For The First Time Ever
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
In the 1960s, there was a revolution against the oppression by the male gender. The modern woman had more freedom. Combined with rising inflation and soaring divorce rates, this created a necessity for women to work in order to support themselves. In fact, by the late 1960s, they made up more than 35% of the British work force. This rose to more than half by the middle if the 1980s.
Working women discovered discrimination in many forms and the United States Women's Movement grew in size and ferocity. In 1960, the president began to consider equal opportunities for women. Congress passed Acts allowing them equal education, equal job opportunities and equal legal rights.
The Civil Rights Acts, initially applicable only to blacks, were extended in 1964 to apply to women. The legalisation of abortion was fought for but was only passed in 1972 when the Equal Rights Amendment was sent to Congress.
The women's movement did not focus only on the legal aspect of women's rights. They also opposed ingrained social values drawing from scientific studies which showed that the differences between the genders were based on culture, not biology.
Some women's rights groups even questioned the English language, saying that many word forms, being masculine, formed the basic problem. Feminists formed organisations for the fight for women's rights including the 250 000 member National Organisation for Women (NOW) which was founded in 1966.
SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER
Space travel and exploration increased dramatically in the 1960s. The first animal, woman and man were sent into space and they survived. The quest for space domination climaxed when the American astronaut (Neil Armstrong) landed on the moon.
IT'S LEGAL TO BE YOURSELF
In Britain in the 1960s, an Act was passed which made it legal for males to be homosexual. Gay men could finally be true to themselves and "come out of the closet". Unfortunately, the same privilege was not extended to lesbians.
A NEW HEART POSSIBLE
Professor Chistian Barnard made it possible for Louis Washkansky to live longer by performing the worlds fisrt heart transplant in South Africa. Unfortunately Washkansky dies 18 days later . . . of a lung failure!
CONCORDE UNVEILED
On December 11 1969 the public had its first glimpse of the Concorde. The French and British aricraft industries worked together to develop and build the Concorde. It is the worlds first supersonic aircraft.
New words and Expressions
body count
nuke
Op Art
reclosing
returnable
rip-off
shrink-wrap
soft-landing
solar panel
space shuttle
space walk
spaced out
underfund
update
uptight
urban sprawl
value-added-tax
wheeler-dealer
world-class
disaster area
ego trip
flower power/people
go-go dancing
groupie
hands-on
hangup
hardline
hard rock
keypad
mainframe
meltdown
microchip
mind-blowing
name of the game
networking