IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

The events and issues of the 1960s shook our nation and made monumental changes for

our society and citizens as well as impressing on the world our democratic and economic ideals.

The social and political conditions were prime for social movements and the masses joined

forces for national change. Great advances were made in medicine and technology. In part one I

will be discussing events that impacted me personally; in part two I will be discussing events that

impacted the business organization; and in part three I will be discussing globalization.

Part I

In 1967 Public law 90-130 was passed, making it possible to increase the number of

women in the military services beyond the previously imposed two percent ceiling. Americans

were frustrated with the Vietnam War and the draft, and to transform to an all-volunteer force,

the U.S. needed female enlistees to fill the ranks. The traditional American family was

patriarchal, and still today men hold most of the major positions in the military. (P&S 2008 p.

133). Gender, culturally imposed sex-role stereotypes, taught girls to be passive, polite and shy.

Gender schema theory would explain why traits needed to physically and mentally prepare girls

for military service were certainly not presented or encouraged. Androcentrism, the ideological

focus on male exclusiveness, was the norm for the military career and life. As the number of

women in the military increased, so did the numbers of jobs open to women. Since the advent

of the All-Volunteer Force, women have entered the military in record numbers. As their number

increased in the ranks, an awareness began to dawn that women were becoming essential rather

than ancillary in the armed forces. The significance of their growing participation became

particularly evident during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. About 40,000 women were deployed to

the Persian Gulf, representing approximately 7 percent of the forces, the largest deployment of
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

women soldiers in American history, and it resulted in significant changes in women's status in

the military. (Titunik, R. (2000). The First Wave: Gender Integration and Military Culture.

Armed Forces & Society p. 229).

By the integrating of women into the military I was able to join the Navy in 1988 and

was trained to serve in the field of firefighting and Damage Control. There were very few

women in this occupation at the time and I was the only female in my unit. I had to work very

hard to earn the respect and trust of the men. I was stationed in both the Philippines and Guam

for two years each and was able to experience living on the other side of the world in different

cultures. This was definitely a life-changing experience for me. I hope one day to take my

daughter to visit Guam where she was born. My military training and experience have definitely

been an advantage for me in finding and retaining employment in todays economy.

During World War II many women entered the work force. After the war ended they

were dismissed from these positions and hired only for poorly paid womens jobs. Women

were told by countless voices in the mass media and from almost every pulpit and lectern to

embrace their natural roles as family nurturers and housewives. (AOGD 1994 p. 242). Men

and women of the 1950s accepted their socially prescribed gender roles. Women felt isolated,

trapped and depressed trying to be content with their homemaker role while their husbands and

children participated in the world; many turned to prescription drugs. They felt an alienation

from society and did not realize that others felt the same as them. In 1963 Betty Friedan, a

housewife and former labor union journalist, published her book The Feminine Mystique. She

believed there was more to a womens life than marriage and motherhood, and to be fulfilled

women also needed education and careers. She interviewed many women and shared their
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

stories of what was phrased as the problem that has no name. Even though many of these

women had nice homes, families and material possessions, they were unhappy. Inspired by

Friedans best-seller book, women began to examine inequities between the sexes. The

conditions were coming into play for value-added theory (social strain theory) which is based on

the assumption that certain conditions are needed for the development of a social movement. For

the women in the U.S. during this critical time both feminist and relative deprivation theories

can be applied as they fought for equality in education, the workplace and at home. Feminist

theory focuses on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of womens rights, interests and

issues. Relative deprivation theory is the belief that people join social movements based on their

evaluations of what they think they should have compared with what others have.

I feel that Friedans book, published in the 60s, and the womens movement that

followed has impacted my life along with all of the other women who were unhappy with the

restrictions society placed on their lives. The couple of time periods I was not employed I felt

unfulfilled and I thought something was wrong with me. I loved my family and I felt guilty for

wanting to achieve an education and a career outside of home life.

