Changing American life-styles

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 16

Changing American life-styles

By

LINDA CASHDAN

I “I think the male cadets have accepted us for the 1 most part, especially after | basic training.” A voice of [change. It belongs to Susie (Timmons, an 18-year-oldj I who made history in 1976 as! one of the first of her sex to ! enter a United States rnili-i tary service academy. In her case, it was the Air i Force Academy. In all, more | than 300 women took advan-1 tage of a new Presidential! directive to integrate women! into the fresh-man classes of I the military, naval and the air force academies. The process went well. “Several times,” said Ms ! Timmons, “Tve thought j about maybe we shouldn’t 1 be here, maybe we didn’t i have a place here and that we’re just being here to fill i ia quota Congress set up. But !I think now I can see that [we do have a place here and' ; a place in the military.” I ! That “place” in the armed! forces has been growing for I some time now. The last' • year also saw the first i I woman line officer named to flag rank in the United (States Navy, the first l [woman pilot in the United! States Army’s emergency re-| I lief programme, and the'firsti (female engineer in the Ma-1 rine Corps. There are now( (six female admirals and geni erals, divided evenly be(tween the Army, Navy and I Air Force. And, in numerical terms, [ i military women have in-1 (creased dramatically in just! [three years. There were! [45,000 in 1973. There were! 1150.000 in 1976. They were; (enjoying careers in technical: ■ fields previously considered ' (out of bounds to them, such ias electronics and aviation. 1

Just a few years ago, for example, there were only 13 i women holding army law-en- ! forcement jobs. Today there ■ are well over 1300. WOMAN PRIESTS I l ( The last year also saw a ■ breakthrough for women in [ the military and also in the (world of religion — notably (in the Episcopal Church. ! Two years ago 11 women ’ ‘ were ordained “priests” ' !without the official sanction ' of the Episcopal Church, the • 'American branch of the world-wide Anglican Communion. The ordination was! ’ done to draw attention to i the need for sexual equality in the Episcopal priesthood. At the time, that church . remained the only Protestant ' denomination that did not • permit the ordination of I women. After two years of (bitter controversy, the Gep-, • I eral Convention of the Epis-1 icopal Church met late ini 11976 and voted in favour of! I the ordination of women. I The presiding bishop, John “Allin, felt the decision meant! [(the end of discord. I “I think,” he said, “that■ I we now have an opportunity! J to learn from experience! (what we were unable to re-( [solve by argument.” I It also may mean morel ■ change. The Episcopal] Church itself has more than] 150 woman deacons who have fulfilled the prelimi- | nary requirements for ordi- I ( nation, and more than 300 (women in Episcopal semi- ' inaries. !; The ordination decision! (may affect other religions! [too. Female enrolment in! Prof e s t a n t theological j [ schools doubled over the I last three years and the! 'topic of women in the'

r I priesthood is becoming a f major issue within the •IRoman Catholic Church too. !' If 1976 was a year of breakthroughs, it was also a year of “more” — more i women in college, one more I woman elected governor of a state, more female political candidates. There was also more pub-1 lie support, in 1976, for the: basic goals of feminism —I ■ in personal, as well as national terms. According to a [ .•survey taken by the “Wash-! iington Post” and Harvard! . University, for example, ! . [ about one-third of all Ameri(can families report patterns • of changing responsibilities within their house-holds, with men taking on greater responsibilities for home : chores. Another dramatic change' . was in attitudes toward: ' working women. In 1936, a I iGallup poll asked: “Should a! (married woman , earn: ! | money?” Seventy-two per, ‘[cent of the Americans re-1 [ spending said “No.” . : | In 1946, a Roper poll re-' (ported that by a five-to-[ [three ratio American women: ■ [felt running a home was( I more interesting than hold- [ 'ling a job. By 1969, attitudes! •[had begun to change. A Gal[lop poll showed a five-to- • i four majority saying there I was nothing wrong with (married women earning money. ( The “Washington Post”I Harvard University survey i in 1976 asked: “Are women | (better off having careers! I like men, or raising fami-! [lies?” Men favoured careers* I by a two-to-one ratio.; ! Women favoured careers by i a four-to-three ratio. i That reflects more than ljust attitudes. The fact is, 'nowhere in 1976 was the

! feminist pattern of “more” as dramatic as it was on the American labour market. According to the feminist and social historian, Eliza|beth Janeway: “The new entries into the labour force i that year numbered 1.5 milllion, Eleven out of fifteen • were women. Half of the (mothers of school-age child(ren are in the labour force (with paid work outside the ’home, along with one-third (of the mothers of pre-school children.” | The chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers called it “extraordinary.” The head of the National. Commission for Manpower Policy called it “the single most outstanding phenomenon of our century.” Both were referring to the sudden increase in the (number of American working women. i In two years, almost 3M women have entered the ; American labour force. Their (proportion in that force has (grown from 13 per cent in T 960 to over 40 per cent in .1976. Three years ago, foreleasts predicted that that (proportion would not be (reached until 1985. Now (economists think it is possible that half the women over 16 will be in the labour force within three years. Why? The personal reasons range from the need for creative fulfilment to the need for money. But a major driving force is the women’s movement: new laws that promise equal pay for women, and a new atmosphere that encourages] women to seek work outside! the home. More than the headline] breakthroughs, more than] any news event, the pres-1 ence of these 48M American] women in the labour force signifies the progress of the women’s movement in 1976. — United States Information Service.