To what extent did individual rights improve in the period 1973-80
In the period of 1973-80 there was moderate change to the rights of individual Americans. Whilst
the lives for Americans of different races, gender, sexualities, and occupations undoubtedly changed,
the permanence and universality of this change differed greatly for different individuals and
minorities. Additionally, whilst there was legislative change, social opinions were changing at a
different rate, and some legislative change could be viewed as ineffective.
Arguably, the greatest change was to the rights of women and gay Americans. The change included
greater awareness of gender and sexuality inequalities and an increased control over their own
bodies, but the statistics imply that this change was not supported by a shift in social attitudes, and
much of the change occurred at the start of the period and was not continued. Due to 1973 Roe
versus Wade ruling, women had a right to seek an abortion, which they had never been able to
access prior to this. This suggests greater bodily autonomy, as well as an understanding from
Congress of the issues facing women and the need for this control. Awareness of gay issues also
improved in this period. The Stonewall riots generated growing gay pride and the banning of
employment on the grounds of sexual orientation in 1972 in San Francisco suggests that power
groups of people, and whole cities, supported gay rights. Furthemore, the act of New York following
this employment discrimination ban suggests that the changes in this period were very important
because they created a chain effect of more improvements from other authorises. Despite the
greater awareness of the issues facing women and gay people, backlash, for example the Hyde
Amendment in 1977 against the Roe versus Wade suggests a lacking universality to those viewing
women and gay Americans as equals. Furthermore, there were still many economic inequalities in
this period. Women still earned on average 73% of salaries paid to men and many gay people feared
coming out because they felt they could face job loss. Moreover, the change could also be limited in
this period because much of it occurred at the start of the period and the closer to 1980, the more
backlash increased – like from Conservative thinkers, and improvements plateaued. Plus, there were
still huge inequalities, for example, homosexuality was still illegal, and women still did not obtain the
Equal Rights Amendment. Overall, women and gay Americans gained greater awareness socially, but
they still lacked economic equality and backlash implied not all people were supportive of equal
rights.
The second most significant change was with regards to race. Whilst there was an increased political
voice and implemented legislation in this period, most social attitudes did not catch up with the
legislative change. It is important to note that black and native Americans had less rights than other
groups, for example women, so, when considering the extent of change, their change came from a
worse baseline. For example, 80% of the Native population were in poverty, and the life expectancy
was up to 80%. Both black and native Americans’ rights improved through political awareness and
implementation of legislation. There was a greater political presence for black Americans, with more
black mayors being elected, such as one in Detroit in 1973. For Native Americans, legislation, such as
the Indian Heath Care Improvement Act in 1976, which granted $1.6 billion, suggested that the
Congress were positively reacting to the Native populations’ needs through laws. This reaction to
needs could be implied when affirmative action helped make one third of black Americans middle
class by 1980, however, this still meant that two thirds – a majority, were still in poverty, thus, there
was a lack of universality to changes of individual rights in this period. Furthermore, black Americans
still only earned a half of whites. Moreover, a lack of social attitude change is suggested due to
backlash to school integration in the period and that fact that only 1 per cent of elected officials
were black in 1980. Additionally, social attitude change was limited for native Americans. This is
