CHAPTER  2

Baby Boomers: The Elephant in the Python

“We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules.”

—Alan Bennett, Getting On (1972)

Critical Events in the Lives of Baby Boomers

1960 John Kennedy elected

1961 Bay of Pigs

1961 Cuban Missile Crisis

1963 John Kennedy assassinated

1964 Passage of the Civil Rights Act

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy assassinated

1968 Chicago Democratic Convention riots

1969 Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix die

1969 Man walks on the moon

1969 Woodstock

1973 Watergate

1974 Nixon resigns and is pardoned

1974 Arab oil embargo

1976 Jimmy Carter elected

1979 Hostages taken in Iran

1980 Reagan elected; Iran hostages released

1980 John Lennon assassinated

1984 Macintosh introduced

The Postwar Baby Boom

As mentioned in Chapter 1, World War II forced the Traditional Generation to postpone having children. When the soldiers came home in 1945, the birthrate began to soar. Medical advances in the management of pregnancy and childbirth helped this phenomenon. Doctors learned to induce labor, reducing the number of stillborns. The Tuohy needle was developed, which allowed childbirth epidurals to be more easily administered. The number of scans used to detect problems early in pregnancy increased. More vaccines were created to control childhood diseases and overall infant and maternal nutrition improved. Consequently, between 1940 and 1960, infant mortality in the United States dropped 51 percent for whites and 59 percent for blacks.

The unprecedented surge in the economy following the war also helped the baby boom. Many feared that the immense drop in military production that would come at war’s end, combined with the return of millions of service members, would create unprecedented levels of unemployment and force the economy back into the Great Depression. These fears turned out to be groundless.

The auto industry, which had been enlisted to make tanks, jeeps, and trucks during the war, easily converted back to making vehicles for domestic use. In 1950, the United States produced more than 80 percent of all noncommercial vehicles worldwide.¹ Clothing manufacturers that had made uniforms for the military transitioned back to making civilian apparel. Food processors, which had produced K rations for the infantry, started making frozen TV dinners. And so it went with every other industry that had been enlisted into the war effort.

Technology developed during the war was applied to consumer goods and services. For example, after the war, Boeing marketed the first pressurized airliner, the Stratoliner, which was a derivative of the B-17 bomber. The 33-seat Stratoliner, which could fly as high as 20,000 feet and reach speeds of 200 miles per hour, revolutionized the postwar airline industry.

Driving this conversion from wartime to peacetime economy was an unprecedented, pent-up demand for goods. Returning soldiers and their soon-to-be spouses needed washers, dryers, kitchen appliances, furniture, clothing, high chairs, cribs, lawn mowers, and cars. It was a great time for American manufacturing. If you could make it, you could sell it. And it didn’t hurt that there were no overseas competitors to worry about. While the industrial complexes of Europe and Asia had been decimated by the war, American industries were left untouched.

Most of all, these new families needed houses. Facilitated by the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and the GI Bill, it became easier than ever for couples to get mortgages and buy homes. This spurred an unprecedented spike in home building. In 1940, 43.6 percent of American families owned their own home. By 1960, that number had jumped to 61.9 percent.

Seemingly overnight, housing developments sprouted around every major city, giving rise to a new phenomenon on the American landscape: suburbia. Shopping centers multiplied, rising from just eight at the end of World War II to 3,840 by 1960. At the same time, the nation’s gross national product rose from around $200 billion in 1940 to $300 billion in 1950 and to more than $500 billion in 1960.

But mostly, the postwar baby boom was driven by all those lonely, affection-starved soldiers coming home to lonely, affection-starved wives and girlfriends. From 1946 to 1965, the U.S. birthrate climbed at a record pace, creating the largest generation on record.

Signposts for Baby Boomers

Signpost: The GI Bill

At the end of World War II, more than 7 million soldiers took advantage of the GI Bill to further their educations and skill levels at universities, trade schools, and business programs. By 1947, veterans made up 49 percent of all college students. Consequently, as they graduated and began raising children (Baby Boomers), they expected their children to also go to college.

