<P> The Gen X childhood coincided with the sexual revolution, 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 . 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 9 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 . </P> <P> The time period of the Gen X childhood saw an increase in latchkey children, leading to the terminology of the "latchkey generation" for Generation X . These latchkey 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 were particularly common among middle and upper class children . 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 . McCrindle Research Center 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 . </P> <P> The United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council described Generation X as "Thatcher's children" because the cohort grew up while Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, "a time of social flux and transformation". In South Africa, Gen Xers spent their formative years of the 1980s during the "hyper - politicized environment of the final years of apartheid". In the US, Generation X was the first cohort to grow up post-integration . They were described in a marketing report by Specialty Retail as the kids who "lived the civil rights movement ." They were among the first children to be bused to attain integration in the public school system . In the 1990s, demographer William Strauss reported Gen Xers were "by any measure the least racist of today's generations". In the US, Title IX, which passed in 1972, provided increased athletic opportunities to Gen X girls in the public school setting . In Russia, Generation Xers are referred to as "the last Soviet children", as the last children to come of age prior to the downfall of communism in their nation and prior to the fall of the Soviet Union . </P> <P> Politically, in the United States, the Gen X childhood coincided with a time when government funding tended to be diverted away from programs for children and often instead directed toward the elderly population, with cuts to Medicaid and programs for children and young families, and protection and expansion of Medicare and Social Security for the elderly population . One in five American children grew up in poverty during this time . These programs for the elderly were not tied to economic need . Congressman David Durenberger criticized this political situation, stating that while programs for poor children and for young families were cut, the government provided "free health care to elderly millionaires". </P>

Where did the name gen x come from