Part II

My major is Business Management. The 1960s saw a changing attitude and mistrust

towards society in the U.S.; particularly towards institutions and businesses. The Vietnam War

encouraged a great deal of opposition to official public policy, the military and the growth of

big-business and American-based multinational corporations. (DeGeorge, R. A History of

Business Ethics ). The chemical industry was booming with innovation, and in its wake came

environmental damage. In 1968 a lawyer named Ralph Nader founded the Center for Study of
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

Responsive Law. He realized that big U.S. corporations often acted selfishly and were only

interested in making money and not concerned with the consumers who bought their products or

the environment. His organization investigated air and water pollution, unsafe products and

government corruption. Their work helped lead to the creation of the EPA, OSHA and the

Consumer Product Safety Commission. In response to negative publicity and protest

corporations developed the notion of Social Responsibility (SR). Corporations put aside time,

effort and funds to promote the social good with actions such as reforestation, cutting down on

pollution and increasing diversity in the workplace. It was established that SR was a pyramid

with 4 types of responsibility (from the bottom up): economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

Support for cultural and fine arts activities was a growing trend for businesses as well. (Heald,

M. (1970). The Social Responsibilities of Business: Company and Community, 1900-1960. P.

xxii).

I am employed by one of the oldest companies in the world, A.W. Faber-Castell. Next

year the company will be celebrating 250 years of business. We have our own forests in Brazil

that provide a source of raw materials for the manufacture of pencils and crayons and have been

certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial,

and economically viable. Over the past 3 years the Faber-Castell Group has managed to cut its

total carbon dioxide emissions by half through the use of regenerative energies. The companys

own forest absorbs several times its amount of emissions. Creativity for Kids, owned by Faber-

Castell, provides safe and creative open-ended activities for children. Materials are non-toxic

and exceed the standard safety requirements. We have never had a recall of a product.
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

In the 1960s job listings in newspapers were segregated by sex. Under Help wanted

Female the job offerings were generally low paying, gender-based jobs such as waitress, shop

clerk and secretary. A woman who wanted to attend law school, medical school or another

professional training program in the 1960s often found herself barred from enrollment simply

because of her sex. American core values included achievement and success, individualism,

freedom and equality; however, in the workplace and some educational institutions these were

not available to women. In 1967 President Johnson amended Executive Order 11246 to include

affirmative action for women and to ban sexual discrimination. A definition of affirmative

action is a policy or program designed to counter discrimination against minority groups and

women in areas such as employment and education. The Federal government, as well as many

state and local governments, mandated a variety of affirmative action programs aimed at

guaranteeing greater racial and gender equality. Examples of affirmative action offered by the

United States Department of Labor include outreach campaigns, targeted recruitment, employee

and management development, and employee support programs.

In 1954 Abraham Maslow introduced his theory about how people satisfy various

personal needs in the context of their work. In Maslows Hierarchy of Needs each need must be

met before proceeding to the next level. By the opening up educational and job opportunities,

women were now able to achieve the top levels of the triangle that included esteem and self-

actualization. The theory is represented with a closed triangle. In todays world the closed

triangle would not be a valid representation. Instead, an open, wide faced structure is needed to

better reflect that self- actualization is never ending. The open triangle depicts lifelong learning,

the acceptance of change, and the importance that self-actualization evolves. (K.J. (1999).
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

Reshaping Maslow's hierarchy of needs to reflect today's educational and managerial

philosophies. pg. 26).

Affirmative Action opened up educational and training opportunities for women. Human

Capital Theory is based on education as an investment towards an economic good; economists

regard education as both consumer and capital good because it offers utility to a consumer and

also serves as an input into the production of other goods and services. It is widely accepted that

education creates improved citizens and helps to upgrade the general standard of living in a

society. (O.A. & O. T. (2008). Human Capital Theory: Implications for Educational

Development. European Journal of Scientific Research. pg. 157).

Without the passage of the Affirmative Action legislation women may still be banned

from certain schools, jobs and careers. Due to this event I can study Business Management and

apply for a management position in a company. Many top positions at my work are filled by

women, including the National Sales Manager and the Controller. In the past, these positions

were male-dominated.

Part III

The Nobel-Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz describes globalization as the closer

integration of the countries and peoples of the worldbrought about by the enormous reduction

of costs of transportation and communication, and the breaking down of artificial barriers to the

flows of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and people across borders. (H. J. (2009).

