ABSTRACT
If the 1960s were often termed the “Age of Anxiety,” then the 1970s and 1980s entered us into the “Age of Stress” (“Stress”, 1983). Established cultural norms and ways of thinking that emerged from the postwar years were challenged in the 1960s and began to be remolded in the 1970s. Civil rights, antiwar and women’s issues were addressed heatedly. Often cited as having begun with the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, economic strains have been felt worldwide, and employment problems emerged in the place of the, perhaps nostalgically remembered security and serenity of the 1950s. Women’s roles in the family and the marketplace altered rapidly and radically, to no small part because of demands they made. No other issue could affect more lives, for more people from different walks of life, races, or socioeconomic groups. While the quest for the rights and privileges of women was not so apparent on the streets, serious challenges have been occurring nevertheless at the home and workplace, among career women, and female factory workers alike, and among mothers, daughters, and sisters. Women themselves have experienced a private struggle even with the questions “who am I?”, “who do I want to be?” and “how do I want others to respond to me?”
