SOCIAL MOVEMENT E0 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: ‘
A CASE STUDY or A WOMEN'S CENTER

Dissertation for the Degree of Ph. D."
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
ELIZABETH WILLIAMS NALL
1976

 

Date

0-7 639

 

This is to certify that the
thesis entitled
SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION:
THE CASE STUDY OF A WOMEN'S CENTER

presented by

Elizabeth Williams Nall

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D. Sociology

degree in

 

 

{KW W

Major professor

November 12 , 1976

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.______v————‘~————--—“"'

ABSTRACT

SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION:
A CASE STUDY OF A WOMEN'S CENTER

By

Elizabeth Williams Nall

This has been a study of the changes in ideology and structure
which occurred as a social movement organization attempted to find
legitimacy in its community. John Wilson (l973) has pointed out a
paradox basic to the lives of social movement organizations: organ-
izing collective effort to change the world demands acceptance of
flwt world as a constraint upon one's own behavior. This paradox
has provided the focus for the study of a particular social movement
organization--the Women's Center in Carbondale, Illinois.

One analysis which has emerged from this study is that in order
for a social movement organization to maintain itself as an organiza-
tion for change, in other words to surmount the paradox of adaptation,
the organization must have a strong belief system setting forth the
goals of the organization along with a firm strategy for obtaining
those goals. This the Women's Center failed to do.

One factor complicating the issue of a belief system was that
the women who comprised the original task force to set up the Center
represented two social movements, the women's movement and the crisis
intervention movement. The strategies of these two movements are
quite different: the women's movement emphasizes the need for social

change as well as personal change, whereas the crisis intervention

Elizabeth Williams Nall

nnvement is concerned with internal changes in the person. These un-
deflyingissues surfaced in a conflict over whether or not the Center
lwas to commit itself to political action, but this issue has not been

resolved.

M——u-—flv

In order to obtain resources, the Women's Center was set up as

f a crisis intervention shelter house so that women in trouble came to
) stay with us. The pressures of coping with emotionally disturbed

. women produced increased structural changes, spatial separation and
anincrease in professionalization of the volunteers.

Another factor contributing to the adaptation of the Center to
the existing society was the lack of organizational and political ex-
perience on the part of the members, as well as the lack of a politi-
calanalysis. This again relates to the development of a systematized
beHef system. The Women's Center grew out of a relatively undeveloped
social movement and recruited members who had no organizational exper-
ience. The shared beliefs holding the members together had to do with
Um dissatisfactions with the present system. They had very few formal
beliefs which related their personal dissatisfaction to the larger
structure of society.

As patterns of recruitment into the organization crystallized,
Um Center began to function in a manner helping to maintain the class
structure. Middle class educated women were recruited to staff the
Center, and working class women were recruited as clients. The more
structure and professionalism developed the more middle class skills
were necessary for a person to function as a staff member.

To an outside observer the ideology of the Center would resemble

Hm reports of the six blind men concerning the elephant. To the

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Elizabeth Williams Nall

cmmmnity at large we presented the image of women helping women in A
We service tradition of women's organizations; among ourselves we
unintained the myth of revolutionary activity, that in some magical
way we were undermining society. This revolutionary aspect was wa—
tered down for potential recruits to staff the Center whereas to
social welfare agencies we presented an image of professional exper-
tise.

Another conclusion reached by this study is that groups develop
a cmmwn ”definition of the situation" whether or not they are organ-
ized around a common belief system, and that over time they develop
a formalized set of legitimations and symbolic universe. Social
scientists studying social movements, however, should be aware that
theideology presented to outside observers may not be the private be—
lief systems of the members.

A further conclusion reached by this study is that the need to
obtain resources causes certain internal pressures which bring about
structure. The strategies developed by the movement for obtaining
resources have consequences for the internal structure of the organi-
zation. In retrospect this seems obvious, yet none of the members
were aware of the consequences at the beginning.

The final conclusion reached by the study poses yet another par-
adox for a social movement organization. In order to change the world
Miorganization must have a strong belief system setting forth the
goals of the organization and at the same time the emphasis on a

belief system produces sectarian splits. Thus it would seem that a
social movement organization capable of producing social change is

aninherently unstable organization, like a volatile chemical. The

 

 

 

—_‘____‘____

Elizabeth Williams Nall

conclusion to this would be that one could anticipate that an organ-

ization which brings about change will most often collapse or become

inert as far as change is concerned.

 

 

 

G/égz3fio

SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION:
A CASE STUDY OF A WOMEN'S CENTER

By

Elizabeth Williams Nall

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology

l976

 

 

 

© Copyright by
Elizabeth Williams Nall
l976

 

 

 

TO MY KINSNOMEN

 

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I think that dedications are important personal statements,
not merely formal acts. Hence I have dedicated this study to all my
kinswomen, but in particular the study is dedicated to the women who
organized and maintained the Women's Center in Carbondale, Illinois,
for without them there would be no dissertation.

I wish to thank Judi Criswell, Rita Moss, Roberta Piper and
Sharon Vondra Thach for their specific help and comments on various
drafts of the manuscript.

More than thanks and acknowledgement are due Dr. Barrie Thorne,
who directed this thesis. She worked long and hard with love to help
me write this study.

Thanks are also due the other members of my committee: Dr. Allan
Beegle, Dr. William Ewens, and Dr. Elianne Riska, as well as Dr. Kay
Snyder who worked with me during the early stages.

I wish to thank Dr. Joanne Bubuolz Eicher for urging me to return
to graduate school to write this dissertation after so many years and
for suggesting the topic.

Finally, I wish to thank my friend, Edward Aho, with whom I lived
While writing this dissertation. His sanity and love sustained me dur-

ing the grim ordeal of writing.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
LIST OF FIGURES . . . ..................... vii
CHAPTER
ONE THE PROBLEM . . ..................... 1
Introduction . . .................. l
Critique of Literature . .......... l
Organizing Themes and Guiding Hypotheses ....... 10
Specific Background .................. 17
Setting of the Study . . . . . . . . . ........ l9
Conclusion . . .................. 21
TWO NATURE OF DATA AND PROCEDURE 0F ANALYSIS ........ 23
The Case Study . . . ..... . ........... 23
The Research Design . . ............. . . . 25
Methods and Techniques . . . . ............ 27
Data Analysis . . ................ 30
Presentation of the Variables ............. 32
Conclusion . . .................... 35
THREE BACKGROUND OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN CARBONDALE . 37
Social Movement as Waves of Cultural Drift . 37
The New Feminist Movement . . ........... 40
History of the Women's Movement in Carbondale ..... 49
The OWLs and the Munchies: Informal Networks of
Communication . . ............. 57
The Convergence of the Networks ............ 63
Conclusion . . . . . . . . .............. 64
FOUR PRE-EXISTING NETWORKS OF COMMUNICATION . ........ 66
Exposition of Theoretical Themes ........... 66
Other Necessary Networks . ............. 6?
The Case of an Unsuccessful Women's Center ...... 7
Diffusion of the Women's Movement in Carbondale . . . 72
Dual Networks . . . ............... 8l
The Systemic Linkage Person .............. 85
The Critical Experience ................ 87
Conclusion . . . . . . ................

 

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Page

 

CHAPTER

FIVE THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT ............... 89
The Model ....................... 89
Ideology and the Plausibility Structure ....... 95
Individual Distress and the Social Movement ..... 97
The Pathway Chosen .................. 98
Conversion to the Women's Movement .......... 100
Recruitment to the Women's Center .......... 101
Prudence Rock: A Case Study of Total Commitment . . . 106
Modification of the Model .............. 108
Summary ....................... 110
SIX IDEOLOGY . . . . .................... 112
Ideology Defined. . . ............... 113
Ideology and Social Movements ............ 116
Power Dimensions of Reality ............. 118
Social Roles and the Development of Social Movements . 120
Ideology and the Women's Movement .......... 124
The Ideology of the Women's Center .......... 125
The Plausability Structures ............. 131
Summary ....................... 136

SEVEN STRUCTURELESSNESS T0 BUREAUCRACY: THE PROCESS OF
ORGANIZATION ...................... 138
The Ideology of Structurelessness .......... 139
Steps in Reorganization ................ 141
The Process of Role Differentiation ......... 148
Coalitions of Power ................. 151
Further Role Differentiation ............. 154
Recruitment and Structure .............. 156
The Lorelei Crisis .................. 158
Conclusion . . . ................... 173
EIGHT PROFESSIONALISM: FROM KINSWOMEN TO CLIENTS ...... 176
Prof ..................... 177
essions 180

Professionalism . ...............
The Women' 5 Movement as Mental Health Self— Help . . . 181
Crisis Intervention and Counseling as a Profession . .

Why Professionalism? .................. IS;
Narrative ...................... 9
Analysis ....................... 19;
Conclusion ......................

NINE FROM SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO LEGITIMATE ORGANIZATION . . . . 200
Legitimacy as Theoretical Notion ........... 582
Narrative ...................... 210
Analysis ....................... 220
Summary .......................

 

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Page

CHAPTER
TEN SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ................. 221
The Guiding Hypotheses ................ 224
Practical Applications ................ 240
Applications to Theory ................ 241
Future Research . .................. 242
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................... 244

vi

 

LIST OF FIGURES

 

Page
Figure
1 1. Time Line of Groups Involved in Women's Movement ..... 51
i 2. Systemic Linkage Persons Involved in Women's Movement . . 83

vii

 

 

 

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CHAPTER ONE
THE PROBLEM

Introduction

What changes occur in the ideology and structure of a social
movement organization as it attempts to find legitimacy within its
community? An emergent social movement organization needs resources
in order to survive, and the ideological innovations of a social move-
ment must to some extent be compromised to obtain and maintain such
resources. Furthermore, as organizational structure develops, the
movement ideology may change in unanticipated ways to provide ration—
ale for such development. This dissertation is a case study of one
such process of transformation, in the Women's Center in Carbondale,
Illinois, from 1972 to 1973.

In this chapter I will outline the problem on which this disser‘
tation will focus. First I will review the literature on social
movements, thereby providing a background for my problem. Second, I
will discuss the theoretical themes central to this study which emerge
from the literature. And third, I will provide background about the

Carbondale Women's Center, to set the stage for more specific analysis.

Critigue of Literature

Generally speaking, theories of social movements are based upon
logical constructs. Examples are the work of both John Wilson (l973)
and Neil Smelser (1963), who base their theories upon those of Parsons

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(1951L Parsons drew up a set of functional prerequisites for the
survival of a social system, logically constructed rather than drawn
frmnempirical research. Wilson and Smelser categorize and classify
social movements on the basis of these functional prerequisites.

The difficulty with all this is that it distorts the nature of the
data. Everything that happens is fit into the theory as if it were
the bed of Procrustes.

For example, Wilson (1973: 221) referring to empirical studies,
writes that ”virtually nothing is known of the politics of social
npvements,” yet he proceeds to write a book about them. He starts
out by utilizing Parsons' four functional problems for a social system.
Wifl1no real empirical foundation, he then introduces a system of cat—
egorizing leadership based on ”claim of proximity to sacred aspects
of the movement.” Yet he was writing in 1973, following a decade of
several social movements dedicated to minimizing leaders and structure.

Another example of theory construction based more on logic than
miempirical knowledge of movements is the emphasis on membership in
asocial movement as a form of deviance. Oberschall (1973: 14)
discusses the long tradition of literature on collective behavior

stemfing from LeBon's Psychologie g§§_Foules (1895), which takes -

 

irrationality as basic to this type of behavior (crowds, movements)
andin which "...only anecdotal data and superficial descriptions are
provided as evidence." The difficulty seems to lie in the fact that
social movements are usually discussed under the broad rubric of col-
lective behavior. Minimal attempts, at best, are made to differen-
tiate among rumors, crowds, fads, crazes, and social movements, with

EH of them classed as “collective behavior" in everything from

 

 

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advanced theoretical treatises to introductory texts. Classifica-
tions by theorists in this area tend to be categorical, as in Turner
and Killian's claim (1972: 32) that ”rumor is the characteristic
mode of communication in collective behavior.” A strange logic
exists in this area of social science. Because rumors are classified
as collective behavior, collective behavior is then characterized

by rumors. And social movements are arbitrarily classified as col-
lective behavior.

