the 1970s, which enabled black people to enroll in college at the same percentage rate as white people during the decade. Additionally, impressive numbers of African Americans were even attending schools and joining collegiate sports teams in southern regions that were previously hostile towards black people and traditionally supportive of segregation policies, which in turn reflects the widespread success of the racial integration that prevailed in the 70s (Schulman 54). Thus, during this period black people were granted the opportunity to attend college, strengthen their thinking skills, develop great ideas and acquire excellent skills regarding various crafts.

African Americans were also able to more easily obtain employment and fulfill a more expansive range of occupations because of the racial equality progress that occurred in the 70s. The increased opportunities allowed black people to ascertain various professional opportunities, fulfill successful careers in the fields they were most passionate about, and enjoy the domestic comfort of financial stability. As a result, the 70s yielded a rise of the black middle class in which significantly more African Americans became prosperous members of the American middle class than we're able to in the previous decades (Schulman 55). Although during the 70s many African American communities still suffered from poverty due to a drastic lack of resources in the communities, the ability to attend school and obtain higher positions of employment enabled more black people to contribute to society, achieve financial success and join the middle class.

Progress regarding racial equality was also reflected in American politics during the 1970s. During this period, desegregation laws allowed more African Americans to participate in the political system and to become politicians, mayors, and congressmen. Additionally, in the 1960s the Voting Rights Act established the right of African Americans to vote in all elections, and in the 70s this piece of legislation permitted the majority of black citizens to cast votes and to influence the political decisions that impacted our culture (Schulman 55). Thus, the expanded voting rights became actualized in the 70s and enabled black people to participate in the political process and express their opinions by voting in elections for local and federal government officials. This is important because the right to vote is a fundamental power that each citizen in the US possesses, and thus providing black people with the right to exercise their rights helped establish the equality of African Americans and helped cement the status of black people as official US citizens.

Another reflection of successful racial integration in the 70s was the presence of many black people as important pop culture icons. During the period, many famous black people were depicted favorably in the media and were becoming more prevalent in television shows and movies, such as The Jeffersons and Ryan’s Song. Many black people were also embraced by the popular music industry and appreciated by the public for their superior musical abilities, including George Clinton, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder. Additionally, after Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell achieved notoriety as excellent black athletes in baseball and basketball, in the 70s many African Americans were able to thrive in all major professional sports (Schulman 59). The development of certain black people becoming revered and famous pop culture figures accelerated the rate of racial integration, for the presence of African Americans in pop culture demonstrated the widespread acceptance of racial integration, the potential of black people to display superior talent at many different crafts, and the ability of African Americans to become excellent role models for children to admire.

Many civil rights problems still challenged the American culture in the 70s, for racial tensions still subsisted in certain regions of the country, many private sector companies still refused to hire African Americans, and many black communities were still dilapidated by poverty. However, the civil rights movement legislation of the 60s establishing the equality of black people and the new public attitudes supporting racial integration became actualized in the 70s when black people were widely accepted as equal members of the American society. As a result, in the 70s minority groups were able to integrate with whites, attend diverse colleges, obtain various employment opportunities, participate in the political system, and become prominent figures in pop culture and in the media. The expanded racial equality in the 70s was very important, for the public approval of racial integration during the period effectively validated the civil rights movement of the 60s and successfully enabled the level of racial tolerance in our society to continually grow in the following decades.

The women’s rights movement that began in the 1960s also accumulated momentum and yielded productive results in the 70s. Whereas the cultural attitudes of the 1950s and early 60s often implied or directly stated that women were inferior to men, in the 70s the women’s rights movement had enabled the culture to develop a much more respectful attitude towards the ability of women to reach greatness on equal levels as men. One significant event that helped to facilitate this changing public perception was the tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, a match often referred to as the “Battle of the Sexes.” Bobby Riggs was a former Wimbledon champion and tennis superstar, but in the early 70s, Riggs was in his fifties and far beyond his physical prime. However, Riggs often expressed sexist attitudes through the media by asserting that women are generally inferior to men, should not be granted equal prize money for tennis championships, and are too weak and emotional to overcome intense and high-pressure athletic situations (Schulman 160). To further antagonize women, Riggs constantly claimed that he could defeat the best female tennis player of the era even though age had inevitably diminished his playing skills.

