"Making Her Own Way": The Individualization of First-Wave Feminism, 1910-1930

Abstract

Scholars of the women's movement often postulate that it dissipated after winning suffrage in 1920, but empirical studies about the movement's post-victory transformation remain scarce. We use the first wave of the women's movement to explore the conditions under which movement frames change during periods of decline. Drawing on political opportunity theory, we hypothesize that waning political and cultural opportunities for collective action should lead to a rise in individualist frames. To that end, we examine how a prominent movement organization's use of collectivist versus individualist frames changed over time. We conducted a systematic analysis of 1,735 articles from the feminist publication The Woman's Journal, spanning the pre- and post-suffrage period (1910-1930). Our analyses generally support the political opportunity framework, suggesting that trends towards individualization emerge during periods of diminishing political and cultural opportunities, which in turn challenge movements' ability to galvanize constituents for collective goals.

Presidential firepower: The effect of the presidential party on gun ownership, 1980–2018

“…1999; Tarrow 2021). As social movement scholars have noted, political elites’ political affiliations impact policy adoption and (counter)mobilization patterns (Faupel and Werum 2011; Maxwell and Parent 2012; Meyer and Minkoff 2004; Skocpol and Williamson 2016). When political elites align with a certain movement's goals and ideological framework(s)—referred to as political opportunity theory/structure—aligning movements/organizations are often more effective (Amenta, Carruthers, and Zylan 1992; McAdam 1985).…”

Advances in social movement theory since the global financial crisis

“…Some recent research has led to theoretical contributions in the case of framing. For example, Faupel and Werum’s investigation of the women’s movement in abeyance from the period 1910–1930 highlights the role of declining cultural and political opportunities to the increased use of individualist action frames (frames that focused on promoting individual rather than collective struggle, denied structural barriers to equality, attributed achievements to personal qualities rather than collective efforts, and focused on specific individuals) (Faupel and Werum, 2011: 186). In addition, rather than fine-tuning framing theory, some new contributions have sought to expand it.…”