Baby Boomers React: The Expectation of Higher Education

The impact of the GI Bill is measurable, and it is significant for both Traditionals and Baby Boomers:

From 1940 to 1964, the percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 22 who attended college tripled.

In 1970, more than 6 million people were enrolled in postsecondary education, four times the number enrolled in 1940.²

From 1965 to 1985 the number of students in American colleges and universities doubled to 12 million.³

More Baby Boomers went to college than in any previous generation because more of their parents had gone. They became the best-educated generation the country had ever seen, and much of the credit goes to the GI Bill. When working with Boomers, this fact can be a springboard for a relationship-building conversation. If you know that the Baby Boomer you’re working with is probably the first of his family to go to college, he might appreciate your asking about how he came to go to school and if his parents encouraged him to do so.

Signpost: Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care

In 1946, the book Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care⁴ by Benjamin Spock, MD, changed the way the Traditional Generation viewed raising and developing their Baby Boomer children. Previously, the general belief was that emotions and affection should be withheld from children for fear of spoiling them. They were to be seen and not heard. Dr. Spock’s book redefined this paradigm. He encouraged parents to express affection toward their kids, to talk to them, and to encourage them to talk back. He popularized the idea that having a happy childhood is essential for growing into a healthy adult.

According to Dr.Spock.com, Dr. Spock’s book was so successful because in postwar America “parents were in awe of doctors and other childcare professionals…. Spock assured them that parents were the true experts on their own children. He told them that parenting could be fun, that mothers and fathers could actually enjoy their children and steer a course in which their own needs and wishes could also be met. All this and much more, including a wealth of helpful medical advice, was delivered in a friendly, reassuring, and common-sense manner, completely at odds with the cold authoritarianism favored by most other parenting books of the time.”⁵

As a result, Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care became a worldwide best seller. It has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold more than 50 million copies. Life magazine named Dr. Spock one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and millions of U.S. parents called him “the nation’s baby doctor.”⁶

Ironically, Dr. Spock’s philosophy that children were to be celebrated, cherished, and developed to the greatest extent possible led to severe criticism of him when these children later went to college and started protesting the Vietnam War. Many accused him of spoiling an entire generation of Americans, a charge that followed him all his life.

Baby Boomers React: Kinder, Gentler Spirits

Rolfing, est, I’m OK, You’re OK, yoga, the Esalen Institute, aromatherapy, self-actualization, finding oneself. These and many other practices became synonymous with Baby Boomers in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, 1960s activist Todd Gitlan called the Boomer quest the “voyage into the interior.”⁷

Having been raised in families where they were celebrated rather than tolerated, Boomers constantly received messages from their Spock-educated parents that they were special. Consequently, they often entered young adulthood believing they actually were without understanding why. They became obsessed with looking inward to discover who they were and the spiritual meaning to life. In a survey of 300,000 college freshmen in 1967, 86 percent said “developing a meaningful philosophy of life” was an essential life goal. In 2004, only 42 percent of college freshmen agreed with that same statement.⁸

Of course, it helped that their parents, for the most part, were providing financial aid while they attended college. When you’re not struggling to pay your rent or buy food, you can cast your attention to more intellectual interests like civil rights; protesting the Vietnam War; and finding your true, spiritual self.

As Baby Boomers approach retirement, many are returning to their search for answers to life’s mysteries. Whether they “found themselves” or not when they were young, most went on to marry, create families, pursue careers, sue for divorces, and have more families. Now that they’re older, many are thinking once again about the universe beyond themselves. Some are returning to Traditional religion while others are looking at non-Traditional answers to life’s spiritual questions. And all this searching, to some degree, can be traced back to their parents embracing the kinder, gentler spirit of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care.

Consequently, Boomers are often interested in creating a better world. So when you pitch a product to a Boomer customer or try to sell your Boomer boss on a new idea, in addition to addressing the bottom line, you might want to explain how your product, project, or idea will make the world a better place to live in.