Billie Jean King was the top-ranked female tennis player and was widely considered the best woman player in the early 70s. Because King came to represent the full potential of female tennis players and of women in general, Riggs consistently challenged King to a tennis match as a means of proving that females are so inferior to men that even an old man could defeat the most talented and superior of all female tennis players. Although King initially ignored the antagonizing and condescending challenges of Riggs, her support of the women’s liberation movement eventually encouraged her to accept the challenge, and the match was officially scheduled for September 20, 1973. The abundance of media coverage concentrating on the upcoming event generated incredible amounts of suspense and excitement that surged through the American public as the contentious match was literally perceived as a battle of the sexes. The match also brought in significant revenue to various corporate interests, the stadium was full of people and advertisements, and the event earned groundbreaking ratings for ABC. In the highly anticipated battle of the sexes tennis match, King demonstrated decisively superior skills as she clearly outplayed Riggs, dominated the play on the court and easily won the match in three straight sets (Schulman 160).

The victory delighted feminists around the country and justified the right of women to participate in sporting events. Previously, women were generally not allowed to participate in collegiate or professional sports but were instead confined to positions as team helpers on the sidelines. However, in the early 70s and after the King victory, women increasingly became more respected as athletes and gradually became more active in all of the country’s major collegiate and professional sports (Schulman 162). The King victory was also symbolic of the success of the women’s’ rights movement in the 1970s. Whereas in the past women generally only fulfilled secretarial duties and served as assistants for men, increased opportunities for college and employment enabled women in the 70s to thrive in a wide variety of different occupations and to obtain positions of power within large companies. The women’s’ rights movement also succeeded in alleviating restrictions against abortions. Because only the pregnant woman must experience the physical, financial and domestic consequences of having a child, only the woman should be allowed to determine how best to manage a pregnancy. Thus, the right to have abortions was an important woman’s rights issue in the late 1960s, and in the early 1970s, the influence of the movement impelled the federal government to pass the landmark Roe v Wade ruling – which protected the right to privacy and permitted the right to have an abortion — and encouraged many states to reduce or eliminate abortion restrictions (Schulman 11). Additionally, legislation in the 70s also permitted more freedom regarding female sexuality and contraceptive availability as a result of the women’s liberation movement.

The victory of King over Riggs was more than an ordinary tennis match, for the match allowed King to demonstrate that women have the same potential as men to achieve amazing heights of greatness regarding any craft. This reality validated the changing attitudes of the 70s in which the public began to understand that both sexes are equal and should be granted equal opportunities to become successful. Thus, the battle of the sexes match and the success of the woman’s rights movements allowed women to obtain significant progress in the 70s regarding their ability to obtain respect and credibility from society, fulfill prolific careers in diverse crafts, and make health care decisions regarding their own bodies.

The growing distrust of government that developed in the late 1960s and throughout the 70s was also one of the most consequential developments of the period. In the late 60s, the Vietnam War was often criticized for being entirely unnecessary, excessively destructive and extremely wasteful. As a result, the massive protests of the US citizens against the government and against the war caused many Americans to develop a distrustful perception of the government as a deceitful and abusive entity. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon further exasperated the suspicious attitude people had towards the government. Nixon first took office in 1969, and many reports indicate that Nixon was very paranoid and resentful of government, the press, intellectuals, Jews and minorities. As a result of his conservative ideologies, Nixon implemented policies to significantly reduce the government budget, eliminate liberal organizations, and increase the powers of the private sector (Schulman 42). However, his attempts to destroy liberalism were curtailed by the overwhelming public attention that the Watergate scandal attracted.

