A theoretical framework for comparisons of social movement participation

This article attempts to draft a framework for the comparison of movement participation. The standards of comparison I developed at the movement level were the magnitude of mobilization potentials, the composition of multiorganizational fields, organizational characteristics, and action orientation. Utilizing this framework, I compared mobilization campaigns for three different types of activities conducted by three different movements: a campaign conducted by a labor union for, possibly, a strike, a campaign of the Dutch peace movement in a local community for a national demonstration, and campaigns by women's groups in a community for a variety of activities. I explain differences in motivational dynamics and levels of participation in terms of differing movement characteristics. Finally, I discuss the advantages of comparative work on social movements.     

Competition, Race, and the Measurement of Female Labor Activity

Not all groups compete equally in the labor market. Here, we focus on women's competition with men for jobs. This competition assumes that women's employment is affected by men's, and vice versa. We use two statistics—female labor force participation and share—to uncover this competition. 1990 U.S. census data on 281 metropolitan statistical areas were analyzed using weighted least squares regression. Supply-side explanations of female labor activity (education, children, household headship, and government assistance) receive more support than demand-side explanations (poverty, industrial mix, and region). Evidence of competition along gender and race lines is found. Men's employment is buttressed in metropolitan areas by higher wages, less poverty, and more women with children. Welfare benefits (AFDC) and deindustrialization lower black women's employment, while only white women benefit from advanced education and a "feminized" occupational structure. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.     

‘A more colorful picture of my own vision’: expansive learning in Puerto Rico’s student anti-austerity movement

ABSTRACT

Social movement scholars have long been aware of leadership competition or ‘factionalism’ as one of the mechanisms within the longer process of polarization. As such, competition is often discussed as a harbinger of demobilization, and rarely in the context of movement emergence or growth. In turn, education scholars have examined social movement learning primarily as a cognitive process of identity formation, with rare and oblique references to the literature on movement dynamics. The first phase of the 2010–2011 student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is a useful counterintuitive case for re-examining these conventional wisdoms, as existing studies and first-hand accounts suggest a pattern of intimate connections between factional competition and movement learning. In this article, I propose Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an alternative framework for analyzing that sequence. By recasting competition and other movement dynamics as aspects of the internal contradictions of nested activity systems, themselves crucial to the emergent process of expansive learning, CHAT may help bridge the gap between fields and approaches.     

WOMEN'S WORK:

We use in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis to examine women's involvement in the Gulf War Illness movement. We find that women's cumulative grievances of health concerns, financial hardships, and emotional problems opened them to movement recruitment as they surfed the Internet for information and support. The movement's division of labor was influenced not by gender but by health status. Women used the Internet to provide medical information and emotional support to geographically dispersed veterans. Activism transformed women activists by endowing them with a sense of empowerment and a somewhat broadened concern for social justice. Although their transformations disposed the women to become active on related issues, it did not extend to concerns about gender discrimination. We suggest that the next research step is to investigate gender differences in movement processes by surveying activists across a variety of movements to test propositions and to identify the characteristics of other social contexts that structurally instigate a departure from traditional gender roles.     

Women,conflict, and culture in former Yugoslavia

The civil war in the former Yugoslavia has taken a toll on the women's movement which has disintegrated across male-defined nationalist borders. The women's movement in this area got its start during the Second World War but was disbanded under communism until women's groups began to form in the 1970s. Today the women's movement has lost the power to oppose the war and has been unable to prevent widespread violence perpetuated against women. Some feminists who have refused to embrace nationalism and patriotism have been vilified and have had to seek refuge abroad. Recently, however, hundreds of nongovernmental organizations have been formed to provide support to women and children victimized by the war. Women have been raped and impregnated as a strategy of male warfare, and raped women who refused an abortion were ostracized. War-related rape has yet to be fully recognized as an international human rights violation, and the issue is being used as political propaganda in the former Yugoslavia while it is ignored elsewhere. Sensationalist reporting of these rapes has further victimized women and made them unable to give voice to their trauma. War also increases women's suffering by destroying economic and social welfare systems. Oxfam is helping women record their testimonies of war and reconstruct the fabric of their societies through programs which provide income-generation and training in micro-enterprises. In addition, Oxfam is strengthening electronic communication and networking among women's groups throughout the region.     

Racism in Motherhood Criticism in USA,1963-1975

In the United States, women's movement always goes side by side with the Black people's movement. Many feminists once participated in the Black people's movement such as the Abolitionist Movement in the nineteenth century and the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century.     

