How has the US changed socially from the 1950's until current times?

The US has changed dramatically since the 1950s in social terms.  The greatest changes have been in race relations, gender relations, and attitudes towards traditional values.  All of these are much different than they were 60 years ago.

Sixty years ago, the United States was definitely dominated by white people much more than it is today.  The white population was larger.  Many African Americans lived in places where they did not have equal legal rights and, at least de facto, lacked the right to vote.  White supremacy over other races was simply assumed to be true by most people.  Most professional and college sports teams were all-white.  White people generally did not listen to black musicians.  Black actors only appeared in subservient roles in movies and television.  Hispanics were essentially invisible.  Today, all of this has changed.  Non-whites have not achieved full equality with whites, but they do have full legal equality.  The US, of course, has a president who is half-black.  Black athletes dominate sports and there are many black entertainers of various sorts.  American society is much more diverse than it was in the 1950s.

Sixty years ago, America was a man’s world.  Women were expected to be subservient to men in almost all ways.  While many women had to work, people felt that the right place for a woman was in the home.  Women were less educated and few women worked in high-status jobs.  Because women had few career opportunities, they generally depended on men economically.  Again, things are much different now.  There is a good chance that a woman will be our next president.  Most people do not think it is acceptable to treat women as “the weaker sex” which would have been commonplace in the 1950s.  Women are generally better educated than men.  Many women are economically equal to their husbands and are therefore not economically dependent.  While there is by no means true equality between the sexes, men and women are much more equal today than in the 1950s.

Finally, the America of the 1950s was very traditional.  This was a time when America was rather straight-laced.  Women wore very conservative clothing and men dressed up to go out to eat or to a movie or sports event.  There was no nudity in movies and suggestive lyrics were absent from songs.  Americans generally accepted authority figures.  Parents did not generally argue with teachers and students certainly did not.  Today, all of this is very different.  The US is a very sexualized society.  Women typically wear much more revealing clothing than ever would have been acceptable in the ‘50s.  Men and women both will wear short pants and t-shirts in almost any situation when the weather allows.  There is nudity everywhere in movies and even on cable TV.  Songs openly refer to sex.  Americans are much less likely to accept the authority of teachers, clergy, police, and other traditional sources of authority.

In all of these ways, the United States is very different today than it was in the 1950s.