The variable which distinguishes these forms of behavior as
collective behavior seems to be their presumed irrationality. Most
social scientists writing about social movements have tended to assume
flmt participants are irrational, and yet this assumption is diffi-
mflt to pin down in direct statements. I would contend that Hadley
Cantril (1941) makes such implicit assumptions, although I could
'find no direct quotation to substantiate this statement. Smelser
(1963: 14) defines collective behavior as "mobilization on the basis
ofa belief which redefines social action" and then makes the state-
ment that these beliefs are akin to magical beliefs, since partici-
pants believe that taking collective action will bring about
extraordinary consequences.

Currie and Skolnick (1972) argue that this notion of a general—
ized belief is an idea which comes from the stress by social scientists
on the irrational nature of collective behavior. Currie and Skolkick
argue that this emphasis on irrationality "has its roots in the anti»
democratic theorists of nineteenth century Europe, best represented
by LeBon.” They further argue that empirical evidence does not support

the contention that collective behavior is “irrational.” They suggest

 

 

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that agents of social control themselves are often more irrational
than those in movements, and that episodes of collective action such

as riots are interactive, with the reaction of agents of social con-

trol sometimes constituting much of the episode itself.
63) contend that Smelser's approach

Currie and Skolnick (1972:
'seems to adopt an administrative or managerial perspective on col—

lective behavior, in which unacknowledged evaluations take the place

of forthright assertions of the social values underlying the study
They go on to state that Smelser does not

of collective action.”
provide empirical support for his statements about generalized be-

liefs but that ”the notion of 'collective behavior' becomes a means
ofnnking evaluative judgments about social behavior without coming

to grips with the problem of specifying and defending the values

underlying those judgments" (p. 66).

They conclude with the remedy:
One step in this direction might involve the use of a
richer and more explicit conception of what we mean by
"institutions." We suggest above that the idea of "insti-
tutional" behavior means behavior that is structured, or
behavior that is conventional or accepted, or some combin-
ation of these. We may suggest another idea of the mean—
ing of institutions, which conceives of institutions as
having a potential for the development and maintenance
of human values--values Such as democracy, participation,
and the reduction of the repressive aspects of social
life. From this perspective, we would want to look at
various forms of collective action—~whether within or
beyond the ”normal" or conventional social and political
arrangements—-in the light of their capacity to promote
(or retard) the creation and maintenance of these values.

Such a conception would thus place the values that guide

our research at the threshold of the inquiry, rather than

at the back door, and would avoid the equation of the

"institutional" with the merely routine, the reflexive

affirmation of the usual, and the implication that the

non-conventional is a "problem“ to b? inveitigated with
p. 71

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For the past two or three decades sociological theory has concen-
trated heavily on formal organizations and institutionalized segments
of society whereas the very nature of a social movement lies in its
non- or semi—institutionalized structure. By definition societies
have institutional spheres and formalized structure. Around and
outside, as well as inside, of this occurs behavior which social sci-
entists characterize as collective behavior. One's definition of a
social movement, then, depends upon how much of this non—institution-
alized behavior one wishes to include. What are the parameters of
the behavior which one defines as a social movement?

Each person born into a given society is expected to occupy
a given set of roles, each role comprised of sets of behavioral and
attitudinal expectations. At some times and places, given persons
are unwilling or unable to fit into the cultural behavior patterns,
and it is from these people that members of social movements are re—
cruited. Not all of these persons, not even most, will form a social
movement, however, and the question remains of why certain individuals
d_0 form movements. Oberschall (1973: 3) in discussing the weaknesses
in various theories of social movements points to "the lack of a
theory of group formation and of mobilization and the filling of
this gap with mass society theory and ad hoc applications of psycho—
logistic concepts such as alienation and relative deprivation, even
though the empirical evidence keeps accumulating against them."

Another consequence of the dearth of empirical research is that
the sociological category, "social movement," is often residual,
especially for the structural functionalists. By this, I mean that

a social movement is defined as any behavior which does not fit into

 

 

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some previously defined category. An example, once again, is Smelser
(1963: 14) who writes:

In this study we shall attempt a delineation of the field
of collective behavior which differs considerably from
those just reviewed. As a first approximation, we define
collective behavior as mobilization gfl_thg_basis 9f_g
belief which redefines social action.
...As the definition indicates, collective behavior is
guided by various kinds of beliefs—-assessments of the
situation, wishes and expectations. These beliefs differ,
however, from those which guide many other types of be—
havior. They involve a belief in the existence of extra—
ordinary forces—-threats, conspiracies, etc.-—which are
at work in the universe. They also involve an assessment
of the extraordinary consequences which will follow if
the collective attempt to reconstitute social action is
successful.

 

 

 

In other words, any behavior which does not fit the institutional—

 

ized belief system has been called collective behavior. Couch (1968:
315)succinct1y points out that ”rational thought is that which is
supported by the established institutions of the day; irrational
thought is that which is not supported by the current institutions.
Irrational thought of today often forms the social institutions of
tomorrow.”

Smelser's definition illustrates another weakness in theories
ofsocial movements: the assumption that collective behavior is or-
gmfized around a belief system. This study will argue that at least
some social movement organizations are primarily organized around
tasks, and that ideology is developed as a rationale for previous
activity. Freeman (1975) points out that the women's movement

began without an ideology, and has as yet only the rudi-
ments of one. Feminist ideology has played an insigni-
ficant role in the development of its structures and stra—
tegies, although non-feminist ideas have been adapted

from the political context in which each branch grew which

have affected its organizational style. The different
strategies of each branch have not been governed by

 

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7

different ideologies, but by different structures; it

is structure that has determined what kind of activities
are feasible and which more accurately explain how var-
ious groups have directed their energies. (p. 10)

All of these weaknesses in sociological theories of social
movements stem from a lack of empirical research which I would contend
rises out of a general emphasis in American sociology on institutions
rather than on change. A sociology of sociology might be interesting,
to study why the sociology of the fifties and early sixties-~when

Smelser and others theorized about movements—-posited stasis rather

than emphasizing change.

 

J.A. Banks (1972) attributes the empirical neglect of social
1 movements to the domination of sociological theory by some version

of functionalism. Under a functionalist model (which presumes a

 

smoothly functioning society) social movements are seen as sympto-
matic of some social malfunctioning. He quotes Percy Cohen as saying
that functionalists have never produced adequate theories of social
change because "they have not produced adequate theories of social
persistance” (Banks 1972: 13).

John Wilson (1973) sees the neglect of the empirical study of
social movements in sociology as a result of the pervasive influence
of structural sociology. He makes the statement that social movements
are not structures but processes, transition processes from "no rules
to new rules." The critical ingredients of structural sociology,
according to Wilson, are

the identification of some sort of fundamental units and
the formulation of precisely stated rules for combination
and transformation of these units....Structura1 sociolo-
gists...regard roles and institutions as the basic units

....A given type of structure in any major part of the
society imposes imperatives on the rest, in the sense that

 

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given that structure, if it is to continue, other relevant
structures in the same society cannot vary beyond certain
limits which are substantially narrower than are the gener—
al limits of variability of social structures in those rel-
evant spherse. (p. 55)
mnerlying this structuralist model is the assumption that societies
are normally stable and structurally cohesive.

And yet the Parsonian definition of institutionalization can be
used to enrich the study of social movements. Parsons (1951) locates
institutions both within the social structure and within the personal-
ity system of the social actor. He states that a value is institu—
timmlized when it is both a cultural value and internalized in the
actor as a need-disposition. Such a definition makes the functioning
ofa social movement more explicable, because members are acting to
dwnge values not only in the outside world but within themselves.

Emerging from this critique of the literature are the theoreti-
calthemes central to this study. The central focus is upon the for-
mation and maintenance of a particular social movement organization.
Asocial movement must recruit members and retain them; it must gain
legitimacy in the larger society at the same time that it seeks to
change society. This study sets out to describe this process for one
social movement organization--the Women's Center in Carbondale.

At this point it may be useful to discuss some distinctions
among the various terms used, although a categorization of social
nmvements and social movement organizations is beyond the scope of
fins dissertation. No single definition of a social movement exists
in the literature. This reflects both the amorphous nature of the
thmmenon, but more importantly, perhaps, what aspect of the movement

is being described. Sometimes the social movement organization is

 

 

 

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identified as a social movement. An example of this is Eh n Prophecy
_Bfll§ (Festinger_§t_al, 1956). The cult group which was the focus
ofstudy was identified as a social movement, whereas it could have
been identified as a social movement organization, within the larger
'flying saucer movement. 0n the other hand, historians of the 19605
have been more explicit in distinguishing the social movement as a
whole from specific organizations within the movement (e.g. Kenniston,
1968; Thorne, 1971; Sale, 1973).

Social movements seem to develop in stages or waves; Blumer
(1951) talks about "culture drift.” The first stage is a widespread
amorphous set of beliefs that the existing legitimate social struc-
ture needs to be changed. The movement is rarely identified as such
in this stage and hence is relatively unstudied; most social movements
are studied by historians of the movement looking backward to the be-
ginning. At some point the movement begins to become more cohesive
as organizations arise within the movement. These organizations are
termed social movement organizations.

Another distinction needs to be made between religious movements
and political movements. The essence of a social movement seems to
cmmist of the promulgation of a new order with a new means of redemp-
tion, but these new orders can be differentiated into terrestial and
heavenly. In other words, some movements are directed at policy changes >"5

in the existing social order and others are concerned with retreating
into an earthly utopia or another world. In the long run, of course,
the promulgation of a new religious order may change the existing

social order in ways unforeseen by the original members.

 

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10

Organizing Themes and Guiding Hypotheses

This dissertation is a study of a social movement organization
(the Women's Center) rising out of a larger political social movement
(feminism). Feminism has existed in some sense for 200 years, with
the newest wave arising in the mid-sixties. The women's movement as
a whole and the Carbondale Women's Center specifically are oriented
toward bringing about political change concomitant with a new image
of and social position for women.

The first organizing theme of the dissertation has to do with
origins of the Women's Center as a social movement organization.
The theoretical lead for this analysis comes from Freeman (1975),
who argues that a social movement arises when a network of communica-
timiis formed which can be coopted by the movement. This theme
wfll be stated more explicitly in the form of a proposition or guid—
ing hypothesis. Obviously such a proposition can only be explored,
irnot tested, in one case study, but such a statement does serve to
1 focus the analysis.

Guiding Hypothesis One: In order for a social movement organi—
zation to arise, networks of communica-
tion, support and political power must
be in existence. The length of time
that the social movement organization
survives is related to the complexity
of the pre-existing networks in a posi-
tive direction, that is, continued
existence depends upon complex and re—
sourceful support system.

The second theme to be explored in this dissertation will be that

of recruitment into the social movement organization, a theme with two

aspects. The first has to do with societal circumstances which produce

a Pool of potential recruits. The other aspect is the selection of

 

 

 

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11

actual recruits. Lofland and Stark (1969; [1965]) have called these
"predisposing conditions” and "situational contingencies.“

The predisposing conditions towards feminism in U.S. society at
this time are that many women are experiencing great disjuncture be-
tween socialization and the expectations and structure of the adult
female role. This is particularly true of the upper middle—class
white woman. She receives little training to become a housewife and
mother, but upon graduation from college she is expected to enter
this role. Her education, however, has prepared her to enter a pro—
fessional occupation. If she enters the occupational world, she finds
herself, because of sex discrimination, blocked from exercising the
skills for which she has been trained. The women's movement has
offered such women a chance to change their roles either (a) by attemp—
ting to remove the blockage which exists in the work world and/or
(b) by redefining the expectations of the role of wife and mother.

Very broadly speaking, social movements are concerned with the
notion of distributive justice. Social movements form when previously
accepted notions of distributive justice break down, that is, when
members of a society no longer believe in the legitimacy of the reward
distribution system, nor share a consensus that inequities in reward
distribution are just. The formation of a social movement implies
that the system of distributive justice has been called into question,

by the very nature of the fact that consensus has ceased to exist.

' Hence the first step in the formation of a social movement is communi-

cation among disaffected members of a society. The process of communi-
cation of disaffection involves a breakdown of consensus and the devel-

Opment of new shared definitions, e.g. concerning sources of discontent.

 

 

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12

Thus we come back to Freeman's argument that in order for a social
mmvement to arise, persons must be in some kind of frequent contact
which allows them to communicate their disaffection with the system.

As a social movement begins to crystallize, social movement
organizations begin to arise, and out of the society at large, some
persons join these organizations. Lofland and Stark (1969; [1965])
have outlined a detailed step-byestep process of conversion to a
cult group. They conclude that some persons experience tension more
acutely than others, and that these latter become recruits.

