What's the Defining Moment of Your Generation?

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I can't speak for my son who is 29, but I believe 9/11 will be a more generation defining moment for his generation than mine. For me it was a heart breaking, gut wrenching shock that punctured the small sense of invincibility left.
Liz

 

[tompalm]

9-11, not because of what happened in NY City, but because how it changed our nation and unified our country to support each other and our military.

 

[ScoopKona]

9-11, not because of what happened in NY City, but because how it changed our nation and unified our country to support each other and our military.

That didn't last very long though. I would not use the word "unified" to describe the USA these days. "Polarized" is a much better fit.

A defining moment? Yes. But not nearly on the order that 12-7-41 was.

 

[glypnirsgirl]

Invention of birth control pills.

It enabled women to control their child bearing. Which has led to women working outside the home as an expectation.

The rise of the two income family has changed our expectations as to our standard of living (when I was a child, it seemed to me that a 2BR, 1BA, 1 Car garage - because there was just one car to put in it was the standard), the upbringing of our children (who are both left alone more and more materially spoiled).

When I entered law school at the University of Texas, there were 10 women in my class of 500, the next year there were 50 in the entering class, my third year was one-third women. In Fort Worth, there were 13 women when I started practicing. Now, more than half of the lawyers are women --- and almost half of the judges are women also.

 

[stmartinfan]

Invention of birth control pills.

It enabled women to control their child bearing. Which has led to women working outside the home as an expectation.

While I agree birth control facilitated this, I think the women's movement was also the force behind changing women's expectations about what was possible and what they should have the right to do. It seems among younger women, "women's lib" and being a "feminist" have become negatives. But it was the first brave women who fought for the right to be in law school, and to get hired at a law firm as a lawyer - not a secretary - that opened the doors for all the women who take those rights for granted. And they put up with lots of harassment and inappropriate treatment to survive - plus often had to work twice as hard to prove themselves, paving the way for the next generation's easier path into those jobs.

I remember my first job interview after college in the early 70s. The questions weren't about my skills and experience, but about was I married and what was my husband's job - and they weren't being asked just to be social but to decide if I would want to stay in the position for more than a short period!

 

[ampaholic]

Hey, did you see "The Good Wife" last night - it had some input on "women lawyers" - they cleaned the caboose of the Treasury Dept bully.

 

[geoand]

May 4, 1970 is the moment that had the most impact.

That day is the day for me.

 

[glypnirsgirl]

While I agree birth control facilitated this, I think the women's movement was also the force behind changing women's expectations about what was possible and what they should have the right to do. It seems among younger women, "women's lib" and being a "feminist" have become negatives. But it was the first brave women who fought for the right to be in law school, and to get hired at a law firm as a lawyer - not a secretary - that opened the doors for all the women who take those rights for granted. And they put up with lots of harassment and inappropriate treatment to survive - plus often had to work twice as hard to prove themselves, paving the way for the next generation's easier path into those jobs.

I remember my first job interview after college in the early 70s. The questions weren't about my skills and experience, but about was I married and what was my husband's job - and they weren't being asked just to be social but to decide if I would want to stay in the position for more than a short period!

I absolutely agree with you.

And it irritates me when young women lawyers want to distance themselves for the women's movement and feminism.

elaine

 

[ronparise]

For me the two big ones were the Vietnam War and Woodstock. and I missed them both. I sat out the Vietnam war as a cook in a National Guard Unit . and Woodstock just seemed too far to drive for a concert (stoned). I had a hard enough time going to see Janis Joplin at the Merryweather Post Pavilion and Frank Zappa and Country Joe and the Fish at the Baltimore Civic Center, Upstate NY was just too far to push my Volkswagon Van and myself in it