Surviving the Seventies: How Ten East Texan Women Labored for Their Families

<p>The 1970s were a period of political and social turmoil. Many women left the domestic sphere and entered public life to work, seek higher education, and pursue a career. Yet many factors worked against them. They entered a workforce that treated them poorly or went to a university with limited degrees for women. The seventies were also a time of social, cultural, and political upheaval marked by a deep recession in which quality jobs were harder to find and layoffs were common. This oral history project seeks to document the experiences of East Texan women during this tumultuous period. And in their own words. This public history project also attempts to highlight the similarities and differences between the seventies as a whole and the lives of East Texan women. Ultimately, this project was not meant to prove or disprove any political agenda but to show, as precisely as possible, how and why these East Texan women decided to embrace both domestic life and work outside the home. Finally, as a public history project, I aim to highlight my mastery of relevant public history and oral history literature while reviewing the best practices of oral history as both a methodology and technique. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts - History

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Emily B

Contributors dc:contributor

• Paul Sandul
• Dana Cooper
• M. Scott Sosebee

• Feminism
• East Texas
• Seventies
• Oral History
• Public History
• Workforce
• Labor History
• Women's History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/483

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1502