Lofland and Stark were studying a religious cult group. They
point out that recruitment into such a cult group is the consequence
of predisposition to a particular perspective on problem—solving.
Lofland and Stark posit three types of perspective on problem solving:
(a) psychiatric, (b) political and (c) religious. Hence it follows
flmt this case study of a political movement is examining persons with
a predeliction different from those who join a religious cult group.
The process of conversion as it applies to persons joining a political
social movement organization will be explored as a further organizing
theme.

Once it exists, a social movement organization faces certain
strains. John Wilson (1973) notes a paradox basic to the lives of
social movement organizations: organizing collective effort to change
He world demands acceptance of that world as a constraint upon one's
,‘omsbehavior. An organization needs material resources in order to
exist, and it needs participation on the part of members. Thus this
Paradox of social movement organizations lies in the fact that the

organization must obtain resources from the very structure it seeks

toohange. As an
moi the existing
of change, at lea:
are pressed to co
lufland (1966) ha
moment organi za
in order tc
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tered. The long
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oichange.

Guiding Hy

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t“ it members
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13

to change. As a matter of fact, the rules for obtaining resources

frmnthe existing structure are usually one of the most salient foci

t of change, at least for a political movement. Hence social movements

are pressed to compromise the original purity of their ideologies.
Lofland (1966) has discussed the changes in ideology of a social
movement organization as it strives to recruit new members.

In order to exist, the Women's Center needed money to rent a
house and funds to maintain that house and the guests whom it shel—
tered. The longevity of this particular Women's Center seems to rest
mithe broad base of community support it received. This broad base,
however, was possible because of the lack of emphasis on an ideology
of change.

Guiding Hypothesis Two: The structure of a social movement

organization changes in response to
the needs of an organization to obtain
resources and recruit new members.

Guiding Hypothesis Three: The ideology of the social movement

organization will change over time as
the organization seeks to obtain re-
sources and recruit new members.

In order to survive, organizations need participation and commit-
ment of members. The rewards for participation in a social movement
derive in part from some feeling of collective identity and community,
for example, in the case of the women's movement, from feelings the
movement calls "sisterhood.“ The survival of an organization, however,
often demands the development of structure and role specialization.
Wflson (1973) has pointed out that in the organization of a social
movement there comes a point of diminishing returns from role special-

ization because the participants begin to lose the rewards of collective

identity. As the Women‘s Center struggled to survive and to become

 

 

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legitimate within the community, role specialization began to take
place. Some members became more skilled than others in counseling
and crisis intervention. The study will examine how this specializa-
timscame about, and the conflicts and stresses that ensued.

Guiding Hypothesis Four: Conflict within a social movement
organization develops around the need
for task specialization in contrast
with the needs for community.

Guiding Hypothesis Five: Role specialization within the social
movement organization takes place in
response to the organization's struggle
to obtain resources and support from
the existing structure.

A great deal of the literature on social movements has centered
around the question of leadership. Max Weber, one of the early writers
onsocial movements, considered a charismatic leader to be the origin~
ator and point of cohesion of a social movement. Recent social move—
ments (especially the early New Left movement of the 603 and the younger
branch of the women's movement) have adopted an ideology of structure—
lessness, a belief that strong leadership patterns should be avoided
and that the organization should be democratic. This belief and the
efforts that accompanied it force a reconsideration of questions of
leadership. Guenther Roth (1975) argues that members of the counter
mflture can be viewed as a charismatic community in that such people
are'heligious virtuosi," people who possess an ethic of total commit-
ment to ultimate values. Such a community may have a strong leader
but on the other hand may consist of an amorphous group of charismatic

equals.

Freeman (1973; 1975) has written extensively on the ideology of

Structurelessness which has prevailed in the younger branch of the

 

 

 

 

 

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15

women's movement and of the actual covert structure the ideology has
often masked. The Carbondale Women's Center began with a commitment
to the notion of structurelessness, and the conflicts resulting from
the development of structure_remain a constant motif in the ongoing
organization.

As my study of the ideology of the Women's Center developed, it
became more and more clear to me that this social movement organiza—
tion, at least, is less organized around formal belief systems than
common definitions (such as Smelser's) assume. Interview after inter-
view failed to elicit systematic and shared belief systems on the part
ofindividual members. I then began to develop the notion the; ideol-
ggjgs, that is, formalized belief systems, may be developed as part of
the strategy to gain legitimacy with outsiders. The examination of
the nature of formalized belief systems forms yet another theme of
We study, as stated in the following guiding hypothesis.

Guiding Hypothesis Six: Cohesion in a social movement organiza-
tion may develop around shared tasks
rather than around a shared system of
beliefs.

Sooner or later all social movement organizations feel the need,

for various reasons, to appeal to third parties. Oberschall (1973: 24)
points out that in social movement situations, and presumably he is
talking about political movements, “the discontented group makes a claim
tolegitimacy for its goals, program and action in the name of ideals
and values that have some legitimacy. Both sides [that is, the movement
andits target] compete for public support, for third party support in
He contest.“ In this case, the potential sources of support for the
Women's Center were various public funding agencies, such as City Council

and the county board. Lipsky (1968) has systematized this notion more

 

 

 

 

 

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16

precisely, pointing out that protest is a means by which relatively
powerless groups seek to develop political resources, e.g. by mobili-
zing third parties as recruits and allies.

Lipsky's notions prove useful for examining the ideology devel-
oped by members of the Center. A further theme of this thesis is the
development of ideology and public images as the movement relates to
various audiences. The Women's Center was involved in trying to elicit
support from women ranging along a wide continuum of belief from tra-
ditional to radical. In addition it was trying to elicit support from
community agencies and eventually came to occupy a position analogous
to a public agency. Each of these groups represented a different
audience to whom the members of the Women's Center had to present them—
selves. The dissertation will seek to examine the effect of the inter-
play between public ideology, private beliefs of the members, and the
emerging structure of the organization.

Guiding Hypothesis Seven: As the ideology of a social movement
develops as part of the strategy to
obtain resources, different aspects
of the ideology will be emphasized in
communication with various audiences.

This line of inquiry is related to Oberschall's (1973) analysis
of social conflict from the point of view of mobilization of resources.
He views conflict as competition between various groups for the same
resources. In his view, every group possesses a finite number of re-
sources, material, and intangible such as social honor or respectability.
SUbgroups and individuals within the group, whether it be the world, a
society or a community, are in competition for these resources. In
every on-going system, legitimate means of distribution of resources

exist. Oberschall believes that conflict arises when new groups arise

 

 

 

 

stitch make claims

terms of legitima'

In the case
noting demands on
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17

which make claims on the given resources, phrasing these claims in
terms of legitimate values.

In the case of the Women's Center, some women in Carbondale were
making demands on the system stating that certain needs of women were
not being met. These women saw as their task the necessity of legiti-
nfizing these claims for community resources. Gradually the Women's
Center came to be perceived by the public at large as being a legiti-
mate social service agency in the community, and the Center was publicly

funded.

Specific Background

The Women‘s Center in Carbondale, Illinois, opened its doors
November 1, 1972, and continues to operate as a shelter—care house and
crisis center. The Center has moved to another location, but at the
time of the study was located close to downtown in a transitional res—
idential area, once the most fashionable street in town, now given over
to student housing. The Center serves a variety of functions. Any
woman can stay for a limited period of time in the Center. If she has
wmney she is asked to pay $2 per night. If she is without resources
she will be provided with shelter, food, second hand clothing, even
smaH sums of money. During the year from April, 1973, to April, 1974,

100 guests stayed overnight:' 76 adults, 19 children and 5 minors.

The Center is both a formal and informal meeting place for women.
Women drop by to have a cup of coffee and chat. Students living out of
town sometimes come by to change their clothes before going out in the

evmfing. Organizations hold meetings there. The Center sponsors an

 

 

 

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18
open consciousness raising meeting weekly. One day a week is Mom and
lots; women bring their children, and this is a formalized time for
breaking the isolation the mother of a young child often feels.

The Center sponsors seminars and classes, and serves as an in-
formation center and referral service. At the telephone desk is a file
constantly in the process of being updated, an indexed card catalog
of any kind of service offered to women in the county. Women at the
Center are also expert at helping women in trouble obtain services
from county agencies. Transportation is furnished to the county seat,
seven miles away, where applications for welfare and food stamps must
be processed.

The Center offers pregnancy testing and abortion counseling. The

 

year during which this study was done was the year before the Supreme
Court decision making abortion legal throughout the United States, and
abortion was still illegal in the state of Illinois. Therefore abortion
counseling consisted in part of helping women to go to states such as
New York where abortions were legal.

The Center sponsors rape counseling, and compiled a list of women
who volunteered to accompany women who had been raped to the police
station. The police department cooperates with this group, calling the
Women's Center to ask for volunteers to come to the police station when
a woman comes in and asks for assistance. In addition, the services of
a professional counselor are available on request. Several months after
the Center began operation, cooperative programs were set up with several
departments at Southern Illinois University whereby graduate students

were given credit for working at the Center as professional counselors.

 

From the very beginning, professional psychiatric social workers have

 

 

 

 

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19

been on emergency call.

The broad range of these services undoubtedly developed as a
consequence of the very real dearth of such services in the Carbondale
community. The Women's Center in Carbondale is not representative of
Women's Centers in this broad range of services offered. Carden (1974)
reports that by June, 1972, at least 55 Women's Centers had been
founded around the country, the primary focus of these centers being

a clearinghouse for information. The Women's Survival Catalog in 1973

 

lists 115 such centers. I have talked to women from many of these
places and I have found that the Center at Carbondale is one of the
few, the only one I have found, which routinely offers shelter over-

night. In addition, the Carbondale Center was founded by women of all

 

, ages and stages of enlightenment, in contrast to other Centers founded
by women of the radical left. The formation of Women's Centers by the
liberation wing of the movement is discussed by both Carden (1974) and
Freeman (1975).

Carbondale does not have any organizations such as the YWCA, which
in many other cities provides an inexpensive place for poor women to
Stay in the city. In the county there are no shelter homes or halfway
houses such as exist in larger urban areas. At this point it might be

of some interest to describe Carbondale.

Setting of the Study

Carbondale is a town of 20,000 people lying in the southernmost
part of Illinois. The lower thirteen counties of that state, sometimes

called Little Egypt, are a depressed area, an area where most people

 

had been miners until the mines closed. Herman Lantz (1971; [1955])

 

 

described the a
izing it as the
charismatic pro
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college to a or
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20

described the area in his study, IDE.E§921§.2£.§2§1.IQEH; character—
izing it as the "culture of resignation.“ Following World War II a
charismatic president of Southern Illinois State University Normal
College convinced the legislature that enlarging the small teachers
college to a multi-versity would be a major economic aid to the area.
Over the next 20 years the enrollment of the university swelled to a
maximum of 24,000 in 1972, the year of this study.

With the increase in enrollment came a corresponding increase in
faculty, and the character of the town began to change. According to
the United States Census, in 1960 Carbondale had a non-student popula-
tion of 14,670, a percentage increase of 34.3% from 1950. By 1970 the
non-student population had increased to 22,816. In that year only
5,874 of the 21,487 people over five years old lived in the same house
Hwy had occupied in 1965. Families with an urban upper middle class
orientation demanded a different life style from that to which the in-
habitants of the sleepy little southern town were accustomed. (In
1970 in Jackson County, of the 11,975 males over 16 in the labor force,
4,569 were employed by the government. This includes the faculty of
Southern Illinois University who are considered to be directly employed
by the state of Illinois. In 1970 the labor force over 16 numbered
19,651 and of that number some 3,063 were categorized as Other Pro-
fessional.) City people demanded garbage collection, street lighting
mm sidewalks as necessities for civilized existence. One important
factor in the subsequent history of Carbondale was the lack of employ-
ment available in the town for wives of faculty and graduate students.
Following American custom, many highly educated women accompanied their

husbands to his new job. Unemployed, lonely, with time on their hands,

#éfiafiea 43—» 7

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21

they form a pool of volunteer labor for many community projects.

The changing nature of the area must be emphasized in explaining
the clientele of the Center. Their needs were almost infinite. To
begin with, the population from the counties surrounding Carbondale was
rural proletariat, that is, they made their living as miners. The
population clustered in small towns where everything since World War
II has been dead and dying. For example, Alexander County experienced
a 20.9% population decrease in the decade 1950-60. (Source: United
States Census).

