1970s: The Way We Lived

In 1976, journalist Tom Wolfe (1931–) coined the term "The Me Decade" to describe the 1970s. It was not a compliment. In the eyes of many, Americans in the 1970s retreated from the political and social changes they had pursued in the 1960s and were happy to focus only on themselves. The reasons why they did this were many. First, the economy slowed dramatically in the early 1970s, and people became more concerned with protecting their families from financial trouble than with changing the world. The youthful baby boomers who had populated the activist movements of the 1960s were settling down. As they did, they looked inward instead of outward. Fewer people protested in the streets, and many more visited therapists or sought to improve their spiritual lives. This quest for individual perfection led to a higher divorce rate, as people found it more acceptable to leave a marriage if it did not make them happy or fulfilled.

Activism did not disappear from American society altogether, however. Feminism gained strength in the 1970s, helped along by the long (but unsuccessful) campaign for the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Women made substantial gains in access to equal opportunity in education and the workplace. They also gained protection for the "right to choose" with the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision about abortion rights in 1973. Environmentalism also emerged as an important social issue. The first Earth Day was held in 1970. National legislators passed important environmental legislation in the decade.

The 1970s will also be remembered as the decade of fads. In addition to jogging and aerobics, popular fads of the 1970s included tanning, streaking (running naked in public places, which was most popular on college campuses), and buying pet rocks and mood rings. Though hardly widespread enough to be called a fad, disillusioned Americans also joined cults or fringe religious groups in increasing numbers. Hare Krishnas, Moonies, and other groups attracted a great deal of attention. None attracted greater attention than the American cult members who were involved in the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. The sexual openness and freedom of the 1960s continued, although it was tempered in the 1970s by the rising problem of sexually transmitted diseases.