Revolt of the Traditionalists 11.28.23

• HIS 379 The Family in America

Revolt of the Traditionalists: The 1970s

The History of Family in America (HIST 379)
Dr. Caitlin Wiesner
Main Hall Room 213
November 28, 2023 (Week 12)

"Families must continue to be the foundation of our nation. Families -- not government programs -- are the best way to make sure our children are properly nurtured, our elderly are cared for, our cultural and spiritual heritages are perpetuated, our laws are observed and our values are preserved...Economic uncertainty, unemployment, housing difficulties, women's and men's concerns with their changing and often conflicting roles, high divorce rates, threatened neighborhoods and schools, and public scandal all create a hostile atmosphere that erodes family structures and family values. Thus it is imperative that our government's programs, actions, officials and social welfare institutions never be allowed to jeopardize the family. We fear the government may be powerful enough to destroy our families; we know that it is not powerful enough to replace them."

- Republican National Platform on "The America Family" (1976)

"Family Values" and Education

1971: Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education decision by Supreme Court declares busing a valid means of achieving school integration

1974: Irish-American South Boston breaks out in riots over "forced busing" of their children to schools outside their neighborhood.

1977: Happiness of Womanhood protests public school sex education curriculum that teaches contraception methods and tolerance of homosexuality as "yet another usurpation" of the right of parents to shape and control their children’s beliefs about sex and marriage.

Discuss: Phyllis Schlafly, "What's Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?" (1972)

• According to Schlafly, why would the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) be harmful to the American family?

• Why does Schlafly defend the “traditional” family and its gender roles?
  

"Family Values" and Abortion

1973: Roe v. Wade strikes down state laws banning abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy as a violation of women's medical privacy

1976: 50 million Americans were associated with "evangelical" churches, where they were often asked to support a right-wing political causes (Moral Majority)

1977: Congress passes the Hyde Amendment, which prohibited the use of federal funds like Medicaid to pay for abortions

1980: National Right to Life Committee (created by the National Council of Catholic Bishops) claims 11 million members.

June 1969: Stonewall Rebellion in Greenwich Village, NYC against police harassment of gay bar patrons

December 1973: American Psychological Association (APA) declassifies homosexuality from DSM-V

Discuss: Anita Bryant, "The Civil Rights of Parents" (1977)

• According to Bryant, what threat does homosexuality pose to American children?

• How do the “civil rights of parents” reflect the “family values” political movement?

A fact is an objective and incontrovertible piece of information.
Evidence is the application of one or more facts to support an argument.
An argument is a subjective claim made to expand an area of knowledge.

We will begin discussion of readings each class with an FAQ (Fact, Argument, Question) Exercise. All students will free write the following:

     A fact that stood out to you in the reading (please include page number)
    An explanation of how that fact works as evidence for the historian’s argument
    A question that the reading raised for you

A fact is an objective and incontrovertible piece of information.
Evidence is the application of one or more facts to support an argument.
An argument is a subjective claim based on evidence that expands an area of knowledge.

FAQ (Fact, Argument, Question) Exercise

All students will free write the following:

1.  A fact that stood out to you in the reading (please include page number)
2. An explanation of how that fact works as evidence for the historian’s argument
3. A question that the reading raised for you

Discussion: Robert O. Self, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s (2012)

Part III: The Permissive Society, 1968-1980

1) What exactly was revolutionary about the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s? How did the different activist movements of era interpret it? 

2) How did gay liberation transform into gay politics? What consequences did this shift hold for the American family?

3) How did the presidential election of 1972 reveal the tensions around breadwinner liberalism in the Democratic Party? 

4) Why did breadwinner conservatism succeed as a political ideology for Republicans in the 1970s?