Carbondale itself had no industry except for two small manufac—
turing plants. Carbondale had grown up as a railroad stop in the days
ofsteamlocomotives, and the original population had been in large
part composed of railroad men and their families. Carbondale was a
junction where trains from St. Louis and the west fed into the Illinois
Central, that artery from north to south celebrated in song and legend.
It was a convenient place for railroad people to make their home, but
wiUsthe advent of the diesel engine, many fuel stops had been elimina-
ted,inc1uding Carbondale.

It was out of this distressed culture that women came to us,

women with limited resources in a community of few resources.

Conclusion

The dissertation will be organized around a number of broad
themes. One theme will be the pre—existing networks of communication
and the merging of these networks of communication into a web of support
networks for an emerging movement group. Another organizing theme will

be the paradox and strain of attempting to change the world, but

 

oeanwhiie accep
one seeks to ob
Chapter 1
ture of analyst
women's movemer
existing netwo
support networ
heat into the
Chapter
pies develop f
times the not
around shared
thither Seven
structure, in
“1°19 overt
ChaTiter
lalion as it
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to other some
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titlgm

 

 

 

22

meanwhile accepting that world as a constraint on one's behavior as
one seeks to obtain resources from it.

Chapter Two will describe the nature of the data and the proce—
dure of analysis. Chapter Three will examine the background of the
women's movement in Carbondale. Chapter Four will examine the pre-
existing networks of communication which merged to form the web of
support networks. Chapter Five will examine the process of recruit-
ment into the organization.

Chapter Six will examine the ways ideologies change as strate—
gies develop for obtaining resources from the existing world; it ex-
plores the notion that a social movement organization may develop
around shared tasks rather than around a shared system of beliefs.
Chapter Seven examines the development of task specialization and
structure, including as well organizational strains resulting from
strong overt belief in structurelessness and leaderlessness.

Chapter Eight discusses further the development of task special-
ization as it specifically related to the crisis orientation of the
Women's Center. Chapter Nine traces the relationship of the Center
to other community organizations in its attempt to gain legitimacy

and political power. Chapter Ten presents a summary of the disser-

tation.

 

 

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CHAPTER TWO
NATURE OF DATA AND PROCEDURE 0F ANALYSIS

This chapter will set forth the procedure of analysis used in
examining the case of a social movement organization. First I will
present a rationale for using a case study method. I will discuss
what is meant by a case study method and why it is used in this dis-
sertation. Then I will discuss how the field study was oriented.

Finally I will discuss how data were collected and analyzed.

The Case Study

The rationale for using. a case study method arises out of the
notion of grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967);
this involves developing theory out of empirical research, as con-
trasted with deducing theory in the form of logical propositions.
Rather than starting with hypotheses to test, the research person
sets out to observe a situation with as few rigidly preconceived no-
tions as possible. The researcher records these observations, and in
trying to make sense of the observations develops and continually re—
formulates propositions.

The advantage of grounded theory is that eventually it may de-
velop propositions which can be empirically verified. A gap exists
in sociology between grand theory and empirical research, a gap only

Partially bridged by Merton's notions of middle-range theory (1957).

23

 

 

 

hood theory has
past part have be
just non-related
iiiabr‘lity may we
The need it
study of social r
writers on the so
than, they all as
Trounded theory
hath (1952) have
ooethod of proc
being studied as
differences been
rethods as supp]
hoestigation st
ire which the s
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24

Grand theory has so far generated elegant propositions which for the
most part have been neither verifiable nor non-verifiable but rather
just non-related to empirical observation. The cause of this a-ver—
ifiability may well be that theory is done from the top down.

The need for grounded theory is particularly salient in the
study of social movements. As discussed in Chapter One, although
writers on the subject of social movements cannot agree on a defini-
tion, they all agree on the need for further empirical research.
Grounded theory implies the use of the case study method. Goode and
Hatt(l952) have pointed out that case study is not a technique but
a method of procedure, a method of approach which observes the object
being studied as a unitary whole. Daniel Katz (l966) sees two major
differences between a field study and a survey, and he sees these
nethods as supplementary procedures. According to Katz, the field
investigation studies in depth the interrelations of a social struc-
ture which the survey infers from statistical end products. On the
other hand, the survey attempts to be representative of some known
universe.

Yet another view is presented by Diesing (l97l) who emphasizes
th the holist approach is not just a method but a set of underlying
beliefs and values. The holist, according to Diesing, believes that
fim subject matter is more important than the necessity for being

'scientific.” The holist is concerned with a respect for human beings;
S/he considers that human beings have an integrity of being. Thus
Um choice of participant observation as a technique derives from the
underlying value assumptions of the holist.

The case study method consists of discovering themes and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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it in u

 

 

 

25

interpreting and testing them. The researcher then moves on to build-

ing a model. Diesing (l97l) calls this model a pattern model, follow-

ing Kaplan (l964). This model is empirically constructed rather than

inferred logically. The pattern model then serves to describe and to

explain, in the sense that a theme is explained by specifying its

place in the pattern. Kaplan (l964) explains objectivity in this way,

"For the pattern model, objectivity consists essentially in this,

that the pattern can be indefinitely filled in and extended; as we

obtain more and more knowledge it continues to fall into place in this

pattern, and the pattern itself has a place in a larger whole."

(p. 335)

Diesing (l97l) includes a paragraph I like and find particularly

applicable:
The nature of human subject matter also produces incomplete-
ness of pattern. Human systems are always developing and
always unfinished; they always retain inconsistencies, am-
biguities and absurdities. Belief systems never achieve
complete rationality and consistency; personalities and groups
are always in the process of resolving old conflicts and
sharpening new ones; accumulations of power are always crumb-
ling and being rebuilt; ceremonies are being elaborated or
simplified. Consequently a faithful model of a particular
system at a particular time will itself include inconsis-
tencies, ambiguities, and exceptions. How many of these are

due to the inconsistancies of the subject and how many to
the looseness of the method is difficult to say. (p. l65)

The Research Design

The original field research was organized around three themes.
The first theme was the emergent social organization. The second theme
was the nature of a social movement. The third theme was the nature of
women's interaction among themselves and in relation to the larger soci-

etY- All three themes have been long—range research interests of mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As early
terned with th
organization (
aliyl cane tr
part from the
it in certain
roeess, a pr
than as a sta
istits of 80C
stricture art
into the org;

lhe th.

one from St
“Lil, the l
ll the book

it Object, l

h rennin
that l5, 901

h the tbse
live that

”50 stress

ll haintah
truth the

thin] 1e;
a“ “loan

From

this bitch

 

#‘4

 

26

As early as my M.A. thesis in l956 (See Nall,l956) I was con-
cerned with the influence of the structural characteristics of an
organization on individual behavior in a crisis situation. Eventu-
ally I came to the conclusion that structural elements arise in large
part from the necessity to constrain individual functioning, to channel
it in certain ways. That is to say, I came to see bureaucracy as a
process, a process leading to the structure of an organization rather
than as a static given. A later unpublished study of the character—
istics of 800 voluntary associations is an attempt to show bureaucratic

structure arising out of the needs of the organization to bind members
into the organization and to control their functioning.

The theme of the emergent social organization more specifically
came from Stotland and Kobler (l965), tjje_and Death of a Mental Hos-

pital, the life history of Crest Foundation Hospital. One of the themes

in the book is how ideology, that is a set of ideas about some issue ”///

or object, is the organizing theme of an emergent social organization.
In particular Stotland and Kobler stress the importance of “hope,"
that is, positive expectations in the maintenance of an organization.
In the absence of any clear-cut criteria of success, people must be-
lieve that the institution is doing a good job. Stotland and Kobler
also stress the role and power of the single individual, the leader,
in maintaining an emergent organization. In the case of the Women's
Center the ideology of leaderlessness, in contrast to the stress on a
central leader, which one finds in much of the literature on movements
and organizations, formed an interesting focus of exploration.

From the phenomenological point of view, I know the data in some

sense because I was a believer and a participant. The women's movement

 

otters to me.
ration is a spe
hen the obser'
port of the sy
is still the d
has become an
hitive reacti
or statements.
Carden i

or not rationt

Data f
Ititthod hf
llanent in
killing Elal
lltghhm it :
Ellillty.

in”lint

 

27

matters to me. Diesing (l97l: 15l—52) points out that ”Self—obser-
vation is a special source of evidence that is sometimes overlooked.
When the observer has been well socialized...his own reactions are
part of the system he is studying. Consciously and intellectually he
is still the detached observer, but emotionally and subconsciously he
has become an active part of his subject matter. Consequently his in-
tuitive reactions provide evidence as to the covert meaning of actions
or statements.”
Carden (1973) who also studied the women's movement, provides
an apt rationale for the use of the case study method:
This methodology: which involves careful piecing together
of information from many sources of varying quality, has,
like all methodologies, its weaknesses. The data may be
incomplete, the sampling may be insufficiently represen—
tative, the interview responses may be biased. But though
the resulting book cannot be the definitive work on the con—
temporary women's movement, two very important features
distinguish this methodology. First it is appropriate to
the phenomenon under scrutiny. Active social movements in
general cannot be studied by conventional social—scientific
methods. The women's movement in particular is too fluid
and its members too hostile to the impersonal approaches of

highly quantitative sociologY, which they feel loses sight
of the total picture. (p. l78)

Methods and Techniques

Data for this dissertation have been gathered primarily through
a method of participant observation. Data collection on the women's
nwvement in Carbondale had begun as early as July l97l when I started
keeping elaborate notes on the organization of the Affirmative Action
Program at Southern Illinois University by the Academic Women for
EQuality. In addition I have complete notes on a consciousness rais—

ing group, the Munchies, from November l97l to November 1972, as well

 

as some recording
lhove observatic
hm the basis fc
when working in
From Noveml
Coordinator of t
unique vantage p
thetenter, I we
in the organizat
oierents.
lhe histor
llil interviews
'llilil- Hence
EMien Stone, 0
in of the lion
'l use of the t
In addit-
"Clients such
halioness to
oil9l41 pet”
'mtttion. E
is 'de0'09ice
lit Center re!
One hot

rutiohhh aha

 

28

as some recordings of group meetings. For some part of that period

I have observations kept independently by two of the members. These
form the basis for much of my analysis of the belief systems of the
women working in the Center.

From November, 1972, until June, l973, I worked as Volunteer
Coordinator of the Women's Center in Carbondale, Illinois. From this
unique vantage point, a key role in the system of communications in
the Center, I was able to observe most of the activities which occurred
in the organization. During this time I kept a detailed daily journal
of events.

The historical background for the study was reconstructed from
oral interviews, written statements, existing documents and my own
memory. Hence it is subject to the strictures always present in recall.
Carmen Stone, one of the original Task Force members, prepared a his-
tory of the Women's Center for possible publication; she consented to
"W use of the document as background for this analysis.

In addition to direct observation, I collected various written
documents such as newsletters and minutes of the Board of Trustees. I
had access to all the documents retained by the Center. In the summer
of l974 I returned to Carbondale to spend two weeks in further data
collection. By this time I had begun to develop the hypotheses regard—
ing ideological changes and interviewed in depth the active members of
the Center regarding their systems of belief.

One rationale for this sustained participation approach to organ-
izational analysis is provided by McCall and Simmons (l969: 3):

One important reason for the insistance on analytic des-
criptions is that social scientists conceive of these com—

plex social organizations as being largely latent
organization--largely unintended and unrecognized by the

 

 

memb

crit

caus

rece

wher

intr

des+

rza

Becker a
pant observati
rhat they are
tithe data wl
his statement
his or seein,
literally not
the lionen 's C

conflict,

Becker

" 'llle part
lieu cannot .
llll, the in
ill to Check
lint: here c
that of the
list events
"0'“ teadi [p

then 1 ha

recording o
AS a

lltfhs of \

 

 

29

members themselves-—and therefore not apparent to or des-
cribable by laymen (including the actual members). Be-
cause many of the features of organization are not
recognized by the members, they cannot report them even
when carefully questioned by a skilled social science
interviewer. Consequently, in order to obtain an analytic
description, the scientist himself must observe the organ-
ization directly.

Becker and Geer (1972) also emphasize the advantages of partici-
pant observation. They point out that people are often unaware of
what they are doing and hence cannot report it later. This was true
of the data which I collected. Often people were not aware of events.
This statement does not mean that people are making a different anal-
ysis or seeing matters from a different perspective but that they are
literally not aware of certain events. This was partiCularly true of
the Women's Center where belief in sisterhood precluded perception of
conflict.

