The Transformation of the U.S. Feminist Movement, 1910-2005 Open Access

Abstract

The transformation of the U.S. women's movement after its peaks in the 1920s and 1970s remains largely understudied by both historians and sociologists, who often postulate that the movement dissipated after these initial gains. This oversight is unfortunate, considering these periods are a rich source of information in understanding how and why movements evolve. I draw on the women's movement as a case study to explore the conditions under which movements shift from collectivist to individualist ideology, discontinue the identification of opponents, and replace political goals with cultural goals. Two theories offer competing explanations for these phenomena. The New Social Movement paradigm argues that movement individualization, depoliticization, and lack of opponents are unique to movements of the late twentieth century, which have responded to a historically unique environment that has seen the rise of postmodernism and poststructuralism, neoliberalism, globalization, and increasing bureaucratization and rationalization. Political process theory, by contrast, argues that such trends are the result of periodic changes within the political and cultural opportunity structures; that is, these characteristics are likely to surface in movements that confront a hostile political and cultural climate.

I conducted a combined qualitative and quantitative content analysis of 4,900 articles published in six feminist periodicals between 1910 and 2005, supplemented with public records, archival material, and secondary datasets. Analyses indicate that the women's movement did generally individualize and depoliticize during periods of decline, as the political and cultural environments turned increasingly hostile to organized feminism in the 1920s and again in the 1980s. Although the findings point to certain nuances in political process theory, overall they support the framework, suggesting that
such trends are not recent, but rather emerge during periods when movements witness diminishing political and cultural opportunities, challenging their ability to muster widespread collective mobilization, vie with the state, and confront opponents.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 : Introduction ...................................................................................................1

The Women's Movement as Case Study .........................................................................4
Outline of Chapters ..........................................................................................................6
Chapter 2 : Theoretical Considerations...........................................................................9
I. New Social Movement Theory...................................................................................10
Chapter 3 : Data and Methods .......................................................................................40
I. Dependent Variables...................................................................................................40
II. Independent Variables...............................................................................................48
III. Analysis....................................................................................................................61
Chapter 4 : First-Wave Feminism..................................................................................62
I. Historical Context.......................................................................................................64
II. Conflict and Consensus Tactics, 1910-1930 ...........................................................109
III. Political and Cultural Goals, 1910-1930................................................................121
IV. Collectivist and Individualist Framing, 1910-1930 ...............................................132
V. Discussion and Conclusion .....................................................................................147
Chapter 5 : Second-Wave Feminism............................................................................151
I. Historical Context.....................................................................................................153
II. Conflict and Consensus Tactics, 1970-1985 ...........................................................198
III. Political and Cultural Goals, 1970-1985................................................................209
IV. Collectivist and Individualist Framing, 1970-1985 ...............................................219
V. Discussion and Conclusions....................................................................................237
Chapter 6 : Third-Wave Feminism ..............................................................................240
I. Historical Context.....................................................................................................241
II. Conflict and Consensus Tactics, 1995-2005 ...........................................................275
III. Political and Cultural Goals, 1995-2005................................................................285
IV. Collectivist and Individualist Framing, 1995-2005 ...............................................294
V. Discussion and Conclusion .....................................................................................309
Chapter 7 : Conclusion..................................................................................................314
Main Findings ..............................................................................................................315
Broader Implications....................................................................................................319
Future Research ...........................................................................................................327
APPENDIX A : Coding Manual ...................................................................................330
APPENDIX B : Historically-Specific Models..............................................................344
APPENDIX C : Full Correlation Tables .....................................................................347
Works Cited....................................................................................................................373

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Sociology
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Sociology, General Women's Studies
Keyword	New Social Movement Theory suffrage Political Process Theory women's movement feminism
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Werum, Regina, Emory University
Committee Members	Franzosi, Roberto, Emory University Brinson, Susan, Auburn University Boli, John E, Emory University Dowd, Timothy J, Emory University

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