Back then they were quite overtly discriminatory about marriage status, gender, having children or not, disabilities, age, divorce. Indeed, apartment buildings often refused to rent to families with children.
In the 70's, people speaking against race discrimination were viewed as center left but people decrying discrimination on these other grounds were considered far left. Even on otherwise "progressive" period TV shows, these positions would be satirized (eg the characters played by Beatrice Arthur and Rob Reiner were satires much of the time. The Mary Tyler Moore character was originally written as a divorcee)
And though legislation had recently curtailed ethnicity and religion from being _publicly_ discriminated, it was still seen as ok to discriminate for public facing positions: Connie Chung's position as news reader was considered definite proof of media liberal bias. Indeed, advocating equality for public facing positions or for persons with disabilities was viewed as completely unrealistic.
In the 70's, people speaking against race discrimination were viewed as center left but people decrying discrimination on these other grounds were considered far left. Even on otherwise "progressive" period TV shows, these positions would be satirized (eg the characters played by Beatrice Arthur and Rob Reiner were satires much of the time. The Mary Tyler Moore character was originally written as a divorcee)
And though legislation had recently curtailed ethnicity and religion from being _publicly_ discriminated, it was still seen as ok to discriminate for public facing positions: Connie Chung's position as news reader was considered definite proof of media liberal bias. Indeed, advocating equality for public facing positions or for persons with disabilities was viewed as completely unrealistic.