Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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.
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
Affirmative Action opened up educational and training opportunities for women. Human
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
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).
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
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.
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
References
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.
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.