Signpost: The Soviet Union Goes Atomic

Baby Boomers React: Questioning Authority

For many Baby Boomers, the 1960s was a time of disillusionment with and disappointment in the people and institutions that had been the bedrocks of their upbringing. As they grew into adulthood, they began to see the foibles and imperfections of their parents, teachers, religious leaders, and government officials. To a certain degree, this is a normal part of maturation. It’s been said that we have reached adulthood when we can forgive our parents for not being perfect.

For Baby Boomers, the fatalism and cynicism generated by the nuclear arms race exacerbated these sentiments, an attitude that was reaffirmed with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, and the killing of four students during the Kent State protests.

Signpost: Overcrowded Schools

Demographically, the post-WWII baby boom has been described as an elephant swallowed by a python. American school systems were the first to feel the elephant in 1953 when the 3.8 million Baby Boomers born in 1947 turned six years old and set off for school. Seventy-five million more followed in the next 17 years. From 1946 to 1956 the number of students in the first through eighth grades increased 50 percent.¹⁰ Crowded classrooms were common, and it was not unusual for students to share school supplies, books, and even desks. During the 1950s, California opened an average of one new school per week, and still didn’t have enough classrooms.¹¹ Forty-five percent of today’s U.S. public schools were built between 1950 and 1969.

Baby Boomers React: Working Well with Others

Attending school in these crowded conditions, Baby Boomers quickly learned the value of teamwork. Report cards, for the first time, included “works well and plays well with others” as a graded category. Involvement in team sports like basketball, baseball, and football was encouraged for boys and girls were urged to become cheerleaders or join clubs.

This familiarity with the team concept served many Boomers well after leaving high school. Those who worked for social change on college campuses found that doing so as a team helped their causes. Those who pursued a traditional path found that teamwork helped them succeed with school projects, especially if they belonged to a sorority, fraternity, or some other group. Those who went to Vietnam learned quickly that teamwork was essential for survival.

Consequently, as Baby Boomers moved into management positions in the 1980s, teamwork began to occupy a greater and greater role in company operations. It was during this period that we first heard about quality circles, high-performance teams, self-directed teams, and executive teams. Remember “There is no ‘I’ in TEAM”?

Before the 1980s, most companies were top-down, command-and-control systems. Management made decisions, and employees were expected to unquestioningly follow. As Baby Boomers entered management positions, they challenged and changed this system. A 1987 study of Fortune 1000 companies revealed that 70 percent had moved to a team model to solve problems and 27 percent relied on self-managed work teams (SMWTs) to complete work. The study was repeated six years later and found the use of problem-solving teams had increased to 91 percent and the use of SMWTs had jumped to 68 percent.¹²

Baby Boomers got an “A+” for working well with others. Which means that they have an inordinate appreciation for the power of teams and for working in harmony with others. Taking a team approach with a Boomer goes a long way toward cementing your relationship with him or her.

Signpost: Brown v. Board of Education

The oldest Baby Boomers were only seven when this landmark decision was made, so few of them remember the actual event. Its subsequent impact on American education and on their lives, however, was substantial.

Sponsored by the Topeka, Kansas, chapter of the NAACP, and named for Oliver Brown, one of the plaintiffs, the class action suit challenged an 1879 Kansas state law that permitted segregated elementary schools in certain cities of the state, based on the grounds that separate, but equal, facilities were provided to black children. The plaintiffs were 13 parents of 20 black children who had attempted to enroll their children in all-white schools and been denied. The court found that the 1879 law “violates the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws.” The court determined that “separate but equal is not equal.” The statement “Separate but equal is not equal” became a catchphrase for the ruling and the civil rights movement that followed. The decision forever changed the landscape of American education.

Of course, the decision was not immediately followed by implementation. Only after a host of subsequent lawsuits and attempts at forced desegregation did the issue finally appear somewhat resolved 30 years later, in the mid-1980s.

Brown v. Board of Education was the first major legal step toward racial equality to which Baby Boomers could relate. The decision gave moral justification for the civil rights movement for many white Boomers who, as they entered college in the 1960s, otherwise might not have cared. After all, if it was unconstitutional to segregate schools, it should be unconstitutional to segregate lunch counters, busses, and all other aspects of public life. For most Boomer blacks, of course, the issue was more personal and most likely didn’t require legal justification. Even so, Brown v. Board of Education lent a great deal of legal weight to the movement.

