Nancy Whittier

Social Movement Spillover

Social movements are not distinct and self-contained; rather, they grow from and give birth to other movements, work in coalition with other movements, and influence each other indirectly through their effects on the larger cultural and political environment. Building on both political process and collective identity perspectives, this paper uses a case study of the womens movements impact on U.S. peace movement activity in the 1980s to develop a theory of movement-movement influence. We argue that this influence is shown by: 1) the adoption of feminist ideological frames by the peace movement; 2) the spread of the womens movements tactical innovations into peace protest; 3) increased presence of women in leadership positions in both the institutionally-oriented and direct action wings of the movement; and 4) the adoption of organizational structures that built on feminist processes designed to avoid hierarchy. Drawing data from both movements at local and national levels, we suggest four mechanisms of transmission between the movements: 1) organizational coalitions; 2) overlapping social movement communities; 3) shared personnel; and 4) broader changes in the external environment. Social movement spillover effects have implications for our understanding of both the continuity and impact of social protest movements.

Where Are the Children? Theorizing the Missing Piece in Gendered Sexual Violence

Feminists have been central to virtually every era of activism around child sexual abuse, from moral reformers in the 1800s and early 1900s, to the 1980s survivors’ movement (Breines and Gordon 1983; Freedman 2013; Sacco 2009; Whittier 2009). Most recently, feminist analysis of child sexual abuse grew in the 1970s alongside that of rape, as participants in consciousness-raising groups discovered that many of them had been sexually assaulted as children, often by relatives. Feminist anti-rape activists included the rape of girls in their theory, activism, self-defense training, and crisis services. Rape, regardless of age, was understood as an act of power, violence, and male domination; girls were doubly vulnerable because of their relatively powerless position as minors, especially within families. Sexual abuse of boys was also attributed to patriarchal domination, which could be directed at other powerless groups besides women. Developed at the grassroots and through widely read books like Florence Rush’s the Best-Kept Secret (1980) and Sandra Butler’s conspiracy of Silence (1985), this view of child sexual abuse spread widely. But it did not persist. As the issue gained mainstream media attention and people from diverse political perspectives identified as survivors and joined self-help and activist groups, feminist analyses moved from the center to the periphery. Relatively quickly, the idea of incest and child sexual abuse as essentially different from the rape of adult women gained dominance. I traced

Carceral and Intersectional Feminism in Congress: The Violence Against Women Act, Discourse, and Policy

This paper uses a materialist feminist discourse analysis to examine how women’s movement organizations, liberal Democrats, and conservative Republican legislators shaped the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the consequences for intersectional and carceral feminism. Drawing on qualitative analysis of Congressional hearings, published feminist and conservative discussion of VAWA, and accounts of feminist mobilization around VAWA, I first show how a multi-issue coalition led by feminists shaped VAWA. Second, I show how discourses of crime intermixed with feminism into a polysemic gendered crime frame that facilitated cross-ideological support. Third, I show how, in contrast, intersectional issues that activists understood as central to violence against women were discursively and structurally separated from gendered crime in Congress. Although a multi-issue movement coalition advocated for expansions in VAWA dealing with immigrants, unmarried partners, same-sex partners, transgender people, and Native Americans, these issues were understood in Congress through more controversial single-issue discourses and often considered in administratively separate Congressional committees. Fourth, I show how VAWA’s outcomes played out in terms of carceral and intersectional feminist goals.

Aggregate-level biographical outcomes for gay and lesbian movements

As social change occurs, individuals’ lives are altered. Whether produced by social movements or other forces, social change can affect the demography, life-course, and life chances of participants or of populations as a whole (Goldstone and McAdam 2001). Most empirical and conceptual work on how social movements affect biography focuses on effects on movement participants, who experience a range of lasting effects, as the introduction to this section describes. Movements can also shape biographical outcomes for the larger population, or for certain cohorts or demographics, what Guigni and McAdam (Goldstone and McAdam 2001; Guigni 2004; McAdam 1999) term “aggregate biographical outcomes.” There has been little research on aggregate-level biographical outcomes. Existing work suggests that they vary according to cohort location, spreading from activists to the general population over time, as activists develop “alternative conceptions of the life-course and related behavioral norms,” which then spread to subcultural locations such as college campuses, and finally diffuse to youth in general (Goldstone and McAdam 2001). Such life-course outcomes are generational; cohorts that have already begun trajectories of education, occupation,marriage, or childbearing are less likely to be affected by newnorms. Factors such as gender and class also likely shape aggregate biographical outcomes; that is, social movements affect the life-course of different segments of the population in different ways (Hagan and HansfordBowles 2005; Van Dyke et al. 2000). As Guigni (2004) points out, such aggregate biographical outcomes are often unintentional.

Rethinking Sexual Violence

Sociologist Nacy Whittier reviews the books Sex Panic and the Punitive State, At the Dark End of the Street, and Unspeakable. Each differently addresses sexual violence in relation to race, class, and criminalization.