Social Movement Continuity: The Women's Movement in Abeyance

This article uses social movement and organization theory to develop a set of concepts that help explain social movement continuity. The theory is grounded in new data on women's rights activism from 1945 to the 1960s that challenge the traditional view that the American women's movement d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American sociological review 1989-10, Vol.54 (5), p.761-775
Main Author: Taylor, Verta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Equal rights
Equal rights amendments
Feminism
Gender equality
Organization theory
Political parties
Social activism
Social conditions & trends
Social movements
United States of America
Voting rights
Women
Womens Rights
Womens rights movements
Womens suffrage movements
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article uses social movement and organization theory to develop a set of concepts that help explain social movement continuity. The theory is grounded in new data on women's rights activism from 1945 to the 1960s that challenge the traditional view that the American women's movement died after the suffrage victory in 1920 and was reborn in the 1960s. This case delineates a process in social movements that allows challenging groups to continue in nonreceptive political climates through social movement abeyance structures. Five characteristics of movement abeyance structures are identified and elaborated: temporality, purposive commitment, exclusiveness, centralization, and culture. Thus, social movement abeyance structures provide organizational and ideological bridges between different upsurges of activism by the same challenging group.
ISSN:0003-1224
1939-8271
DOI:10.2307/2117752