Becker and Geer point out that analysis of interviews proceeds
in large part by inference. The research person analysing an inter-
view cannot check on the distortions of the respondent. 0n the other
hand, the interview combined with observation allows the research per—
son to check her observations and analysis with what the other partici-
pants were observing and feeling. Another advantage they point out is
that of the observation of social change. Interviewing persons about
past events has been demonstrated to be faulty. This is clear to me
from reading my journal, for some events stand out in my mind and
others I have forgotten until reminded by the journal. Only the daily
recording of events retains this perception of process.

As a check on my perceptions and memory, I have sent copies of

drafts of various parts of the dissertation to persons involved in

 

 

order to solir
observation h
turning anyth
dew
of the ongoin
ills, the ole
Mdmw
or faculty v
this they ha
mold extend

in letters 1;

 

 

30

order to solicit comments from them. Some discussions of participant
observation have made the point that the observer takes without re-
turning anything to those observed. In the instance of this case study,
many of the women involved believe that this dissertation is one aspect
of the ongoing activities of the Women's Center. The members of the

OWLs, the older women's rap group, discussed many times with me the pros—
pect of my writing my dissertation. All these women were either faculty
or faculty wives, and many of them expressed the feeling that for long

years they had given emotional Support to their husbands, and now they
could extend support to a woman. This view has been expressed to me

in letters to the date of this writing. Writing this dissertation is

a symbol of hope for all the others.

Data Analysis

The analysis of data was organized around certain variables, each

of which was observed over time.
(1) the formal structure of the organization

(2) the informal power structure operating within the formal
organization

(3) the public statements of goals by various members
private statements of goals by each member

(4) the
structure of the communication network existing outside

(5) the
the organization

structure of the political support network existing out-

(6) the
side the organization

(7) the structure of the material support network existing out—
side the organization

(8) a description of the community in which the organization

existed

 

._. W»...

(9) thr
()0) t
C

The ana
it can be use
is the analys
literature, i
about social
the spontane
ihevomen's ‘
not, not at
other theme
lsrequiring
mine of pg

lo a h
We explon
terendipith
lots. llel
lamp is 1
ml involv
’lltments,
'lliitingr

This

‘llnot he

that they

"What l

in “Then,

 

 

31

(9) the structure of the network of social welfare agencies
(TO) the network of social movements which existed in the
community
The analysis of one case study cannot prove any hypotheses, but
it can be used to falsify a proposition, as Gurr (T970) points out.
As the analysis proceded along the lines generally set forth in the

literature, it became clear that several assumptions commonly made
about social movements were being disproven. One such theme concerns

the spontaneity of social m0vements and their irrational behavior.
The women's movement in Carbondale shows a clear pattern of develop-
ment, not at all spontaneous, in line with rational objectives. An-

other theme concerns the nature of participation in a social movement

 

as requiring belief in a rigid ideology. Such was clearly not the

nature of participation in the Women’s Center.
In a positive sense, a case study can discover aspects never be-
fore explored. This complicates the analysis, of course. One such
serendipitous finding has been the notion of a network of social move-
ments. Well into the writing of Chapter Five, it became clear to me--
partly as I took note of the belief system of each of the women origin-

ally involved-—that the Women's Center represented two distinct social

nmvements, both of which perhaps represent waves of a larger all—

embracing movement.
This provides another example of how self—reports by participants

may not reveal what is going on. These participants were not aware
th they werecompletely intertwined in two social movements. The
original Task Force to organize the Women's Center was initiated by

two women. Carmen Stone was primarily oriented toward the Women's

 

lovement', Adrian
rent. Neither w

Another fa
tvtionalized rol
avdvithin the i
the “complex set
hit,“ as Greer
lartoi the inS'

is the social m

W

h backgro
in. Other asp
rith other vari
nimble way 0,
him partrch
lsee l'lntont 0
Wests of the
years of rest d

l“ itcess to

lllillledge 0f t

hit, when I F
'llllvo Hhigel-
its in the er

Chapheh
lilihehh in Ci

ll) CdmOndale

 

 

 

32

Movement; Adrian Vancouver represented the Crisis Intervention Move-
ment. Neither woman was aware of this difference in focus.

Another fascinating insight is that the change agent is an insti—
tutionalized role in American society, both within the formal structure
and within the interstices. Part of the culture of American society,
the "complex set of assumptions about the social world and the actors
in it,” as Greer (T969) defines culture, is the concept of change.

Part of the institutional structure of the United States, in some sense,

is the social movement organization.

Presentation of the Variables

 

A background description of the community was presented in Chapter
One. Other aspects of this variable appear in each chapter, interwoven
with other variables. Data on the community were gathered in every con-
ceivable way over a period of eight years residence in the community.
Having participated in a formal community study during the years l957-59
(see D'Antonio et_al, l96l), I was interested in looking at the various
aspects of the community power structure in Carbondale. During my eight
years of residence in Carbondale I was active in community affairs and
had access to several social science studies done of the community. My
hmwledge of the social welfare agency network in Carbondale began in
T965, when I participated in a survey for the League of Women Voters.
Mmfilyn Whisenhunt and I did a systematic survey of social welfare agen—
cies in the entire thirteen county area.

Chapter Three presents a historical description of the women's
movement in Carbondale. I have extensive notes on the women‘s movement

in Carbondale because it was my intention to write a study of the

 

 

organization
University.
izations, how
Enter to the
the llomen's (
in the latter
Chapter
eomunicatior
tattered fro
rams of per

rumored thi

 

Tooter durir
Chapte
ievter. ph-
llts listed
Telements,
Tremors a
" lllllOSiv
'll incentt
social ,thE
(lemmas
"WT see
Chap
oi the men
'll early
iron 0,

lie the

 

#4

 

 

 

33

organization of Affirmative Action on the campus of Southern Illinois
University. This is only part of the network of social movement organ-
izations, however. Later chapters discuss the relation of the Women's
Center to the crisis intervention movement. From another perspective,
the Women's Center could be considered a social movement organization
in the latter movement.

Chapter Four describes and analyzes the pre-existing networks of
communication,political support and material support. These data were
gathered from many sources. Some documents exist, such as the list of
names of persons attending the Women's Political Caucus Workshop. I
compared this list with the list of persons who pledged money for the
Center during its first year.

Chapter Five describes the process of recruitment into the Women's
Center. This chapter does not fit smoothly into the analysis of varia-
bles listed above but is an important aspect of the study of social
movements. Wilson contends that the major difference between social
movements and formal, complex organizations is that the former must rely
on purposive, solidary incentives while the latter have short-run mater-
ial incentives at their disposal. The problem of recruitment into a
social movement organization, then, becomes inducing persons to orient
themselves to such solidary incentives, in a society where persons are
highly socialized into seeking material rewards.

Chapter Six presents the belief systems, both public and private,
0f the members of the organization. Unfortunately data for this from
the early years of the Center are rather skimpy because systematic col-
lection of this data had not occurred to me. In the spring of 1974 I

wrote the first formal statement of my problem, and the need for more

 

 

 

data became c
systematicall
Chapter
The original
structure.
action over
structureles
lessness in
Chapte
ization witl
this develor
Crisis lnte
vomn's mov
interventio
rere the to
Successrhr
This, the
lotion th
Chap
immunity
with, at
lie 3th
ll these i

)ll rhle

 

34

data became clear. In June of l974 I spent two weeks in Carbondale
systematically interviewing members of the Center.

Chapter Seven follows the development of structure in the Center.
The original intent of those organizing the Center was to minimize
structure. Structure is inherent in human behavior, however. Inter-
action over time produces structure. Furthermore, the ideology of
structurelessness contains no prescriptions for retaining structure—
lessness in the face of all the cultural pressures to develop structure.

Chapter Eight is concerned with the development of professional-
ization within the Center. The conflicts were three‘way in regard to
UfiS development. The perspectives of the Women's Movement and the
Crisis Intervention Movement were at odds, in that the goals of the
women's movement are changes in society whereas the goals of the crisis
intervention movement are changes in the individual. Furthermore, there
were the contradictions inherent in all self—help groups. The more
successfu]_the members of a self-help group become in pursuing their
,goals, the more specialized they become in performance. This special-
'gfiF'99_Fh9U-'§3d$_t0 the development of structure.

Chapter Nine traces the relationship of the organization to the
community at large. Women at the Center discovered a network of social
welfare agencies, each of these agencies more than willing to utilize
the services provided by the Center. In response to the expectations
of these agencies, the Center defined itself as an agency and delineated

its role in the network of social welfare.

 

W

This cl

lease study
case an emerr
derives from
social movem
broad intere
the women ' s

society.

The ar
organizing d
Cdmunicatir
moment on
reconstruct
notes 1 had

The s
llllng to c
”li'S hehar
'llS involr
Titration,

lllther or
lllih the c
"ll. as t
The

" “ill men

Cling; Cl

'“dllite .

 

 

35

Conclusion

This chapter has been a discussion of the procedure of analysis.
A case study looks in depth at a particular social object, in this
case an emergent social movement organization. The rationale for this
derives from the need for empirically grOunded theory, particularly of
social movements. Data collection was carried out in relation to three
broad interests: the process of emerging structure in an organization,
the women's movement as social movement, and the study of women in
society.

The analysis of the data was carried out in relation to several
organizing themes. The first theme was that pre-existing networks of
communication and support were necessary for the emergence of a social
movement organization. Analysis of this theme involved historical
reconstruction from interviews with informants, existing documents and
notes I had been keeping to document a protest movement.

The second organizing theme deals with the paradox and strain of
trying to change the world, but accepting the world as a constraint on
one's behavior and having to obtain resources from the existing order.
Dfis involved analyzing the daily journal I kept. As the Center began
operation, task specialization began to occur. This analysis provided
another organizing theme, that of the organizational strains resulting
from the contradictions between the belief in leaderlessness and the
need, as the women perceived it, of specialization.

The increase in task specialization and the needs for recruitment
Ofrmw members to sustain the organization produced another organizing
theme: changes in ideology. Analysis of ideology, however, seemed to

indicate that ideology was primarily directed at outside audiences and

 

 

that task orient
cohesive force v
The final
Center to gain
ltraced out a

attempts of the

 

-l-_—7
36

that task orientation, more than shared abstract beliefs, was the main
cohesive force within the organization.

The final organizing theme of the analysis was the efforts of the
Center to gain legitimacy and build political resources. In doing this
I traced out a network of social welfare agencies and analyzed the

attempts of the Center to find a place in this network.

 

 

 

 

 

The ldor
part of a va
trace the hi
dale. First
rovements.

dinally I wi

 

CHAPTER THREE
BACKGROUND OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN CARBONDALE

The Women's Center was born out of a social movement which was
part of a vast upheaval of the 60s in America. This chapter will
trace the histroy of those events as they were manifested in Carbon-
dale. First I will discuss some theoretical notions about social
movements. Then I will discuss the women's movement in general. And

fhmlly I will trace the history of the movement in Carbondale.

Social Movement as Waves of Cultural Drift

Blumer (l95l) has discussed the notion of a general social move-
ment as cultural drift, suggesting that cultural changes occur out of
which people develop new concepts of themselves as well as new ways of
looking at the world. Persons with these new concepts begin in grop:
ing ways to bring about change. Blumer emphasizes that in the early
stages, a social movement is unorganized, without established leader-
ship or recognized membership, characterizing it as a collection of
individual decisions.

Burridge (T969) discusses millenarian movements in much the same
way but in more specific detail. For Burridge, an anthropologist of
the British school, a millenarian movement is one which seeks to bring
about a new heaven and a new earth. Burridge sees social movements as

ultimately concerned with redemption. He believes all human beings

37

 

 

 

seek some kir
larger transc
Burridq
social order
tion. A dev
roles as we
tasks but in
tige system.
as to their
"lost rubbi:
Burris
leer writin
Ti vorkplac
Tile in pm
A a mainte
lllldzed ti
lllld liar,
Similar te‘
social Uph
searehh,g
"'0 an in
tiled thei
ll Nelda,

and a new

 

38

seek some kind of justification for their existence in terms of a
larger transcendent order.