Determinants of women's perceptions of risk in battering relationships

Two studies have recently identified battered women's perceptions as a substantial predictor of reassault by their batterers. Only a few exploratory studies examine how women make these useful perceptions. We attempted to identify determinants of battered women's perceptions of reassault and safety using the 15-month follow-up of a multisite evaluation of batterer intervention. The regression analyses indicate that the perceived likelihood of reassault increased with men who were divorced or separated, heavy drinkers, and severely abusive in the past. The strongest determinant for perceptions of safety was the perceived likelihood of reassault. Also, the women's professed reasons for their perceptions corresponded to the actual determinants. The women's perceptions appear, therefore, to be grounded in practical circumstances and correspond to establish predictors of reassault. Further research is needed to identify the additional cues, processes, or intuitions that make women's perceptions such a strong predictor of reassault.     

Trends in gender stratification, 1970–1985

This paper addresses causes and consequences of sociological interest in gender stratification after 1970. The most recent women's movement spurred empirical research on the topic but development of a general theory was slowed by accidents of disciplinary history. A theory of preindustrial gender stratification that leans on anthropology is therefore used to interpret trends that occur during industrialization. This analysis helps to explain why trends in mortality, education, fertility, women's labor force participation, and men's household participation should continue to improve women's status relative to the status of men.     

Women and changes in the Chilean economy: some questions

The author argues that a new development model that encourages greater participation of women in the work force in domestic piecework, temporary work, and subcontracting may further lead to the exploitation of women in Chile. The importance of women in economic development in Chile should be based on building skills, providing support child care services, reorienting women's education, and tax incentives. Chile over the past decade has achieved relatively stable economic growth and increased employment of women. During 1990-93 the growth of women in the work force increased at a rate of 16.8%, while men's presence increased by only 9.8%. The Chilean economy is based on a sophisticated modern sector and a labor-intensive informal sector. The Chilean model of development relies on cheap, flexible labor and a government approval of this model. Increased participation of women in the labor force is usually perceived as increased economic empowerment. A 1994 Oxfam study found that women were being forced into the labor market due to declines in family income and low wages. 46% of men and women received wages that did not cover basic necessities. The Chilean labor market is gender-stratified. Men are paid better than women for the same work. Men are in more permanent positions. Labor laws are either inadequate or violated, particularly for hours of work and overtime pay and conditions of employment and benefits. Traditional female jobs are those that rely on women's natural attributes. These unskilled attributes are rewarded with low wages. Little opportunity is provided for upgrading skills or acquiring new skills. Some women turn down advancement because of a lack of role models. Women have little opportunity to develop their self-image as workers. Poor self-images affect women's work attitudes and motivation. Some firms use competition between women to boost production. Chilean women remain in subordinate roles.     

Feminist Methodology in Social Movements Research

Feminist social scientists have developed distinctive principles of inquiry that depart from the positivist ideal of the detached, value-free scientist and are consistent with the feminist goal of rendering women's experiences visible and challenging gender inequality. In this article, I show how my research on the postpartum depression self-help movement illustrates five features of feminist methodology: a gender perspective, accentuation of women's experiences, reflexivity, participatory methods, and social action. My intent is to demonstrate how attention to the epistemological and methodological questions posed by feminist researchers produces new standards of evidence that allow us to recognize the gendering of social movement processes and theory.     

“That's not Grassfed!” Identity Formation,Maintenance, and Co‐Optation in Oklahoma's Grassfed Livestock Movement

Using interview data from thirty‐one grassfed ranchers across Oklahoma, we adapt a culturally focused social movement framework to explore a regional grassfed livestock movement. Drawing on social movement and agrifood literature, we examine how grassfed actors forge a cohesive grassfed collective identity and how collective identity processes inspire engagement in forms of individualized, cultural protest. We address how collective identity politicizes movement actors, moving them to prioritize cultural issues of the grassfed movement and development of a grassfed activist identity, sometimes above other tangible, economic rewards. We also consider how grassfed ranchers are restricting the boundaries of movement membership in response to increased interest in alternative agricultural practices by new producers and by agrifood elites, and how they use market‐oriented tactics to enforce those boundaries. In doing so we draw parallels to conventionalization processes in the organic sector. By emphasizing the identity work of grassfed producer‐activists, we provide new perspectives on an emerging agricultural movement gaining traction in the US and abroad.     

IT'S A MAN'S JOB, OR SO THEY SAY: The Maintenance of Sex Segregation in a Manufacturing Plant

Following Reskin's call for case studies that investigate how inequality is maintained, this article investigates the mechanisms that limit women's mobility into traditionally male job titles in a manufacturing plant and the barriers to women's resistance of these mechanisms. The article demonstrates the ways in which formal structures, such as departmental design and promotion procedures, combine with informal social interactions in maintaining sex segregation in the plant's job titles and departments. Blocked opportunity promotes competition for social rewards and animosity between mobile and immobile women, which divide women. Coupled with allegiances across gender lines, these divisions undermine the potential for solidarity among female workers, making resistance to gender-based barriers unlikely.     