For many Baby Boomers who became parents in the 1970s, school desegregation was personal. Many schools bussed students across district lines to comply with Brown v. Board of Education. This was met with great resistance from many parents, especially white parents. Most notable was ROAR (Restore Our Alienated Rights), organized by Louise Day Hicks in 1974. ROAR organized marches, motorcades, demonstrations, and protests to stop the bussing while facing opposition from the NAACP and other African American organizations.¹³ In the end, the schools achieved some semblance of integration, and life went on.

Baby Boomers React: Decreasing Racial Discrimination

It’s safe to say that racial discrimination, while not completely eliminated from the American landscape, has been substantially reduced. Before 1967, no major U.S. city had elected a black mayor since a number of southern cities did so during Reconstruction.¹⁴ As of October 24, 2008, there were 641 African American mayors in the United States, with at least one in every state.

In 1967, the Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s “Racial Integrity Act of 1924,” which made it illegal for blacks and whites to intermarry. Since then, black-white marriages have increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005.

We also elected our first African American president in 2008.

As the first major Supreme Court decision in modern times to strike down a discriminatory law, Brown v. Board of Education can claim to be the starting point for these remarkable changes. Although most of the changes were initiated and driven by visionary members of the Traditional Generation, such as Thurgood Marshall, who argued Brown v. Board of Education for the plaintiffs, President Lyndon Johnson, who championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Martin Luther King, Jr., who had the dream to make it all happen, many of the marchers, protesters, and advocates were Baby Boomers who deserve some of the credit for this dramatic paradigm shift.

The result is a generation that prides itself on embracing change, whether it be in changing the office procedures to be more efficient, changing the corporate culture to be more productive, or changing the mission of the company to better serve the community. If you work with Baby Boomers, you can often gain their support for projects or initiatives by pointing out how the project will change things for the better.

Signpost: Television Reflects Our Angst

In 1954, 54 percent of all American homes had a television set. By 1960, 90 percent had one.

As noted earlier, entertainment reflects the values of society. The 1950s are often remembered fondly as a time when America was at peace and there was little controversy to rile up ordinary citizens—assuming we ignore the Korean War, the McCarthy witch hunts, the Soviet Union’s brutal crushing of the Hungarian Revolution, and the overthrow of the Batista regime by Fidel Castro.

Television in the 1950s usually reserved controversy for Edward R. Murrow and his colleagues on the evening news. Prime-time programming portrayed American life in fairly bland terms. TV taught young Baby Boomers many of the values they still hold dear. Davy Crockett showed the importance of never telling a lie. Mexican heroes the Cisco Kid and Pancho taught the value of ethnic diversity. Ozzie and Harriet showcased how a family should look, all wholesome and nuclear. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz showed that mixed marriage could be fun, and Sergeant Joe Friday taught that crime doesn’t pay.

This bland but wholesome fare continued into the 1960s with programs like The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, and My Three Sons. The few bright spots in terms of innovative thinking and creative programming came from shows like the Twilight Zone and Star Trek.

As the 1960s unfurled, however, television started to reflect a society in turmoil. Laugh-In poked fun at everything from government decisions to social trends, as did The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which, after a two-year run of biting antigovernment satire, was abruptly cancelled for refusing to submit scripts to network censors before being aired. All in the Family debuted in 1971, followed by The Jeffersons, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Maude, all of which dealt with issues of bigotry, race, women’s liberation, and abortion. Meanwhile, the evening news was showing unparalleled levels of graphic violence live from the rice paddies of Vietnam. Like the Baby Boomers it served, television had evolved from the sweet days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best to M*A*S*H*, Kojak, and Saturday Night Live.

Baby Boomers React: A Worldview Shaped by TV

According to George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues, “Television is a centralized system of storytelling. Its drama, commercials, news, and other programs bring a relatively coherent system of images and messages into every home. That system cultivates from infancy the predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other ‘primary’ sources.”¹⁵

In other words, television can replace or at least compete with family, organized religion, school, and peers in its contribution to our views of the world. Baby Boomers were the first beneficiaries (or victims) of this process, evidenced by their nostalgia for “the good old days” and content with their distrust of the very establishment under which those good old days flourished.