Burridge sees social movements as rising out of changes in the
social order by which people lose their traditional means of redemp-
tion. A developing social order brings about new tasks, or social
roles as we would call them. People gradually undertake these new
tasks but in the process isolate themselves from the established pres—
tige system. They have no means of gaining recognition from others
as to their essential worth. People begin to regard themselves as
'just rubbish" or as ”rubbish-men.“

Burridge was writing about people in Melanesia but he could have
been writing about women in industrial society. With the separation
of workplace from the home, women were deprived of a visible and valued
role in production (Zaretsky, l974; Benston, T973). Being a housewife
is a maintenance role, isolated and alienating. Parsons (l956) has
analyzed the McCarthy era as a nativistic movement following the Second
World War, and the feminine mystique of the 50s could be analyzed in
similar terms. The Second World War produced great geographic and
social upheavals in the United States, and after the War, persons were
searching for stability and an end to the upheaval. They retreated
into an imitation of the traditional family, where middle-class women
baked their own bread and practiced togetherness. This was documented
by Freidan (T962) just as the nativistic movement reached its climax
and a new era began.

Burridge defines the first phase of a movement as being character-
ized by an awareness of dissatisfaction. Friedan wrote about “the

Problem that has no name”-—a widespread disaffection with people

 

 

 

performing new
The secon
Blumer, is over
are relevant, a
ing chapter. l
of phase two, 2
cation for mob
out that the a
gives a focus
solution, howe

toChase three

systematic ide

this phase is

To termed the

Banks ar

'5 lllWitant

Orv-m—hm

Burrjd

39

performing new tasks under old assumptions which didn't quite fit.
The second phase of a movement, according to both Burridge and
Blumer, is overt activity. At this point Freeman's propositions (T975)

are relevant, and this point will be discussed further in the follow—

 

ing chapter. Freeman is trying to pinpoint a reason for the emergence

of phase two, and she finds it in the development of networks of communi-
cation for mobilizing around new spheres of action. Burridge points

out that the activities usually center around an economic issue which

gives a focus to the developing movement. A purely politico-economic

 

solution, however, cannot provide a basis for redemption, and this leads
to phase three. Phase three comes about with the development of a
systematic ideology which provides for a new mode of redemption. Often
this phase is characterized by the arisal of a prophet, what Max Weber

has termed the ”charismatic leader.”

Banks and Banks (l964) contend that the development of an ideology
is important for the survival of a movement. They write:

The methodological point of importance here is that such an
ideology, if it is to be regarded as characterizing a social
movement, must not be simply inferred by later sociologists
and historians from the activities of the individuals who
are members of the various organizations associated with it.
It must be consciously formulated as an ideology by those
who have committed themselves to the movement's goals and
activities. They must have deliberately created it, that is
to say, in order to foster and sustain the solidarity of the
adherents to the movement, both positively and directly, by
giving them a slogan to work with....and negatively and in-
directly, by providing an antidote to the counterideology of
those who opposed the movement's particular aims.

It is possible, indeed, that ideologies are necessary to
social movements because people are unable to nerve themselves
for the task of carrying out what may become a long and bitter
struggle with others for the reform of “abuses” as they see
them, unless they are able to couch their demands in the form
of deductions fronr more general ethical pricniples (p. 556).

Burridge contends that a movement which fails turns back in a

 

 

 

 

cycle to phi
rooen receir
d'lieill (l9d
its objecti‘
role of room

vent collap

hedev____Fem

Many
theoerrwav
the movemen
Tabernarke
against. i
aillion in
amen were
for profess
on. Many
wretheh

tell as so

Dix

 

 

4O

cycle to phase one. The original feminist movement died in T920 when
women received the vote. The analysis of Hole and Levine (l97l) and
O'Neill (T969), among others, is that the original movement narrowed
its objectives to women's suffrage rather than a broad change in the
role of women, and that with the attainment of a narrow goal the move-

ment collapsed.

The New Feminist Movement

Many strands are woven into the causal factors which brought about
the new wave of feminism in the mid-sixties. Dixon (l97l) argues that
the movement came about as a consequence of educated women entering the
labor marked in large numbers and finding themselves discriminated
against. Dixon reports that the number of working women rose from l6.9
mfllion in T957 to 24 million in T962. In T960, only l8% of working
women were in professional and managerial positions. The median income
for professional women in l960 was $4,358 as compared to $7,ll5 for
men. Many of the women entering the job market in the early sixties
were the housewives of the fifties, now older and subject to age as
well as sex discrimination.

Dixon's writings sound like an echo of the Melanesians who cry
that we are not ”rubbish men." She says, "The heart of the movement, as
hiall freedom movements, rests in women's knowledge, whether articula-
ted or still only an illness without a name, that they are not inferior—-
not chicks, nor bunnies, nor quail, nor cows, nor bitches, nor ass, nor
meat" (p. T77).

Carden (l974) emphasized the value conflicts experienced by women

in America today. The society makes contradictory demands on women, as

 

 

 

 

Cmrarovsky (
cheated in
high grades.
ported to gr
for which t|
the tasks 0
on televisi
you up, sh

The n
riddle clas
the contrad
engage in p
class womer
become cons
and their C
nether in

ration. F

describe

 

 

4T

Komarovsky (T946) pointed out long ago. On the one hand they are
educated in a school system which rewards them for achievement, for
high grades. As soon as they finish school, however, they are ex-
pected to get married and become primarily wives and mothers, a role
for which they have little preparation. Little prepares women for
the tasks of housewifery and motherhood, other than the commercials

on television, nor are there rewards to follow. When her children

grow up, she is left with an empty nest, obsolete in the labor market.

The women's movement has largely attracted middle and upper
middle class women because these are the women who most strongly feel
the contradictions within the system, and who have the resources to
engage in political protest. As Dixon (l97l) puts it, "It is middle
class women forced into working class life who are often the first to
become conscious of the contradiction between the 'American Dream'
and their daily experience” (p. T76). The contradictions for women,
whether in the work place or the home, increase with increasing edu—
cation. Freeman (T975) uses the notion of relative deprivation to
describe the contradictions. The highly educated woman forced to work
as a typist feels more deprived than the high school graduate.

Carden emphasizes the influence of the civil rights movement in
providing impetus for the women's movement. As a century before the
abolitionist movement had provided an impetus for the women's suffrage
movement, so once again the civil rights movement provided an egali—
tarian belief system. The ideology of the civil rights movement talks
about human freedom and equality, and women began to take this serious—
ly. The legal thrust of the women's movement began in T964 when the

word "sex" was added to the Civil Rights Bill in an attempt to defeat

..__..—

 

fi

iiebill. The so
ploughing stock

All those v
(dale and Levine.
tial bifurcation
rents. Sometime:
liberation and A
not, which grew
oppression of wo
rith radical cri
raising groups,
tion. The womer
minstream inst'
primarily orien‘
misting poli ti

Friedan's

the first stirr

 

in the Status
liven who had
linen were bei
In T964
The Civil Rig

levy little c

   

42

the bill. The southern Senator who added the word "sex" hoped to make
a laughing stock of the bill, but his actions had unanticipated effects.
All those who have written about the structure of the movement
(Hole and Levine, l97l; Carden, T974; Freeman, T975) agree on its essen—
tial bifurcation. Freeman, indeed, thinks there may well be two move-
ments. Sometimes these two branches of the movement are termed Women's
Liberation and Women's Rights. Women in the liberation wing of the move-
ment, which grew out of the New Left, are concerned with the personal
oppression of women and with creating alternative institutions, along
with radical criticism of existing ones. They form consciousness-
raising groups, publish newsletters and engage in other forms of educa-
tion. The women in the older wing of the movement came out of more
noinstream institutionalized political activity. Their activity is
primarily oriented toward changing the legal system and working through
existing political structures.

Friedan's book, Ihe_Feminine Mystigue (T962) is usually cited as
the first stirring of the women's movement. Friedan discusses “the
problem that has no name,” the general malaise felt by the happy house—
wife of the fifties. Here again we can use Burridge's analysis. The
traditional assumptions of women's roles did not fit the changing social
order of the sixties. In 196T President Kennedy had formed a Commission
on the Status of Women, largely as a sop to repay political debts to
women who had helped his campaign, and by T963, reams of new data about
women were being produced.

In l964, Title VII, the Equal Employment Opportunity section of
the Civil Rights Act, was passed with the addition of the word, ”sex.”

Very little change occurred following its passage, however. In T966,

 

fi

the third natir
Status of ilomer
rooms were cf
had made, and
for llomen) .

Alibi is s
tions. Consi d
is considered
of hill is to t
and economic 2
state legisla'

About t‘
developing co
by a woman in
Stokely Carmi
prone. In l9

first known

    
  
  
  
  
  
   

discussions
Terence. Th
to Hole and
the conventi

This

mvnnent.

 

 

 

 

43

the third national Convention of the various State Commissions on the
Status of Women was convened in Washington, D.C. At this convention,
persons were concerned about the lack of actual progress that women

had made, and a new organization was formed, NOW (National Orgainzation
for Women).

NOW is still the largest and strongest of the feminist organiza-
tions. Considered radical by conservatives and traditionalists, it
is considered a reform movement by more radical feminists. The purpose
of NOW is to bring about changes within the existing legal, political
and economic structure. In T976 the major thrust of NOW is getting
state legislatures to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

About the time that NOW was founded, women in the New Left were
developing consciousness. As early as T964, a paper had been presented
by a woman in SNCC titled ”The Position of Women in SNCC,” whereupon
Stokely Carmichael commented that the best position for women is to be
prone. In T967 a small group of wOmen began meeting in Chicago, the
first known independent radical women's grOup. The purpose of their
discussions was to present a list of demands to the New Politics Con—
ference. The women were badly treated by the convention, and according
to Hole and Levine, one commented that "rage at what had happened at
the convention kept us going for at least three months” (p. TT4).

This conference was Carbondale's original link with the women's
movement. Chuck Bowen, a student at Southern Illinois University,
attended this Conference in Chicago and returned home wondering what
the women were all about. Chuck had known me because I had been the
adult advisor of a high school group working with him on an SDS project.

So he called to ask me if I would teach in the Free University a course

 

 

 

 

on the role 0
Indeed,
spread to var
Boston, where
lisheda news
Tim movement
themselves if
when (l975)
Carden (l974)
hmnin the
hhtsand p
edges. Thee
inhedoha
mphasize se
pwihcoes e
the power me
hwmelves
heidea of

for liberat

  
  
  
  

that inequa
for persona
from men as

rhetoric.

44

on the role of women.

Indeed, after this Conference the women's liberation movement
spread to various cities in the United States, Chicago, New York,
Boston, where women organized groups and workshops. Jo Freeman pub-
lished a newsletter in Chicago for a year. The women in the libera-
tion movement, what Freeman calls the younger branch, often found
themselves involved in ideological splits, contrary to Freeman's
notion (T975) that the women's movement has no ideology. Perhaps
Carden (T974) is closer when she sees many individual ideologies.
Women in the liberation movement can be loosely categorized as fem-
inists and politicoes, although these differences tend to blur at the
edges. The difference between feminists and politicoes seems to lie
in the emphasis each places on the locus of inequality. Feminists
emphasize sexual inequality as basic to other inequalities, whereas
politicoes emphasize class inequality. Feminists are concerned with
the power men have over women in intimate relationships and concern
themselves with the personal as political. Feminists also emphasize
the idea of women separating from men and joining together to work
forliberation. Politicoes, on the other hand, emphasize the idea
that inequality between classes must be eliminated as a pre-requisite
for personal liberation. They are less often advocates of separation
from men as a political strategy, and are more likely to use leftist
rhetoric.

The women's liberation, or younger, branch of the movement has
assiduously avoided large scale organization, concentrating instead
on educational strategies such as news letters and women's centers.

Consciousness raising groups were developed by this part of the

 

 

mvement. The:
bitterness" as
lives and thei
reality change
Mitchell (T973
val fears of v
social problev
claiming the p
process is cor
Another
hldof struct
Tl participat
hllhn equalit
h amy with
less uncomprh
Tonnel. One
"'lTMliether
hasWhether
lhe wo

Curehf the
louhhrs P011.
hdlhwrfthe,
"hhlmt, 1

" St"UCtUT'r

branhh hhvi
""hl (is

level, They

 

 

45

movement. These are small informal groups of women who meet to "speak
bitterness" as the Chinese say (Hinton,l966). They talk about their
lives and their feelings, and in sessions like this, perceptions of
reality change and new understandings get social support. As Juliet
Mitchell (l973) says, ”The process of transforming the hidden, individ-
ual fears of women into a shared awareness of the meaning of them as
social problems, the release of anger, anxiety, the struggle of pro—
claiming the painful and transforming it into the p0litical—-this
process is consciousness-raising” (p. 61).