Watergate was an apartment and office complex of the Democratic National Committee in Washington D.C. In 1972, Nixon ordered his aides to break into Watergate, tap the phones of the committee chairman, and retrieve lists of people who contributed funding to the committee. When the Watergate scandal was discovered, the controversy encouraged reporters to conduct thorough investigations focusing on the Nixon administration. The research soon revealed that Nixon had committed numerous grievances and had consistently abused the power of his office to an unprecedented extent, including the execution of several wiretapping plots, the infiltration of undercover agents into protest organizations, and the constant attempts to steal secret information to embarrass or blackmail his political opponents (Schulman 44). The public attention that the Watergate scandal and his presidential corruption had received impelled Nixon to become the first US president to ever resign from office. The scandals accompanied with the resignation further intensified the sense of animosity and distrust that many people possessed towards the government, and in the 70s many people began perceiving the government not as a service that can help improve the lives of citizens, but as an abusive and corrupt force that attempts to control and harm the citizens. This was a crucial development, for this suspicious attitude towards government eventually caused the country to shift towards the conservative right and to adopt small-government policies.

Although Jimmy Carter was a liberal democrat and was elected to the presidency after the Nixon scandal, President Carter also accidentally and inadvertently facilitated the growing conservative movement of the US with his mishandling of the Iranian hostage crisis. In 1979, a group of Iranian rebels who were advocating for the Iranian Revolution seized the US Embassy in Iran and held 52 Americans hostage. After the hostage crisis had persisted for over 6 months, President Carter ordered the mission Operation Eagle Claw to utilize helicopters and combatants to rescue the hostages. When technical and strategic problems led to the failure of the mission, Carter and the US military ordered the mission to be aborted. However, while escaping from the scene a helicopter crashed into a service aircraft, which in turn resulted in a massive explosion and the deaths of 8 US servicemen (Schulman 122). The failure of the mission and the deaths of the 8 servicemen received enormous media attention around the world and was an embarrassing episode for the country and for the Carter administration. This embarrassment inevitably revitalized the distrustful attitude towards government, triggered the perception that the US government is weak and incompetent, and provided a burst of momentum for the conservative movement that enabled President Reagan to get elected in the next cycle.

Ronald Reagan was elected into office in 1980, and many historians and political scientists assert that the Iranian hostage crisis debacle was the primary reason that Reagan was elected. Reagan represented the culmination of the attitude shift regarding government that had developed throughout the 1970s. In the 60s the government was generally perceived as functioning to provide assistance for the people and to help achieve equal rights for all citizens. However, the Vietnam War, the Nixon scandal, and the Carter mistake caused people to instead develop a distrustful attitude towards the government as corrupt, abusive and incompetent. This suspicious attitude of the government, in turn, led the country to shift to the conservative right and to elect the anti-government Republican candidate Ronald Reagan into the office (Schulman 220). President Reagan took office in 1981 and generated a period of conservative politics and limited government with policies that reduced taxes, slashed the budget, empowered business interests, and minimized regulations on corporations and the financial industry. Thus, the cultural distrust of government that intensified and magnified throughout the 1970s eventually led to the election of a conservative president who established laws that effectively impaired the power of the government, benefitted only the wealthy corporations and failed to help improve the quality of life for the average citizens. This was an important development because these conservative policies were generally maintained for the next thirty years and were largely responsible for the devastating financial collapse that occurred in 2008 and that our culture is still recovering from.

Almost every decade and every period of American history feature immense struggles, triumphant victories, and painful failures. While the 1970s were challenged with lingering racism and a distrust of government, the period yielded significant progress regarding racial integration and women’s rights. However, every distinct period of history is influenced by the past and then, in turn, influences the future. While the developments in the 1970s reflected a necessary response to the transformations that occurred in the 60s, the events of the 70s also stimulated many cultural changes that our era of history is currently experiencing. The most pivotal cultural developments in the 1970s were the increased racial equality for minorities, the expanded opportunities for women, and the many political problems that caused the country to possess hostile attitudes towards the government.

Work Cited

Schulman, Bruce J. The seventies: the great shift in American culture, society, and politics. New York: Free Press, 2001. Print.