Signpost: The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published in 1963, the same year that President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, guaranteeing equal pay for the same work regardless of the worker’s gender. The following year, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

These three events mark a major signpost for Baby Boomers’ attitudes about the equality of men and women.

Betty Friedan graduated summa cum laude from Smith College in 1942. She married Carl Friedan in 1947. After working as a journalist for two years, she became a housewife. While attending a 15-year reunion at Smith College in 1957, Friedan surveyed 200 alumni and discovered that most were unhappy housewives. The experience inspired her to write The Feminine Mystique.

Her book described the dissatisfaction many women felt with their lives as homemakers. She compared articles from women’s magazines published before WWII with those same magazines published after the war. Freidan noted that the stories in the prewar publications featured confident and independent heroines, many of whom were involved in careers. The postwar stories, however, focused on “happy housewives,” describing them as women whose only ambitions were marriage and motherhood.

Freidan called this homemaker ideal of femininity “the feminine mystique.” She went on to describe her own voluntary submission to this model of the “ideal woman” and examined the various factors, from Sigmund Freud to Madison Avenue, that influenced her and others to make the same choice. She ended the book by outlining a New Life Plan for women where scrubbing floors and washing dishes was not considered a career.

The Feminine Mystique became an instant best seller. Betty Friedan went on to help start the National Organization for Women (NOW). Her book was followed by a host of other feminist books and publications including The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, The First Sex by Elizabeth Gould Davis, and Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective.

And then there was Ms. magazine. Originally an insert in the New York Times magazine section, Ms. morphed into a monthly women’s magazine that focused on issues like unequal pay for women, career opportunities for women, and job-related sexual harassment. After the first regular issue hit the newsstands in July 1972, network news anchor Harry Reasoner commented, “I’ll give it six months before they run out of things to say.” Within weeks, Ms. had received 26,000 subscription orders and over 20,000 reader letters.¹⁶ In the mid-1980s, its circulation reached as high as 550,000. Today, almost 40 years later, it is not the popular powerhouse it once was, but Ms. is still in business as a quarterly publication with a circulation of about 110,000.¹⁷

During the 1950s and 1960s, women earned approximately 30 percent less than their male counterparts for performing the same jobs. Certain jobs were considered appropriate for men but not for women, and vice versa. This dichotomy was reflected in the want ads of most newspapers, which were divided into jobs for men and jobs for women. Positions that could be filled by either sex would be listed in both columns, but with a lower pay scale for women. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made gender-based pay differentiation illegal, which was progress, but it did not address the issue of sex discrimination in hiring as reflected in the separate advertising for male and female jobs.

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to Congress, feminists lobbied hard for the addition of an amendment prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. After much debate, Title VII was added, making it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of sex, as well as race, color, religion, or national origin. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) was formed in 1965 to enforce Title VII. Pushing for its formation was Betty Freidan and her cohort of feminist activists.

Baby Boomers React: Women as Equals

President Eisenhower was once asked by a journalist from the New York Times if a woman would make a good president. The crowd laughed when the president responded, “A woman would have the good sense not to want to be President.”¹⁸ (Nice sidestep, Ike.)

The year was 1954. There were no women running for president. In 2008, one almost became president. Progress has been slow, but it has been made:

Back then, there were no women on the Supreme Court. As of this writing, there are 2.

There were only 12 female members in the House of Representatives and 3 female members in the Senate. Today, 76 Representatives and 17 Senators are women.

In 1954, there were no female state governors. Today, there are 6.

In 1969, women accounted for 19 percent of all medical school students in the United States. Today they represent 48 percent.

A lot of this progress can be traced to The Feminine Mystique, NOW, and the efforts of a host of feminists and visionary leaders who worked tirelessly to pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not that the women’s movement and NOW are, or ever were, perfect. Many religious leaders and conservatives vilify them because of their stances on contraception, abortion, and the “proper” role of women in society. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh often refers to feminists as “femin-nazis.”¹⁹ But whether you support their causes or not, Betty Freidan and her feminist allies deserve credit for making it possible for the 68 million women working today to have a chance at positions equal to that of their male counterparts.

