How Dating Changed in 1970

Before the 1970’s, dating had been strictly regulated and most people saw a woman’s sole purpose in life as being a good home maker and to raise children, but that changed in the 1970's.

In the US new laws were introduced which became a game changer in a lot of different aspects. It was an important decade for the feminist movement in the US. Women could go to college, have a career, they could be independent from husband and father. It was a bra-burning epoch in the history of feminism and this was a key factor that contributed to a revolution in dating and relationships 40 years ago.

1970 has become a year when women finally proclaimed their independence and took control of their lives and their bodies. An important time in feminist history for sure. But how did it affect dating?

Because of such independence of young women 40 years ago and the rise of popularity of the birth control pill as a contraceptive method dating has become more about sex than ever before. Without fear of getting pregnant and little to no social judgment women felt freer with their bodies. Sex became natural, books were published on the subject, people learnt about it and what it meant. Sexually transmitted diseases became a subject of public conversation and people started working on their prevention.

Dating has become more casual. Going out for drinks was only that, it didn’t bring about any more serious commitments which could be observed in decades preceding the 1970's. 40 years ago traditional dating turned into “hanging out”, which more often than not referred to sex rather than a movie and a dinner type of date.

But it didn’t come easy for the generation of women between 1960 and 1970. Women had to be fighters to achieve any kind of equality, there were still a lot of contradictions and confusion in those decades. There were radical feminists that forsook marriage altogether and sometimes they forsook men and sex along with it. There were women who wanted to have it all: family, career and sex, but they didn’t know how to do it all, because no one before them had done it.

Young men and women who chose the nontraditional path of careers and not marriage were judged by their families and older generations.

As far as older generations were concerned their children didn’t have premarital sex and didn’t live together with their partner before they had tied the knot. So a lot of things were done in secret in the 1970's, the word of revolutionary ideas in the field of relationships couldn’t reach the ears of conservative parents and aunts.

Sexual liberation didn’t come at once, though. In the beginning the relationships remained traditional, with men courting women with the goals of marrying some day and building families next. Women thinking they had no other choice but to be mothers and wives. The thought of living together or having sexual relationships before marriage was unheard of, at least no one spoke about it.

But as the time went by, the laws of the country changed, abortions were allowed by law, birth control became accessible for all women, women were allowed to raise children on their own and though social judgement didn’t cease, we can still witness it today, it became more acceptable.

To explain to current generations how it felt for young women of the 1970’s to know that they could have control over their bodies, they could choose whether or not they had children, they could have sex without being afraid of being pregnant is difficult. The weight of responsibility of raising an unwanted child which a woman was not prepared for was lifted and that was when women decided to explore every possibility that only men were privy to before, aka sex without responsibilities and careers. And though it has been an improvement for many people and for many couples, as they could explore more options, they didn’t marry the first person they dated straight out of college, it has also become problematic for some couples.

Divorce rates have gone up, because being divorced is not the equivalent of having the plague anymore. The value of family has decreased, the amount of single-parent families have also increased, women were in confusion not knowing how to juggle family life and careers and having to eventually choose one or the other. But for young people the 1970’s came as a blessing.

Dating and relationships were reduced to “hanging out”, a 40-year-old equivalent or modern “Netflix and Chill”. First dates were mostly about sex rather then getting to know each other, people had multiple sexual partners and the amount of open or non-exclusive relationships had increased.

The 1970’s is really the decade when dating as we know it started to appear and progress.

Same sex relationships became more common, though still frowned upon most of the time. People in the suburbs didn’t want to hear about it and LGBTQ community stayed mostly underground. Outspoken members of the community, however, were fighting for their rights, but to little avail.

Despite the freedom and independence of people in relationships in the 1970’s the men still played principal roles in every relationship. Men were the ones to ask a girl out for a date, men were the ones to pay, to provide the car, to walk her home. Men asked their women to marry them and many women chose to take care of the houses after the marriage. These same trends can be observed today in many families across the world.

The difference between the 1970’s relationships and those before this decade are that by the time the couple decided to get married or have serious relationships they have already

• explored other options
• dated other people
• started careers
• had a chance to improve their education

Whether or not a woman stays home after the marriage or continues her career path was a choice, not an obligation. The revolution in relationships of the 1970's was a major factor that contributed most to the dating patterns of today.

Thank you for reading. If you want to read my article on Dating in the Age of Swipes and Charms then please follow this link to other articles I’ve written.