Medical and Social Dynamics of College Women's Interactions with Their Gynecologists

Using data collected from twenty in-depth interviews with female college students from SUNY Geneseo, a small selective public college in western New York, this paper examines the nature of college women's clinical interactions with their gynecologists. The author focuses on the female patient's role as a passive participant. The general finding was that, although some women do take an active role in the clinical interaction, most readily accept the doctor's authority and their own vulnerability without question. A majority of the interviewees reported that they did not have any questions for their gynecologist and stressed their own focus on "just getting it [the exam] over with," while those who did report asking questions characterized themselves as exceptionally strong women. The author offers possible explanations for the women's disinterest and discusses the implications for the women's health movement.     

Movement Building and the United States Social Forum

Despite the growing academic literature on the World Social Forum process, few scholars have attempted to systematically analyze the social, cultural, and political impact of the forums. This has to do in part with the inherent difficulties of assessing movement consequences, which is particularly complicated for an activity geared toward creating ‘open spaces.’ This article presents an analytic framework for evaluating the impact of the social forums through an analysis of the 2010 United States Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit from the perspective of a local Boston-based delegation called the Boston Freedom Rides. We then use that framework to consider the impact of the 2010 USSF, bridging the academic literature on movement outcomes with activist perspectives. We make two related claims. First, the social forums, and the USSF in particular, should be viewed and their impact assessed in light of their generativity as ‘movement-building machines’: infrastructures designed for the production of social capital, networks, solidarities, meanings, frames, identities, knowledges, strategies, skills, and repertoires. Second, with respect to the Freedom Rides, the 2010 USSF contributed to movement building on multiple levels, but more so within rather than across movement sectors. Our goal is less to make a definitive argument about the impact of the 2010 USSF than to provide a helpful way of thinking about movement building as a social movement outcome, which can be applied and refined through further comparative and longitudinal research. We thus favor breadth over depth in outlining a broad framework for future inquiry.     

Domestic Violence Politics in Post-Soviet States

This article, drawing upon three approaches from comparativepolitical science, compares domestic violence politics in Russiawith Ukraine, Moldova, and Armenia. It suggests that foreignassistance, not without unintended consequences, holds the bestpromise for initiating reform. It also shows that there is nothingparticular about Russian culture that limits reform, especially,as activists can manipulate gender neo-traditionalism. Finally,the study suggests that institutionalized political channelsfor considering women's issues can facilitate feminist policy-makingwhen pushed by an autonomous women's movement. In conclusion,the article suggests that studying gender politics in non-Westerncontexts requires integrating comparative with internationaltheories.     

WOMEN'S SOCIAL MOVEMENT INVOLVEMENT:

Data derived from three years of field work illuminate women's participation in a working class, community-based environmental protest organization. Findings show that (1) initial recruitment occur through women's social networks, activating the structurally available; (2) structural availability continues to figure significantly in the ongoing mobilization process in determining who performs which tasks; and (3) the practical necessity that drives women to change their gender role behavior in the social movement organization subsequently prompts similar changes in their domestic lives.     

Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s

Using 267 repeated policy questions (962 time points), we examinegender differences in policy choices and how they have changedfrom the 1960s to the 1980s. The average gender difference inpreferences toward policies involving the use of force haveconsistently been moderately large. Sex differences in opiniontoward other policies—regulation and public protection,"compassion" issues, traditional values—have been approximatelyhalf as large but they also warrant more attention than in thepast. Our analysis suggests that the salience of issues hasincreased greatly for women, and as a result differences inpreferences have increased in ways consistent with the interestsof women and the intentions of the women's movement.     

Gender relations,demographic change and the prospects for sustainable development in Africa

The author explores the interrelationships between gender relations, demographic change, and Africa's prospects for sustainable development in the larger context of the ecological, economic, and sociopolitical forces which shape living conditions in the region. To make the analysis manageable, the author adopts the concept of sustainable development as the organizing and selecting principle in the exploration of issues central to the development of his argument. Rapid and uneven population growth is just one of many factors implicated in Africa's econo-environmental crisis. However, its strong synergism with gender relations and the limited scope for overcoming the externally derived problems suggests that a transition to lower fertility and higher women's status may be Africa's most realistic road to sustainable development. Discussion is presented under the following headings: concept of sustainable development as an analytical framework, salient aspects of Africa's demography, environmental degradation in Africa, economic stagnation and decline, gender considerations common to the key aspects of Africa's development crisis, and movement toward an enhanced prospect for sustainable development in Africa.     

Women,marriage and family--traditionalism vs. modernity in Albania

"The aim of the article is to illustrate how the transition from traditionalism to modernity in Albanian society is reflected in the fields of decision-making in choosing the marriage partner, arena of choosing the marriage partner, and factors of importance for harmony in the marital relationship. We also outline the changes in women's participation in productive work, in social and policy life, and in education. The empirical material stems from a survey conducted in Albania [in] 1984. The number of respondents was 1,303. We conclude that there is a strong modernistic tendency both with regard to choosing marriage partner and factors important for harmony. The main feature of the development in Albania is the rapidity and explicitness of changes in attitudes towards marriage and family and in women's position."