If you are a young woman working today, and you want to connect with a successful Boomer woman, you might ask her to describe her climb up the corporate ladder. Her trials and tribulations can offer you insights into managing your own course, plus give you an appreciation of what she went through. If nothing else, she may appreciate the effort and be more likely to help you succeed.

Signpost: Watergate and Vietnam

In the early hours of June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, D.C. It was later discovered that they were part of a secret task force that was carrying out a political spying mission on behalf of the White House. In subsequent hearings, tape recordings of White House meetings proved that President Richard Nixon had authorized the break-in and then lied about it to the American public. After two wrenching years of accusations, denials, and hearings, and with the threat of impeachment and sure conviction hanging over his head, Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace from the presidency on August 9, 1974.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam War, which had dragged on for eight years, drew to a close. One of Richard Nixon’s last major acts as president was to end the long, bloody, and highly unpopular war that had killed more than 50,000 Americans and untold numbers of Vietnamese. It had also wreaked havoc on a small country half a world away, and torn this country apart as supporters and opponents rioted in the streets of America.

Baby Boomers React: Losing Confidence in Their Government

For many Baby Boomers, Watergate and the Vietnam War shattered their unquestioning faith in American institutions. For those against the war, the fact that we were spending lives and resources to prop up a corrupt regime in South Vietnam was absurd. For those in favor of the war, the fact that our military leaders weren’t allowed to win it outright but could only maintain the status quo seemed equally absurd. Watergate only confirmed the opinions that our leaders were corrupt and inept.

A 2002 study by the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) compared the results of a 1970s phone survey with the results of a 2002 Internet survey. The same questions were used in both surveys. The results confirm that Baby Boomers still carry remnants of their disillusionment with government. In the 1970s survey, only 3 percent of Boomers said they were very confident in what government leaders told them. Thirty years later, that number had doubled to 6 percent.²⁰ You could argue for significant improvement since the number doubled, but 6 percent seems pretty lame to us.

Of course, if you or a loved one was a participant, Vietnam had an even more significant impact on you. Despite doing their duty to serve their country, returning Vietnam vets were often treated not as heroes but as villains. Called “baby killers” and “warmongers,” they became targets of the pent-up anger the war had sparked in the civilian population. And their government did little to change that reality. For the veterans and their families, the Vietnam War was, and still is, a powerful signpost that influences their lives.

Watergate, the Vietnam War, and other events of the 1960s and 70s pushed many Baby Boomers to view promises made by the government and other authority figures with suspicion. On the other hand, Baby Boomer levels of trust in their fellow Boomers and others have remained high. In his book The Moral Foundations of Trust, Eric M. Uslaner points out, “Boomers had very sharp declines in trust in the early 70s, but by the late 80s had become the most trusting cohort.”²¹ Trust in each other, that is.

Signpost: Civil Rights Movement

It’s hard to pin down exactly when the modern civil rights movement began. Some people point to President Harry Truman’s executive order in 1948 stating, “There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services, without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”²² Others point to the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 that made racial segregation illegal. For others, it was the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 for refusing to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. In our experience, however, when most people think of the civil rights movement, they think of Dr. Martin Luther King and the “I Have a Dream” speech he delivered to 200,000 people on the Capitol Mall on August 28, 1963.

Marked by protests, both peaceful and violent, there’s no doubt that the civil rights movement advanced the rights of minorities in America and changed the way we do business. And the struggle continues. As recently as 2008, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the Civil Rights Act of 2008. Some of the proposed provisions included ensuring that federal funds are not used to subsidize discrimination, holding employers accountable for age discrimination, and improving accountability for other violations of civil rights and workers’ rights.²³

Baby Boomers React: Stamping Out Racism

Today, it’s not surprising to find that your doctor, lawyer, priest, accountant, local politician, or undertaker are neither white nor male. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other minorities populate professional, managerial, executive, and governmental positions far beyond the levels of the 1960s. A new, black middle class has emerged, and Latinos are the largest minority in the country and growing rapidly.

