Social Change h 251At the same time, postwar Western society was characterized by a general feeling of
skepticism. The devastation brought by the century’s fi rst global war was heightened by
the despair of the Great Depression. Working classes and middle classes faced the prospect
of unemployment or reduced salaries. In Japan, the depression increased suspicions of the
Western way of life. Western states provided old age and medical insurance that eventu-
ally led to the institution of the welfare state. In the United States, the New Deal took
government spending to new heights in an attempt to resolve the economic stagnation of
the depression and provide for social security programs. Western European governments
began to provide assistance to families with several children.Post–World War II Western Society
After World War II, more women entered the workforce. Divorce was made more acces-
sible, and effective birth control more conveniently available with the introduction of the
birth control pill. Many European countries provided day care centers for working moth-
ers. In the United States, the National Organization for Women (NOW), founded in
1966, campaigned for women’s rights. The role of the church in family life declined as
church attendance fell, especially in Europe.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States experienced a civil rights movement that ended
segregation of African Americans and increased voting rights. Student protests against U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War swept university campuses in the 1960s and early 1970s.
In the 1970s and 1980s, some Westerners began to question the concept of the welfare
state. Both Great Britain and the United States elected leaders who adopted a more con-
servative approach toward government spending. Welfare programs were decreased under
the leadership of Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald
Reagan. Western European economic growth soared during the 1980s, producing a marked
increase in consumer goods. Educational opportunities broadened throughout the world.Society in the Soviet Union
Soviet leaders also built a system of welfare services, including protection for the sick
and the aged. Soviet schools taught that religion was a myth. Western styles of art were
denounced as decadent.
By the 1950s, the Soviet Union and most Eastern European nations were industrialized.
Unlike the Western world, the factories in the communist bloc favored the production of heavy
goods over consumer goods. As industrialism spread through Eastern Europe, more families
engaged in sports activities and movie and television viewing. By the 1960s, cultural exchanges
with the West gave Soviet citizens some contact with Western media and ways of life. An
emphasis on sports programs made Soviet athletes intense competitors in the Olympic games.Japan
In the 1920s, Japan also experienced a rise in mass consumerism. The fi lm industry became
popular, and secondary education reached greater numbers of students. After World War II,
the new U.S.-infl uenced government in Japan provided for woman suffrage and abolished
Shintoism as the state religion. The Japanese preserved their traditional respect for their
elders by creating a social security system for the elderly. After the end of the U.S. occupa-http://www.ebook3000.com