I'd disagree with some of the above theories. I believe it was more a result of economics.
Although television did attempt to "fix something that wasn't broken' See
Rural Purge as an example, the over all real-life attitudes were not much different. For instance, younger generations of today would believe that all teenagers of the late 1960's had long hair (this is how it's portrayed on TV these days) but in reality, long hair didn't become mainstream common until about 1972. If you find any random old high school annual from 1970, you'll see my point.
It's sort of like illegal aliens of today (they are cheaper labor) . Decades ago, women were also paid less for the same job. From a business standpoint, shrewd business owners saw a way to increase their profit margin. Some women earned their way into promotions while others slept their way to the top. These women suddenly became 'role models' and also made practices of hiring other women. But this didn't happen over night.
Even during the 1980's (my late teens and early 20's) we men could still enjoy the male/female dynamics from the 1950's. Perhaps this was due to the parental influence being stronger than Norman Leer TV programming.
Back to the subject: A lot of people complain about Mexicans flooding the US (I have no opinion about it) . But the result is the same as women in the work force. It's encouraged and becomes saturated and the normal' because it's cheap(er) labor.
When people gain some sense of power, a lot of them go crazy. To give an example; lot of the BLM movement is behaving no differently (attitude wise) than the KKK of years past.