Social Movements and Gender

Abstract

Social movements can be defined as collectivities acting outside institutionalized channels to promote or resist change in an institution, society, or the world order. Mainstream theory and research in the field of social movements and political sociology has, by and large, ignored the influence of gender on social protest. A growing body of research by feminist social scientists over the 1990s demonstrates that gender can be an important explanatory factor for understanding the emergence, nature, and outcomes of social movements, even those that do not evoke the language of gender conflict or explicitly embrace gender change. This article draws from recent feminist scholarship to delineate the relationship between gender and social movements. It begins by summarizing the two theoretical traditions—multilevel theories of gender and contemporary theoretical formulations of social movements that synthesize collective behavior, resource mobilization, and new social movements approaches. Using research on feminist, antifeminist, labor, civil rights, gay and lesbian, nationalist, rightwing and fascist movements, the article then illuminates the significance of gender processes for understanding the social and political context, mobilizing structures and strategies, and collective action frames and collective identities of social movements. Linking theories of gender to mainstream theories of social movements allows us to recognize gender as a key explanatory factor in social movements and, in turn, to identify the role social movements play in the social construction and reconstruction of gender.