Another aspect of the women's liberation movement is the ideol-
ogy of structurelessness, borrowed from the New Left and the notions
of participatory democracy. All of the movements of the 60s emphasized
human equality, and a logical conclusion of absolute equality is to
do away with hierarchy. Purists insist on no structure whatsoever;
less uncompromising persons accept some structure with revolving per-
sonnel. One study group in which I participated spent a year discus-
sing whether or not the group should have a chairperson. Another topic
was whether or not the group should have a reading list.

The women's rights groups, on the other hand, utilize the struc—
ture of the larger society. Groups such as NON, NEAL and the National
Women‘s Political Caucus organized first at the national level. They
have written constitutions and the usual officers, president, vice—
president, secretary and treasurer. Freeman uses structure or the lack
0f structure to categorize the two branches of the movement, the older
branch having structure, the younger branch striving to be structureless.
Teasley (l976) questions this dichotomy, particularly at the local

level, where she sees a continuum along which various groups lie.

One has
thellonsen's R
tions of the
can he subjec
pork place.
considered to
pressure gror
sphere, hower
troops of woe
lside from t
and who are
orphat they
lltdooninatec
the Movement
hotly oars
ltriod, but
”9 ironing

AS mes
inherent lS
fills are p
Poll'tlcal c
its firstl
ltrspn llho
trapVer 8‘

llilnSt ma]
“honed

 

_4___4

 

 

 

46

One basis of the distinction between the Women's Liberation and
the Women's Rights movements lies in the differences in age and occupa-
tions of the two groups. The existing laws in the United States which
can be subjected to change by pressure tactics relate primarily to the
work place. In terms of mainstream politics, the family is usually
considered to be within the sphere of privacy and hence not subject to
pressure group tactics. Divorce laws and abortion touch the private
sphere, however, and an issue such as abortion is one where diverse
groups of women have mobilized to exert pressure on the legal system.
Aside from the abortion issue, women who are not in the marketplace
and who are not married are not able to bring legal pressures to bear
on what they feel is their oppression. These are the women who have
predominated in the younger branch of the movement. In l975 Freeman saw
the Movement moving toward the middle, with the bifurcation lessening.
Partly this is a consequence of its being a generally more quiescent
period, but partly it may be that the women forming the younger branch
are growing older, getting married and entering the market place.

As mentioned above, the largest single organization in the women's
nmvement is NOW, the National Organization for Women. Other organiza-
tions are WEAL (Women‘s Equity Action League), and the National Women's
Rflitical Caucus. NEAL is composed primarily of professional women.

Its first president, Dr. Bernice Sandler, is credited with being the
Person'who first conceived of using Affirmative Action executive orders
to cover sex discrimination. NEAL has brought Compliance Review suits
against many universities. The National Women's Political Caucus was
organized at a national level in August, l97l, in Washington, D.C.

Caucuses were established at the state level and from there down to

 

 

 

 

the local leve

tions at all i

N0ll cove

relatively av

omarange of

(ii discrimin

yaimst women
E ill the iamil
ical rights a
(Freeman, l9]
as sexuality
violence (N01
One ova.
tative of (it
lilarbondal
if the womer
it the womer
from the rip
Freem

does not ha
Stalement a

mm to

\

 

 

 

#1
l

47

the local level. The purpose of the Caucus is to get women into posi-
tions at all levels of the national political parties.
NOW covers the widest spectrum of activities. Local chapters are
relatively autonomous so that any given local chapter may be carrying
on a range of activities. Originally seven task forces were set up on:
(l) discrimination against women in employment, (2) discrimination a-
gainst women in education, (3) discrimination against women in religion,
(4) the family, (5) women's image in the mass media, (6) women's polit-
ical rights and responsibilities, and (7) the problems of poor women
(Freeman, 1975). Since then other task forces have been added, such
as sexuality, consciousness-raising, aging and battered women/household
violence (NOW Newsletter, June 1976).
One way in which the Women's Center in Carbondale is not represen-
tative of other women's centers around the country is that the Center
in Carbondale arose originally out of the Women's Political Caucus, part
ofthe women's rights branch. Centers in other cities were developed
by the women of the radical left. The consequences of this development
from the right will be explored more fully in the chapter on ideology.
Freeman (1975) states, as quoted in Chapter One, that the movement
does not have an ideology. Kenniston (1968) makes the same kind of
statement about a New Left anti-war group he studied in 1967. In the
Iggng Radicals he says,
My observations of this small group of New Left activists
do not allow me to test the validity of such generalizations
as they apply to the radical Right, to the Communist Left,
or even to the New Left in general. But in the group I
studied, explanations that posit a basic discontinuity be-
tween the young radical and his past or his tradition, or a
major suppression of important aspects of his own personality

are not adequate. Equally irrelevant to this group are those
explanations of political "extremism" that point to the role

 

 

 

Freema
to elaborate
oi the movem
lelief syste
and changes
are attempti
movement is
rather than

is levilder
Sentence or
lists assum
structure 5
The e
lily l”egalrc
alittson 5p
human bElno
lritppS for
hill. [in
the peg“
us to She
The legal

h artl'pul

 

#4

48

of an embracing ideology in allowing the individual to
repress or deny his personal problems: in this group,
formal ideology is almost completely absent. Missing as
well in this group are those precipitate conversions that
suggest a sudden reordering of the personality, accom—
panied by the suppression of what was previously dominant.
In all these respects, the young radicals I studied are
exceptions to most generalizations about the process of
involvement in politics.

Freeman talks about a ”feminist perspective," and I would like
to elaborate on this as a basis for the Movement. Individual members
of the movement seem always to be in a state of flux concerning their
belief systems. Carden points out that feminist ideology is amorphous
and changes for each woman as she becomes more radical. Both authors
are attempting to describe the same phenomenon. Commitment to the
movement is commitment to a perspective, a new perception of reality,
rather than to a formalized belief system. Commitment to a perspective
is bewildering for others to understand. It cannot be explained in a
sentence or two, and it constantly changes. If a person alters one
basic assumption underlying a whole structure of perception, then the
structure shifts, but it shifts in bits and pieces, not all at once.

The everyday reality of our culture is such that males are gener-

ally regarded as normal and females as something other than normal. If

a person shifts this basic premise to state that men and women are both

human beings, not very different from each other, all of reality shifts.

Writers for M§_magazine call this the ”click” experience (see O'Reilly,
l973). One such experience for me was watching a CBS documentary on
the legal system of the United States. The intent of the documentary
was to show racial injustice, but as I watched all I could see were men.
The legal apparatus of the country is male. My feeling is difficult

to articulate, but since watching that program I have felt oppressed in

 

 

 

mwn I
mower
unvomen app
(normarket,
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fi ”W37

49

a new way. I feel at the mercy of a legal system run by men. My
first radicalizing experience was the divorce court in l95l, where I
saw women applying for divorce, women with no skills for entering the
labor market, deserted by their husbands, left to take care of small

children.

 

i For the radicalizing woman, life becomes one “click" after an-
other. She reads something and discusses it with other women. She

r lives in a world of two realities as she shifts from one perspective

to another, presenting to others what seems like a strange maze of
contradictions. The movement in Carbondale provides an illustration of
how the movement has spread in general. Let us turn now to a specific

discussion of the movement in Carbondale.

 

History of the Women's Movement in Carbondale

 

The Movement began in Carbondale with a course on the Role of

Women which I taught for the Free University in the spring of l968.

 

 

At that time I was an instructor in the Department of Sociology at
Southern Illinois University. Chuck Bowen, one of the local leaders
of SDS (Students for a Democratic SocietY), called me that winter and

asked me to teach the course. As discussed earlier, he and several

 

other people had returned from a New Politics Conference in Chicago
where women had been protesting their rights, and these young men
wanted to know what this new issue was all about. Three male members
of SDS faithfully attended class as well as various other people,
about 15 in all. It was from this class that I came to occupy a nexus

in the communication network underlying the women's movement in Carbon-

dale.

 

 

 

One of the
Gillespie, an un
attended a confe
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Structure‘ In

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lure suspended

lettered the

 

 

50

One of the women who attended the class on sex roles was Diane
Gillespie, an undergraduate student at S.I.U. In June, l968, she
attended a conference in Chicago and heard a woman speak on women's
liberation. She returned to Carbondale and organized the Mary Wool—
stonecraft Society, comprised of four undergraduate women, one grad-
uate student and me. Diane intended to organize an explicitly feminist
group, but other than that we were all bewildered about what our aims
were. We had not at that time heard of consciousness-raising, if in-
deed it had been invented. Our ideas of women's liberation were de-
rived from the feminist movement of the century before, as evidenced
by the name of our group. Mary Woolstonecraft was one of the first
persons to advocate the rights of women, publishing her Vindication 9f
Iflg_flight§,9f_flgmen in the late eighteenth century.

During that summer we read books such as Betty Freidan's The_fgm;
jflifle_Mystigue and Simone de Beauvoir's Ih§_§gggng_§§x, The graduate
student in the group, Norma, was an avowed Marxist, and our analysis
was radical along the lines of the Old Left, i.e., we interpreted the
oppression of women as being caused by their position in the economic
structure. In the fall we presented a series of weekly panel discus-
sions at the More Than Bread luncheon series sponsored by the Student
Christian Foundation. After that, the organization dwindled away as
student organizations have a tendency to do.

Three of the members vanished from the scene. From the beginning
of l969 until the fall of l97l Norma was primarily active in the Peace
Movement. Her husband was one of the notorious Carbondale Forty who
were suspended from the University on the grounds that they had pre-

Cipitated the riots which closed the University in the spring of l970.

 

 

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52

As the peace movement and other movements became less active, however,
Norma became more involved in feminist activities. Diane subsequently
moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where in l973 she founded a Women's Center
modeled after the Center in Carbondale.

In the winter of l970 female graduate students of the sociology
department of Southen Illinois University organized the Significant
Other Society with a goal of mutual support. The women felt that the
worst oppression suffered by female graduate students is the daily put-
down by male faculty members. Women are told that they have no poten-
tial, that they may as well quit, or that they will get married and
leave the field. The women began gropingly and tentatively to share
their experiences. A year later they were caught up in the Affirma—
tive Action movement, and members presented a petition to the Chairman
of the Sociology Department, charging sexism in the department. Each
woman was individually threatened with reprisals by the Chairman if
any such protest behavior continued, and the organization fell apart.

In November, 1970, Dr. Annette Brodsky organized the group which
came to be known as Academic Women for Equality. The initial meetings
were attended by faculty women, faculty wives and graduate students,
but by spring the group consisted of seven women, three graduate stu-
dents, three instructors and one assistant professor. This group re—
jected any form of consciousness raising and insisted on action. The
structure of AWE supports Teasley's contention (l976) that feminist
groups lie along a continuum from being structureless on the left to
having hierarchical structure on the right. AWE was an "interest
organization” attempting to bring about changes within the university

System. We formed a research collective designed to help each other

 

 

publish, follow

ses on women wh
native Action W
participate in
all that, the 9
less.

. AllE's sue
Eventually most
rith HEll, many
person of AllE.
them women inc
professor, fou
cured with loss
'puisance acti

In the f
the llomen's Li
group, all un
lad previousl
ledu
mmflm

SMMHW

hhdhm

romeo

 

 

53

publish, following the rules of the system, and organized several cour-
ses on women which we taught as a team. Finally we organized an Affir-
mative Action Workshop which attempted to organize women on campus to
participate in a forthcoming HEW compliance review of S.I.U. Yet for
all that, the group believed in not having a leader and being structure-
less.

} AWE's success at organizing was its downfall within the system.
Eventuallynmstof the 204 women on the faculty of S.I.U. filed complaints
with HEW, many of them filed anonymously through the Complaint Chair-
person of AWE. In December, l97l, ll9 instructors were fired, 59 of
them women including the three women of AWE. Dr. Brodsky, the assistant
professor, found a job elsewhere, and the graduate students were threat-
ened with loss of assistantships if they participated in further
"nuisance activities.” AWE was disbanded.

In the fall of l970, also,a group of undergraduate women formed
the Women's Liberation Front. About ten women formed the core of this
group, all undergraduates between the ages of 20 and 25. These women
had previously been active in the Peace Movement on campus. One of them,
Jan Wayne,1 who later became active in the Women's Center, had been
arrested for participation in the burning of the ROTC building in the
Spring of l970. She had also been beaten by the police during a raid
on the alleged headquarters of the student activists during the major
riots which closed the university.

Women in the Women‘s Liberation Front vehemently rejected all
forms of structure and authority. Many of them advocated violent

“h“—

. 1Names have been changed throughout the study to protect the
identity of the participants.

