The 1970s - Fashion, Events & Facts | HISTORY By: HISTORY.com Editors 1970s The 1970s HISTORY.com Editors Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesPublished: July 30, 2010Last Updated: July 13, 2026 Table of contents 1 Conservative Backlash 2 The New Right Rises 3 Environmental Movement 4 Cars in the 1970s 5 Movies and TV Shows 6 Women’s Rights 7 Gay Liberation 8 Antiwar Movement 9 Watergate Scandal 10 Jimmy Carter 11 Emerging Technology 12 Fashion in the 1970s 13 Music and Culture 14 Sports in the 1970s 15 The Me Generation 16 Sources Table of contents The 1970s were, in some ways, a continuation of the 1960s. Women, gays and lesbians, African Americans, Native Americans and other marginalized people continued their fight for equality, and many Americans joined the protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. In other ways, however, the decade was a repudiation of the 1960s. A “New Right” mobilized in defense of political conservatism and traditional family roles, though the behavior of President Richard Nixon—and the ensuing Watergate Scandal—undermined many people’s faith in the federal government. By the end of the decade, these divisions and disappointments had set a tone for public life that many would argue is still with us today. Conservative Backlash The 1970s The 1970s are famous for bell-bottoms and the rise of disco, but it was also an era of economic struggle, cultural change and technological innovation. 2:35m watch Some Americans, particularly working class and middle class whites, responded to the turbulence of the 1960s—the urban riots, antiwar protests and the counterculture—by embracing a new kind of conservative populism. Tired of what they interpreted as spoiled hippies and whining protestors, tired of an interfering government that, in their view, coddled poor people and minorities at taxpayer expense, these individuals formed what President Richard Nixon and political strategists called the “silent majority.” This silent majority swept Republican candidate Nixon into the White House in the 1968 election, defeating the Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. Did you know? Suffragist Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. It was introduced to Congress every year until 1972, when it finally passed but was not ratified. It has been reintroduced to Congress every year since 1982. Almost immediately, Nixon began to dismantle the welfare state that had fostered such resentment. He abolished as many parts of former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs as he could, and he made a show of his resistance to mandatory school desegregation plans such as busing. The New Right Rises As the 1970s continued, a new political movement known as the “New Right” emerged. This movement, rooted in the rapidly growing suburban Sun Belt, celebrated the free market and lamented the decline of “traditional” social values and roles. New Right conservatives resented and resisted what they saw as government meddling. For example, they fought against high taxes, environmental regulations, highway speed limits, land policies in the West (the so-called “Sagebrush Rebellion”), affirmative action and school desegregation plans. The repudiation of so-called alternative lifestyles and religions found renewed purpose after the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, when over 900 followers of preacher Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple—based in San Francisco—committed mass suicide. Environmental Movement History Shorts: Earth Day's Environmental Origins Environmental issues have long faced our planet, but what did it finally take to set aside a day just for Earth? 1:03m watch In other ways, 1960s liberalism continued to flourish. For example, the crusade to protect the environment from all sorts of assaults—air and water pollution, toxic waste in places like Love Canal, New York; dangerous meltdowns at nuclear power plants such as the one at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; highways built through city neighborhoods—really took off during the 1970s. Americans celebrated the first Earth Day in April 1970, and Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act that same year. The Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act soon followed. The OPEC oil embargo and subsequent energy crisis of the 1970s drew further attention to the issues of conservation and energy policy. By then, environmentalism was so mainstream that the U.S. Forest Service had a Woodsy Owl ad on Saturday morning cartoons to remind kids to “Give a Hoot; Don’t Pollute.” Cars in the 1970s The energy crisis of the 1970s also drove many Americans to reject the clunky, gas-guzzling autos that Detroit continued to produce. Starting in 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required now-familiar Fuel Economy Labels on new cars, which gave consumers estimated mile-per-gallon ratings for city and highway driving. Soon, car shoppers turned to the fuel-efficient, compact cars produced by European and, in particular, Japanese automakers. This gave carmakers like Toyota and Nissan an inroad into the vast U.S. car market—a market they would one day dominate. Movies and TV Shows Many movie critics consider the 1970s a golden era of socially conscious filmmaking, after the studio system in Hollywood completely broke down and restrictions on violence, obscenity and sexual content loosed. In this "New Hollywood" environment, innovative directors such as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Kopple, Francis Ford Coppola and others took advantage of their newfound freedom to create celebrated and important films including Harlan County, USA; Network; The French Connection; Mean Streets; The Godfather; Chinatown and All the President’s Men. Though such films were acclaimed by critics, the popular appeal of some paled beside the blockbusters that also emerged in the 1970s. Mass marketing and computer-generated special effects created worldwide fan bases for feel-good movies like Star Wars, Jaws, Rocky, Saturday Night Fever and a genre known as “disaster films,” including The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. In addition to popular fare like Happy Days, Eight Is Enough and prime-time soap operas such as Dallas, television also found an audience for topical shows that addressed the social and political issues of the decade—a trend that would continue as the emergence of cable television and VCRs threatened once-dominant broadcast networks. All In the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Roots and M*A*S*H didn’t shy away from once-taboo subjects like homosexuality, slavery, women’s rights and racism. And in 1975, NBC launched one of the most popular and long-lasting comedies in television history, Saturday Night Live. Women’s Rights 19th Amendment Learn about the arduous journey made by suffragists that eventually won them the right to vote in 1920. 2:20m watch During the 1970s, many groups of Americans continued to fight for expanded social and political rights. In 1972, after years of campaigning by feminists, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” It seemed that the Amendment would pass easily: 22 of the necessary 38 states ratified it right away, and the remaining states seemed close behind. However, the ERA alarmed conservative activists, fearing it would undermine traditional gender roles. These activists mobilized against the ERA and managed to defeat it. In 1977, Indiana became the 35th—and last—state to ratify the ERA. Disappointments like these encouraged many women’s rights activists to turn away from politics. They began to build feminist communities and organizations of their own: art galleries, bookstores, consciousness-raising groups, daycare and women’s health collectives, rape crisis centers and abortion clinics. How Phyllis Schlafly Derailed the Equal Rights Amendment The ERA was on track to become the 27th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Then a grassroots conservative movement halted its momentum. The ERA was on track to become the 27th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Then a grassroots conservative movement halted its momentum. By: Lesley Kennedy Gay Liberation Following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the gay rights movement continued to build momentum and began to wield considerable political power. One year after Stonewall, New York City hosted America’s first gay pride parade. In 1978, Harvey Milk was elected mayor of San Francisco, becoming the first openly gay man elected to office in California. And in 1979, more than 100,000 people took part in the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.