1989/10/01 by Verta Taylor · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #American Political and Social Dynamics #Art #Communism, Protests, Social Movements #Gender studies #Law #Movement (music) #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Race, History, and American Society #Social movement #Sociology
paper · doi:10.2307/2117752
openalex publication_date 1989/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
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.