The Ethical Society of Boston

Exploring the Impacts of, and Insights into, Women’s Liberation in America Over the Last 50 Years

by Peter Ames

My motivation in choosing this topic is threefold. First, I am interested in topics that are affecting human life and have not gotten much attention, and I think women’s liberation has been one of the biggest influences on human life in our country in my lifetime, and there are not many publications focused on it. Secondly, I am the only child of a single mother who was an immigrant, got three graduate degree on both sides of the ocean, and worked full-time till she was 76 at the NY Public Library, Metropolitan Museum, American Academy of Science, United Nations, and Federal Reserve Bank in New York, so I was interested in women’s liberation early and saw it in action in its early years. Lastly, I have no sisters or daughters, so I feel I need to make an extra effort to understand the female world.

My sources include The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Woman’s Rights Movement, 1987, by Miriam Gurko, Male and Female, 1948, by Margaret Mead: The Second Sex, 1952, by Simone de Beauvoir; and Women and Madness, 1972, 1989, by Phyllis Chesler. Also helpful were an August, 2010 issue of the Atlantic Monthly with a cover story “The End of Men;” the cover story of an October, 2009 issue of Time Magazine called “The State of the American Woman,” and a November, 2010 issue of Time with the cover story “Who Needs Marriage?” Other sources include conversations with around a hundred women on the topic, and random comments and facts from a variety of publications. I tried to break the study into categories like, Economy, Careers, Family Life, Social Mores/Trends, but found that many of the facts and observations affect more than one category, so I settled for a long list of interesting facts and observations.

• Attire is becoming more gender neutral. Women wear skirts and dresses much less, and boots and cowboy boots much more.
• Women get 60% of all college degrees and are the majority gender in law, medicine and three other graduate school fields. They are also the majority in the workforce.
• Because so many women are so busy, there
• has been a loss of community “glue.”
• More women serve in the armed forces.
• Physical evolution has not kept up with social evolution. Due to a Title 9 law, women got much more access to athletic activities in the 1970s, and a higher percentage of women are having knee/hip replacements etc.
• Women are contributing much more to philanthropy. A recent Boston Foundation study reported that the number of nonprofits in Massachusetts doubled in the last 30 years, and 70% were started by women.
• There is substantial agreement that chivalry has declined.
• In the economy, there has been a huge influx of female workers, so salary growth has slowed. One parent working used to be enough; does not seem to be now.
• Increase in the percentage of lesbians.
• Later births: in 2000, 9% of births were to women over 35. In 2010, 14% were to women over 35.
• More single mothers: in 1959, 5% of babies were born to an unmarried mother; in 2009, it was 41%.
• There has also been a significant increase in the percentage of women in their 30s who are single. Between 1990 and 2008, the percentage of births to women over 35 rose 64%.

There has been a continuous increase over the last two decades of the percentage of people institutionalized for depression who are women, and there has been a continuous increase in the number of attempted suicides.

After two decades of growth in brides choosing to keep their maiden names, there is now a growth in those choosing to adopt their husbands’ names.

Clearly women’s liberation does not account for all of the above trends/changes, and is not even the key factor in some, but it certainly is a factor in all. I took an informal poll of around 100 women and found that 50-60% wanted to keep “provide/protect” as part of their expectations of a husband, 60-70% wanted to see chivalry sustained, and 90-95% agreed with the customized proverb: “Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, Regardless of Gender.” The most touching moments for me were the 50+ times the response to my last question promptly was “Yes, Peter, we are all humans.” This is a lifelong learning curve, so I would be grateful for any feedback.