Editing Generation X (section)

=====Rising divorce rates and women workforce participation=====
Strauss and Howe, who wrote several books on generations, including one specifically on Generation X titled ''13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?'' (1993), reported that Gen Xers were children at a time when society was less focused on children and more focused on adults.<ref name="13th Gen">{{cite book|last1=Howe|first1=Neil|title=13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?|date=1993|publisher=Vintage|isbn=978-0-679-74365-1|url=https://archive.org/details/13thgenabortretr00howe}}</ref> Xers were children during a time of increasing [[divorce]] rates, with divorce rates doubling in the mid-1960s, before peaking in 1980.<ref name="Adweek"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Dulaney|first1=Josh|title=A Generation Stuck in the Middle Turns 50|url=http://projects.presstelegram.com/gen-x-turns-50/|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=PT Projects|date=27 December 2015|archive-date=18 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518072231/http://projects.presstelegram.com/gen-x-turns-50/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Dawson|first1=Alene|title=Gen X women, young for their age|url=https://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ig-beauty-genx-20110925-story.html|access-date=19 June 2016|newspaper=LA Times|date=25 September 2011|archive-date=13 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813064546/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/25/image/la-ig-beauty-genx-20110925|url-status=live}}</ref> Strauss and Howe described a cultural shift where the long-held societal value of staying together for the sake of the children was replaced with a societal value of parental and individual [[self-actualization]]. Strauss wrote that society "moved from what Leslie Fiedler called a 1950s-era 'cult of the child' to what Landon Jones called a 1970s-era 'cult of the adult'".<ref name="13th Gen"/><ref name="Strauss">{{cite news|last1=Strauss|first1=William|title=What Future Awaits Today's Youth in the New Millennium?|url=https://www.angelo.edu/events/university_symposium/97_Strauss.php|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=Angelo State University|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808195038/https://www.angelo.edu/events/university_symposium/97_Strauss.php|archive-date=8 August 2016}}</ref> ''The Generation Map'', a report from Australia's McCrindle Research Center writes of Gen X children: Boomer parents were the most divorced generation in Australian history".<ref name="GenMap">{{cite news|url=https://2qean3b1jjd1s87812ool5ji-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/McCrindle-Research_ABC-03_The-Generation-Map_Mark-McCrindle.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618103906/https://2qean3b1jjd1s87812ool5ji-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/McCrindle-Research_ABC-03_The-Generation-Map_Mark-McCrindle.pdf |archive-date=18 June 2019 |url-status=live|title=The Generation Map|access-date=2 August 2016|publisher=McCrindle Research}}</ref> According to Christine Henseler in the 2012 book ''Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion'', "We watched the decay and demise (of the family), and grew callous to the loss."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henseler|first=Christine|title=Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=978-0-415-69944-0|pages=xx}}</ref>

[[File:US Marriages Ending in Divorce 1950-1990.png|thumb|left|upright=1.1|U.S. Marriages Ending in Divorce 1950–1990]]
The Gen X childhood coincided with the [[sexual revolution]] of the 1960s to 1980s, which Susan Gregory Thomas described in her book ''In Spite of Everything'' as confusing and frightening for children in cases where a parent would bring new sexual partners into their home.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Susan|title=All Apologies: Thank You for the 'Sorry'|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-gregory-thomas/all-apologies-thank-you-f_b_931718.html|access-date=19 June 2016|work=The Huffington Post|date=22 October 2011|archive-date=15 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415055600/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-gregory-thomas/all-apologies-thank-you-f_b_931718.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Thomas also discussed how divorce was different during the Gen X childhood, with the child having a limited or severed relationship with one parent following divorce, often the father, due to differing societal and legal expectations. In the 1970s, only nine U.S. states allowed for joint custody of children, which has since been adopted by all 50 states following a push for joint custody during the mid-1980s.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Susan|title=In Spite of Everything|year=2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4000-6882-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/inspiteofeveryth0000thom}}</ref> ''[[Kramer vs. Kramer]]'', a 1979 American legal drama based on [[Avery Corman]]'s best-selling novel, came to epitomize the struggle for child custody and the demise of the traditional nuclear family.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Peter|title=The Cinema of Generation X: A Critical Study of Films and Directors|url=https://archive.org/details/cinemaofgenerati00hans|url-access=registration|publisher=McFarland & Co|year=2002|isbn=978-0-7864-1334-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cinemaofgenerati00hans/page/45 45]}}</ref>

[[File:US Participation Rates for Women Professionals 1966-2013.png|thumb|upright=1.1|U.S. Participation Rates for Women Professionals 1966–2013]]
The rapid influx of Boomer women into the labor force that began in the 1970s was marked by the confidence of many in their ability to successfully pursue a career while meeting the needs of their children. This resulted in an increase in [[latchkey child]]ren, leading to the terminology of the "latchkey generation" for Generation X.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Blakemore|first1=Erin|title=The Latchkey Generation: How Bad Was It?|url=http://daily.jstor.org/latchkey-generation-bad/|access-date=5 April 2016|publisher=JSTOR Daily|date=9 November 2015|archive-date=12 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151112003116/http://daily.jstor.org/latchkey-generation-bad/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="highbeam.com">{{cite web|last1=Clack|first1=Erin|title=Study probes generation gap.(Hot copy: an industry update)|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-116445054.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503103915/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-116445054.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 May 2016|website=HighBeam Research|access-date=2 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141930849/whats-the-defining-moment-of-your-generation|title=What's The Defining Moment of Your Generation?|work=NPR.org|access-date=11 September 2017|language=en|archive-date=10 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910004557/http://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141930849/whats-the-defining-moment-of-your-generation|url-status=live}}</ref> These children lacked adult supervision in the hours between the end of the school day and when a parent returned home from work in the evening, and for longer periods of time during the summer. Latchkey children became common among all socioeconomic demographics, but this was particularly so among middle- and upper-class children.<ref name="highbeam.com"/> The higher the educational attainment of the parents, the higher the odds the children of this time would be latchkey children, due to increased maternal participation in the workforce at a time before childcare options outside the home were widely available.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Susan|title=All Apologies: Thank You for the 'Sorry'|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-gregory-thomas/all-apologies-thank-you-f_b_931718.html|access-date=2 April 2016|work=Huffington Post|date=21 October 2011|archive-date=15 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415055600/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-gregory-thomas/all-apologies-thank-you-f_b_931718.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Teacher's Guide to Generation X|url=http://www.edutopia.org/generation-x-parents-relationships-guide|website=Edutopia|access-date=2 April 2016|archive-date=23 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323084700/http://www.edutopia.org/generation-x-parents-relationships-guide|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Susan|title=The Divorce Generation|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303544604576430341393583056|access-date=2 April 2016|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=9 July 2011|archive-date=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409014656/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303544604576430341393583056|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Toch|first1=Thomas|title=The Making of 'To Save Our Schools, To Save Our Children': A Conversation With Marshall Frady|url=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1984/09/19/05550017.h04.html|access-date=17 April 2016|publisher=Education Week|date=19 September 1984|archive-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426034829/http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1984/09/19/05550017.h04.html|url-status=live}}</ref> McCrindle Research Centre described the cohort as "the first to grow up without a large adult presence, with both parents working", stating this led to Gen Xers being more peer-oriented than previous generations.<ref name="GenMap"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Corry|first1=John|title=A Look at Schools in U.S.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/04/arts/a-look-at-schools-in-us.html|access-date=17 April 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 September 1984|archive-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426222125/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/04/arts/a-look-at-schools-in-us.html|url-status=live}}</ref>