Women's Rights, Family Values, and the Transformation of American Political Culture in the 1970s

FAIN: FA-55475-10

Marjorie Julian Spruill
University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC 29208-0001)

I seek this fellowship to complete a thoroughly researched book on the origins of the highly partisan, deeply polarized political culture we now inhabit. The book, an analysis of the modern women's movement and the rise of social conservatives in opposition during the 1970s, argues for the centrality of gender issues in the development of this political culture. The focus is on the federally funded International Women's Year (IWY) conferences which galvanized supporters of both women's rights and family values and had a profound and enduring impact on American history. These powerful, competing social movements propelled gender issues to front and center in American politics, yet--as the personal became political--reduced the prospects for consensus and compromise on social policy.