Racial discrimination is certainly still with us but it is refreshing to note that not only is it illegal, but responsible companies and organizations consider it an abomination. Cultural norms that say it’s okay to tell a racist joke or make a racially derogatory statement have gone the way of smoking on airplanes and drinking while you drive. It’s just not cool to do it.

In 2006, during a comedy routine at a Los Angeles nightclub, the highly talented comedian Michael Richards, of Seinfeld fame, was caught on tape angrily spewing racial epithets at a heckler. The tape instantly appeared on YouTube.com and Richards’s career came to a crashing halt, with good reason. Such blatant racial bigotry simply isn’t tolerated anymore. We have to ask ourselves if his tirade would have crushed his career before the civil rights movement. We think not. When it comes to racism, discrimination, and bigotry, things are not perfect, but they have gotten much, much better. We have a host of visionary Traditionals and their activist Boomer children to thank for the improvements.

Signpost: The Decadent 1980s

The stagflation of the 1970s continued until 1982, when interest rates finally declined and the economy rebounded. By 1984, the United States was enjoying significant economic growth.

Boomers React

Baby Boomers who had railed against the establishment in the 1960s and 70s began to change their attitudes. It became socially acceptable to vote Republican and pursue financial prosperity. Symbolic of this change was the transformation of 60s radical Jerry Rubin, one of the Chicago Seven who stood trial for inciting the riots that disrupted the 1968 Democratic Convention. He became an investment banker in the 1980s. He organized networking seminars for Wall Street professionals and conducted a series of debate tours with fellow ’60s radical Abbie Hoffman titled “Yippie vs. Yuppie,” during which he argued for exchanging the values of radicalism for the benefits of capitalism.²⁴

The 1980s saw the morphing of Baby Boomers into what humorist Alice Kahn called “yuppies,” a modified acronym of “young urban professional.”²⁵ They have been defined as people between the ages of 25 and 39 with incomes of at least $40,000 (a healthy income in 1984) and with a professional or management job. Yuppies were estimated in 1984 to be 20 million strong. On December 31, Newsweek declared 1984 “The Year of the Yuppie.”

Not surprisingly, the 1980s became known as the “decade of consumption.” QVC was pumped into our homes. Automobiles sported bumper stickers that read “I Owe, I Owe, So Off to Work I Go,” “Shop Till You Drop,” and “He Who Dies with the Most Toys Wins.” (We recently saw a variation of the “toys” bumper sticker that read, “He Who Dies with the Most Toys … Still Dies.”)

The Bottom Line

According to a survey conducted by leading-edge gerontologist Ken Dychtwald for Merrill Lynch, 76 percent of Baby Boomers intend to keep working and earning in retirement.²⁶ That’s good news for employers who dread the brain drain and experience void their eventual leaving will create. It’s not such good news if you are a Gen Xer or fast-tracking Gen Yer looking to move up in your organization.

Either way, Baby Boomers can be an enormous resource for you and your company. Living through the tranquil ’50s, turbulent ’60s, disillusioning ’70s, decadent ’80s, booming ’90s, and financially seesawing 2000s has given them wisdom and insight that will be sorely missed when they finally leave. If you work with Boomers, take this opportunity to learn from them. Ask them to teach you their strengths: dealing with change, navigating politics, and working in teams.

If you live with Boomers, know that they plan to be around a long time. In 1900, the average life expectancy for both sexes of all races was 47.3 years. As of 2005, it was 77.8 and climbing. That may be the statistical reality, but the RIC (Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) released a study in 2004 showing Baby Boomers expect to live much longer. RIC polled 1,000 respondents nationwide between the ages of 43 and 57. Fifty percent expect to live beyond age 80 without serious limitations on their activities and more than 75 percent have turned to medical science to enhance the quality of their lives with physical rehabilitation, prescription medication, surgery, chiropractic, and acupuncture as treatment options.²⁷

It will take a long time to work this elephant through the python.