The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

All four phenomena described above are apparent: The steady century-long trend toward liberalization of attitudes about gender, the ever-so-slightly increased pace of that liberalization among Americans who came of age during the 1960s, the gradual slowing of the pace of that liberalization after 1970, as post-Boomer cohorts entered adulthood, and the slight but surprising reversal of this trend in recent years.73 Figure 7.13 suggests that the bulk of progress in Americans’ support for gender equality over the last 100 years occurred among Americans socialized before 1970. In effect, the women’s movement seems to have lit a match to what was already well-cured kindling.