1960's Social Changes

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The "Sexual Revolution" resulted in the upset of the sex taboo. In fact, before the 1960s it was considered obscene to talk or mention any topic related to sex. For instance, before the 60s, mentioning a two-pieces bikini or birth control was considered as scabrous as openly talking about sex. However, thanks to the more lenient social norms that characterized the 60s, people finally had the opportunity to talk more freely about sex related issues, and, in particular, women could advocate for birth control. When, in 1961, birth control was eventually legalized in the United States, the dichotomy sex-marriage, that had been socially enforced until that moment was, ultimately, halted. In fact, previously, people were socially allowed to have …show more content…
Indeed, the increase in marriage rate throughout the 60s could be explained by a phenomenon that happened between 1945 and 1961: the "baby boom." In fact, between 1945 and 1961 there was a significant raise in birth rates, which resulted in a drastic increase of the population. Thus, in the 1950s there was a decrease in the relative marriage rate, because, although the number of marriages per se did not abate, the increase in population - made up by newborns, who were, therefore, too young to marry - may have influenced the rate of marriages per capita. However, the babies of the "baby boom' - too young to marry in the 50s - reached the right age to marry in the 60s. This could have proved crucial for the proportional increase of marriage rate in the 1960s. Furthermore, the slight increase in divorces - contrary to my initial belief that the divorce rate would rapidly grow through the 60s - could be explained by the fact that the social acceptance of divorce has not been an instantaneous phenomenon, but it had to happen over time. Moreover, before the 1970s, the law only contemplated the "fault divorce" which meant that divorce could be obtained only if one of the spouses could prove the faulty behavior - e.g. adultery or domestic violence - of the other. Nevertheless, the judges had the right to deny the divorce, even if the fault was, indeed, proven. Thus, trying to obtain a divorce was an extremely difficult and, often, fruitless process. However, in 1970, after years of social changes - such as the sexual revolution - the state of California was the first one to pass a law which allowed "fault less divorces," thus allowing couples to separate on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. This new legislation could therefore be the cause for the abrupt raise in number of divorces per capita after between 1970 and
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