From 1955 to 1975 the United States was full of tension and violence but also of epochal social changes. It has been an unstable time for our country. During this time period there was a push for social, racial, and gender equality. After the end of World War II in 1945, our country began to experience such a change, but it was between 1955 and 1975 that people began to truly recognize the change that was happening. Of course not everyone wants change, so inevitably there was violence and certainly there were tensions. In the early 1950s, Americans questioned nothing about the “ideal” society, in which women stayed at home to take care of household chores and children while women and men went to work and provided for the family financially. They conformed to the rules of society. The young and the old had no separate ideas or hobbies. The younger ones simply followed in the footsteps of the elders and this became traditional. I believe the media has contributed to this belief of a mainstream society. In the late 1950s there were programs that gave this idea of ​​the perfect family like Leave it to Beaver which started airing on television in 1957. There was the family having dinner together and talking about their day. When the father returned home there was a hot meal on the table and when the children returned from school the mother was already preparing dinner and doing the laundry. People who watched these types of shows believed that all families should be like this. Numerous movements challenged the idea of ​​a traditional society, such as the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement. In “traditional” society, women were expected to dress a certain way, without wearing anything, to… middle of paper…on the outcome of the women's movement and their fight for equality in the past, Women are now more independent than ever. There are women in every field of work. Women are no longer expected to stay at home while their husbands work, although some may choose, it is not as typical as it once was. Before 1955 women and men married and started families after high school, now it's exactly the opposite. In today's society, both sexes attend college for four years or more, then marry and start a family. As for African Americans, the civil rights movements made segregation unconstitutional across America. Now there is racial and gender equality. Although people may be judged based on gender and race, everyone has the same rights and without movements that seek to change the “traditional” norms of society we would not be where we are today.