Women of the 1970s
During the 1970s, women focused on rectifying workplace inequality. Better jobs and salary inequity were two important issues, that women wanted to fix, using anti-discrimination laws. The anti-discrimination law was a law that made citizens have the right to be treated equally. The women in 1970s were called the second wave feminists.
The Equal Pay Act, Civil Rights Act, Title 9 of the Education Amendments, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act were important amended laws that changed the rights and lives of women in the 1960’s and 1970s.
Title 9 of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits discrimination of both male and females in any federally funded education program or activity. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made small changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and abolished wage distribution based on sex. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or natural origin. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination of pregnant women. Under this act, employers cannot discriminate employees and job applicants on the basis of pregnancy.
Watergate Scandal:
The Watergate Scandal was an attempted robbery that led to President Nixon’s resignation. A few men were accused of attempting to steal secret documents and wiretapping phones in the Watergate building. Although it was robbery, President Nixon’s involvement made the issue even worse. President Nixon was found to have recorded tapes of conversations in the White House. The people demanded for the tapes to be given, but President Nixon refused. Soon people were able to obtain the tapes, and found conversation of Richard Nixon, talking about the robbery. This meant that Richard Nixon knew about the robbery and was involved in the scandal. In August 1974, President Nixon resigned from presidency to avoid impeachment, and Gerald Ford took his place. Around the same time, the burglars were also arrested. From this scandal, the citizens started to question the leadership of America, and about the presidency.
During the 1970s, women focused on rectifying workplace inequality. Better jobs and salary inequity were two important issues, that women wanted to fix, using anti-discrimination laws. The anti-discrimination law was a law that made citizens have the right to be treated equally. The women in 1970s were called the second wave feminists.
The Equal Pay Act, Civil Rights Act, Title 9 of the Education Amendments, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act were important amended laws that changed the rights and lives of women in the 1960’s and 1970s.
Title 9 of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits discrimination of both male and females in any federally funded education program or activity. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made small changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and abolished wage distribution based on sex. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or natural origin. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination of pregnant women. Under this act, employers cannot discriminate employees and job applicants on the basis of pregnancy.
Watergate Scandal:
The Watergate Scandal was an attempted robbery that led to President Nixon’s resignation. A few men were accused of attempting to steal secret documents and wiretapping phones in the Watergate building. Although it was robbery, President Nixon’s involvement made the issue even worse. President Nixon was found to have recorded tapes of conversations in the White House. The people demanded for the tapes to be given, but President Nixon refused. Soon people were able to obtain the tapes, and found conversation of Richard Nixon, talking about the robbery. This meant that Richard Nixon knew about the robbery and was involved in the scandal. In August 1974, President Nixon resigned from presidency to avoid impeachment, and Gerald Ford took his place. Around the same time, the burglars were also arrested. From this scandal, the citizens started to question the leadership of America, and about the presidency.
Environmental Movement and Energy Crisis
Protecting the environment from all sorts of toxic industrial waste in places like Love Canal and New York. At Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, there were dangerous meltdowns in the power plants that caused excessive amounts of toxic waste to be let out. The crusade to change and protect the environment took off in the 1970s, and Americans celebrated the first Earth day in 1970. On 1970, Congress passed a law called the National Environmental Policy Act. This act, enabled the United States to enhance the environment through more upcoming laws that would help keep the environment clean.
The Clean Air and Clean Water Act were enacted in 1972. The Clean Water Act of 1972, established a basis of regulations that prohibited discharges from being polluted into the water. The Clean Air Act of 1972 established a basis of regulations to improve air pollution issues like acid rain, smog, damage to the stratospheric ozone layer, etc. After the Arab and Israel war, also known as the Yom Kippur War, America decided to support and provide resources for Israel. The Arabs did not agree with America’s decision, and established an oil embargo to ban foreign oil trade with America. This was a huge problem for America because most of America’s oil at that time came from foreign lands.
Prices for oil in America increased from 3 dollars to 12 dollars per barrel and soon people became angry with the government. Local, state, and national leaders had to ask the citizens to conserve their energy by refraining from putting up holiday lights, and other ways to conserve energy. The energy crisis also impacted the American automotive industry because with the production of big cars, soon the Japanese automotive industry would outpace America’s automotive industry with smaller and efficient cars.
In March, 1974, the oil embargo was lifted, but prices still remained high. In addition to gasoline rationing and price control, a national speed limit was imposed and daylight savings time was adopted year-round for the time period of 1974-1975. America established the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act (passed by Congress in November 1973), the Energy Policy Act, Conservation Act of 1975, and the creation of the Department of Energy in 1977. These acts soon helped redefine America’s relationship with fossil fuels and other sources of energy. America soon found alternate sources of power and started using solar power, wind power, and nuclear power. Years later, oil prices decreased which made oil production fall again.