Political-Cultural Exodus: Movement of the People! pg. 7).

IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

The year 1960 was important to computing from an Internet or pre-Internet standpoint.

The word hypertext, a familiar word to millions of Internet users, can be traced to Ted Nelson,

who created it while doing a doctorate in sociology at Harvard. He was doing a computer course

for the humanities and for his term project he attempted to develop a text-handling system that

would allow multiple writers to work together. He did not complete his project but the World

Wide Web employs many of the concepts Nelson described.

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian English Professor, came to fame in the 1960s by

examining the modern media. He was interested in media and how it affects society. He focused

his studies on electronic communication; particularly television. He said that TV and other high-

speed media connected people around the world, creating a global village. He wrote several

popular books during the 60s including War and Peace in the Global Village.

Martin Luther King used his keen understanding of the persuasive role of TV and other

mass media successfully in the 1963 Birmingham, AL civil rights campaign marches. The brutal

images of violence shocked the world and exposed the U.S., who declared itself leader of the

free world, as a hypocritical nation. President Kennedy was forced to play an active role in the

enforcement of federal law to improve the image of America abroad and counter the accusations

of the Communists.

Resource-intensive, high-carbon, Western lifestyles are frequently criticized as

unsustainable and deeply unsatisfying. However, these lifestyles are still attractive to the

majority of Westerners and to a high proportion of the developing worlds middle classes. (S. C.

(2010). Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalization. pg. 13). The

1960s, a decade of financial stability, created an age of consumerism as Americans chased the
IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

American Dream. Conspicuous consumption was rampant and not limited to just the wealthy as

companies used TV to advertise to the masses that they needed their products. Sampford

(2010) believes that the fundamental driver of our climate problems is the growing spread of the

Western version of the good life of material excess that other countries are actively seeking.

There have been many benefits to globalization including the sharing of culture,

information, financial investments, technology, medical advances, and the import and exports of

raw materials and goods. However, disadvantages for the U.S. has been a tremendous loss in

jobs. With our capitalistic, money-seeking society we have exported hundreds of thousands of

jobs to countries with lower labor costs. The environment has suffered tremendously as well as

we consume our natural resources and pollute the air, land and water with our industrialization.

I believe the world thinks less of us now than they did in the 1960s. The recent financial

turmoil has certainly done damage to us internationally as our economic failures have a domino

effect on the world. Our lingering presence in the Middle East has earned us a lot of criticism as

well.

The turbulent and innovative 60s was a major decade in the history of our country.

Many people suffered and died fighting for rights of the underprivileged and mistreated. Others

fought for important issues including consumer safety and the environment. Events from this

decade have impacted each of us and our institutions in many ways.

IMPACTS OF THE 1960S

References

The Computer Industry: Early 1960s

http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/teaching/papers/period/1960.pdf

Titunik, R. (2000). The First Wave: Gender Integration and Military Culture. Armed Forces &
Society (0095327X), 26(2), 229-12. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Sampford, C. (2010). Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.
Australian Journal of Social Issues, 45(1), 13-24. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier
database.
Hayes, J. (2009). Political-Cultural Exodus: Movement of the People!. Black History Bulletin,
72(1), 7-13. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Kiel, J. (1999). Reshaping Maslow's hierarchy of needs to reflect today's educational and
managerial philosophies. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 26(3), 167. Retrieved from
Academic Search Premier database.

Harrison, B. & Dye, T. (2008). Power and Society. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Farber, D. (1994). The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s. NY, NY: Hill and Wang.

Heald, M. (1970). The Social Responsibilities of Business: Company and Community, 1900-
1960. Cleveland, OH: The Press of Case Western Reserve University.

Lindop, E. & Goldstein, M. (2009) America in the 1960s. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First
Century Books.

DeGeorge, R. A History of Business Ethics.

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/business-
ethics-history.html

Olaniyan, D.A. & Okemakinde, T. (2008). Human Capital Theory: Implications for Educational
Development. European Journal of Scientific Research, pp. 157-162. ISSN 1450-216X Vol.24
No. 2. EuroJournals Publishing Inc.