Social Processes Underlying Movement Influence: Young Adult Feminist Activists’ Interactions with Professionalized Feminist Organizations in Ecuador and Peru

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite extensive research on the influence between social movements, knowledge remains limited to the basic social processes by which this occurs. This article locates these social processes in the accounts among young adult feminist activists in Ecuador and Peru. Qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed among 21 young adult feminist activists from eight groups. The findings show how their feminist mobilizing was influenced by interactions with professionalized feminist organizations that were simultaneously inclusive and exclusionary. Three in/exclusionary interactions captured basic social processes whereby young adult feminist activists struggled to define modes of participation, organizational practices, and targets of engagement.