 

 
 
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
   
  
  
  
  
 
 
   
   
   
   
   

revolution. F
tireless syst
radical males.
opemmeetings
our undergra
women came bar
it to I5 core

During 1
Robin Morgan '
tothe group ‘
student wives
group. Durin
on between th
agraduate st
those stories
istration and
center. Havi
they have an
use).

In Jul

sit-in at th

Wives of stu

54

revolution. For the most part, they were concerned with eliminating
the class system and were oriented toward ideologies developed by
radical males. In this sense they were politicoes. They held weekly
open meetings during fall and winter of 1970—7l. Approximately 60

to 80 undergraduate women attended each meeting, but none of these
women came back for more than two or three meetings other than the

ID to l5 core members.

During the winter term l97l the Women's Liberation Front brought
Robin Morgan to campus as a speaker, and she donated her honorarium
to the group for the purpose of establishing a day care center for
student wives, but the University refused to release the money to the
group. During the spring and summer endless negotiations were carried
on between the group and the administration. During this time Barbara,
a graduate student in English, said, “It is like a fairy tale, one of
those stories where you keep having to do things. We go to the admin-
istration and they say, if you do this task you can have a day care
center. Having done the impossible task, we return, only to find that
they have another impossible task for us to perform“ (Journal, July,
l97l).

In July a group of between 50 and ICC women and children held a
sit—in at the University Center (the Student Union). These women were
Wives of students, many part—time students themselves who needed child
care facilities. The administration surrendered to this onslaught of
the innocents, and released the honorarium to the Women's Liberation
Front. A day care center was set up in the basement of a local church
where it functioned for one year, l97l—72. During that year the group

also published a newspaper, Mountain Moving Day.

 

 

At thi
between the
after two ye
orpanizatior
in time; the
the llomen's
raises ques:
organizatior
analogous to
aperiod of
wired (or s
the social
activities,

The t
recruit new
turnover r2
zation must
llomen's Li
panization
quired by
Overtly t
less over
Such as c
the then—
amd they

Literati 0

language .

 

 

 

55

At this point it may be appropriate to examine the differences
between the Women's Liberation Front, whose activities dwindled away
after two years, and the Women's Center, which has become a legitimate
organization in the community. The two organizations did not overlap
in time; the Women's Liberation Front existed from l970-72, whereas
the Women's Center was organized in I972 and is still operating. This
raises questions about what constitutes success for a social movement
organization. It would seem that a social movement organization is
analogous to a volatile chemical which cannot remain in that state over
a period of time. The organization either vanishes or becoms legiti—
mized (or stable). One criterion of success might be the changes in
the social structure that occur as a consequence of the organization's
activities, but that, indeed, is another study.

The Women's Liberation Front dwindled away because it failed to
recruit new members. Any voluntary organization experiences a high
turnover rate in membership. In order to maintain itself, the organi-
zation must constantly recruit new members. I would argue that the
Women's Liberation Front failed to recruit new members because the or-

ganization was ideologically closed. That is, new members were re—

quired by informal social pressure to conform to a prevailing ideology.

Overtly the ideology was focused on such issues as structurelessness.
Less overtly, informal pressures were brought to bear around issues
such as clothing and makeup. Women in the Liberation Front dressed in
the then—current radical uniform of jeans and workshirt or overalls,
and they wore no cosmetics. Many women felt that the members of the
Liberation Front were hostile to men. Another form of closure was

language. Women in the Liberation Front used jargon current in the

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
   
 
  
  
   
    
   
   
   

leuleft.
excluding t
leseem in

That
because the
daycare ce
spared time
outlier cont
thus in of
factor in '
tween the I
tually dec
the Center
subscribed
hers event
then there

As to
anewspap
lack of r

pointed 0

because 0

T_______

56

New Left. Thus language usage may be used to firm up group boundaries,
excluding those not familiar with the rhetoric; the process can also
be seen in use of slang by in—groups.

The Day Care Center was another case where membership dwindled

 

because the Front demanded compliance with a set of closed rules. The

day care center was cooperative, that is, parents were required to

 

spend time in the Center. The Center demanded that both father and
mother contribute equal hours. Many fathers refused to participate,
thus in effect barring their children from participation. Another
factor in the demise of the Day Care Center was ideological conflict be-
tween the members of WLF and the paid director. Members of WLF even—
tually decided that a full time paid director was necessary to maintain
the Center. They could not find a trained nursery school teacher who
subscribed to their ideology of structurelessness. So committed mem—
bers eventually took their children out of the day care center. And
then there were none.

As mentioned previously, the other major project of the WLF was
a newspaper, Mountain Moving_ggy, Its subsequent demise was due to
lack of resources, both monetary and personnel. Wilson (l973) has
pointed out that most social movement organizations are short lived
because of lack of resources, and this group seems to fit that pattern.

Meanwhile AWE was gathering statistical evidence and complaints
to be used for a compliance review of Southern Illinois University by
the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. During the summer of
l97l AWE held Affirmative Action Workshops on campus to acquaint em-
Ployees of all levels with procedures for filing complaints. This

Points up a difference between the goals of different organizations

 

within the M
cover only e
no may cover
students eng
students ini
Member
coalition do
in relation
the provisir
from the ear
lltlish, wa:

of the thre

htthw
Une m

tion that s
lllmunicatp
hit one the
livers tee
other fol, .
for Voting

M The

following

reopen Whi

“WIS to

One

 

57

within the Movement. The executive orders under which HEW operates
cover only employees of the university; students at that time were in
no way covered by any legal procedures. Consequently undergraduate
students engaged in protest activities whereas faculty and graduate
students initiated legal procedures.

Members of AWE, SDS and the Women's Liberation Front formed a
coalition during the fall of I97] to organize women graduate students
in relation to the compliance review. Graduate students fall under
the provisions of the executive orders for “apprentices.” Norma,
from the early Mary Woolstonecraft Society, a graduate student in
English, was active in this coalition, although she belonged to none

of the three groups.

The OWLs and the Munchies: Informal Networks of Communication

One major organizing theme of this dissertation is the proposi—
tion that social movements arise out of a pre-existing network of
communications. This theme will be expanded in the following chapter,
but one chain of communications will be described in this section. The
Women's Center built on two networks, one for financial support and the
other for internal staffing of the Center, as reflected in the criteria
for voting membership in the Center, either money pledges or hours of
work. The support network will be discussed in Chapter Four, and the
following pages will describe in detail the personal chains of communi-
cation which expanded the women’s movement in Carbondale, producing the
Women’s Center.

One Sunday in October, l97l, at the Annual Picnic of the Unitarian

fellowship, several women discussed the possibility of a discussion

 

 

 

 

trove. Bot
raising int
discussiong
stance of de
audience. I
although in
bringing a l
Member
ourselves, I
member ish
stated that
tent as suc
as one more
Hfrsituat
buriv
elthertaug
MS editor
newstaper.
Mther of
earlltwen
today. I
”Mariya"CE
when
1he
mumilitant
Ihave]:0

We cl

58

group. By that time they had read about the idea of consciousness-
raising in the mass media, but they decided to call the meetings a
discussion group in order not to frighten women away. This is an in—
stance of deliberately not using jargon in order to reach a particular
audience. The group is an open group, that is, new people can come,
although in practice this has mostly been by invitation, by someone
bringing a friend.

Members of the OWLs (Older Women's Liberation), as we called
ourselves, did not possess a common political ideology. One former
member is here at MSU, and in a discussion in January, 1975, she
stated that she did not believe that there was a single women's move-
ment as such but rather many movements which are viewed by outsiders
as one movement. She stated that women were concerned with their own
life situation, not some overall change in society.

During l97l—73, when I belonged to the group, almost all members
either taught at the University or were married to faculty. One woman
was editor of the women's page of the Southern Illinoisan, the local
newspaper. One woman was an old—time socialist from the thirties, the
mother of a national secretary of SDS. The women ranged in age from
early twenties to late sixties, with a large proportion between 40
and 50. This particular age range gave the group a flavor I have never
experienced in any other group. All the w0men were angry but were at
different levels of awareness and ability to deal with their anger.

I have done structured research on women influentials in a com-
nmnity and I have participated in various rap groups. One hidden fact

I have found is that in American society women from the upper and upper

"fiddle classes who are over forty are very angry, an anger sometimes

 

 

 

 

hidden from
have devotee
only to fin
rem leave h
have had aT
necessary t
they raise
The t
Many of the
betin to do
as a newspr
tiomal bre.
anew feel
roger With
PaMela was
'5 l Perso
till). 33
hot the C(
they had \'
dmlped o.
DreSo'dent
“958 and
led nape,
lith Mary
on
Tauper a]

lever dis

 

59

hidden from themselves but always hidden from the public. These women
have devoted themselves to husbands, children and community activities,
only to find at the end that they have nothing to show for it. Child-
ren leave home; husbands find younger women. Until recently, women
have had almost no direct power in community activities. Women are
necessary to keep the community running. They staff political campaigns;
they raise money. But they have no voice in policy decisions.
The OWLs discussion meetings were more than a bitch session.

Many of the women were able to focus their attention on themselves and
begin to do things for themselves. Maxine came to the group ostensibly
as a newspaper reporter doing a story. She was on the verge of an emo-
tional breakdown, perhaps suicide. Out of the meetings she derived
a new feeling of appreciation for herself. She was able to express
anger with her husband for dying and come to deal with her loneliness.
Pamela was newly divorced. She returned to college and began to bloom
as a person. Alice started graduate school and is currently finishing
a PhD. Syble came close to awareness of her anger with her marriage

but the costs were too high. She was married to a full professor and
they had just built a new house in an exclusive development. She
dropped out of the group. Mab attended a workshop for potential college
presidents and discovered discrimination. Her previous facade of sweet—
ness and light was shattered and she discovered her bitter anger. Ruth
had never married, and for the first time she began to make friends

With married women. Carmen organized the Women's Center.

This group was extremely important to the evolution of the Women's

Center and intricately involved with the Center. The Women's Center was

never discussed at the meetings because they were devoted to more

 

 

 

 

 

personal cent
in some way a
of the Board
was one bond
tion in the I
learned to t'
Nnothe
sciousness
yot stoned a
llll, was in
Naomi and I
if the ori gi
aboard Memt
liveness Ira
Naomi
it New York
husband in
N esvcoooo
ll lsrchooo
l oonsctopps
SNructop ir
We in
his and F,
hence knew
lllsh‘
NS 1

derStand s

60

personal concerns, but almost all of the members of the group worked
in some way at the Center. Pamela, Carmen, Roxanne and I were members
of the Board of Trustees. Participation in common tasks at the Center
was one bond of cohesiveness for the discussion group, but participa-
tion in the discussion group was one way in which women at the Center)
learned to trust each other.
Another network of informal communication was the closed con-
sciousness raising group, the Munchies, so—called because we often
got stoned at Our meetings. This group, organized also in October,
l97l, was important in organizing and maintaining the Women's Center.
Naomi and I published Kinswomen for a year. Iris and Fern were members
of the original committee to form the Women's Center. Frances became
a Board Member in the spring of T973. Angie was in charge of Effec-
tiveness Training and Ayn helped organize the Mom and Tots program.
Naomi had belonged to a consciousness—raising group in the state
of New York during the year l970-7l and moved to Carbondale with her
husband in the fall of l97l. Naomi's husband was a graduate student
in psychology who shared an office with Angie, also a graduate student
in psychology. Angie knew me in AWE and asked me if I wanted to join
a consciousness—raising group. I knew Ayn, whose husband was an in-
structor in sociology as I was, and I knew that she had belonged to
a group in Boston and was looking for another in Carbondale. Fern,
Iris and Frances were wives of graduate students in psychology and
hence knew Naomi and Angie. Naomi recruited one of her neighbors,
Trish.
As I began to analyze the data on belief systems, I came to un-

derstand something about the group that had always eluded my

 

cumprehensic
meeting at '
meet her exp
maTize our i
realized th
women‘s mov
tervention

resented bo
group seeki

the beT ief

 

liberation
The when
New.
rent, NNE,
TSNld Lei
livell as
The

hood. The
aims pn on"
08(hiring
rent), one

ting 0ft

m"Meant

letraces

ohm c

tolie.

lodivpdUi

 

#4

6T
comprehension. The group met weekly for two years, and at almost every
meeting at least some of the members complained that the group did not
meet her expectations. I now think it unfortunate that we did not for-
malize our expectations. Analyzing the belief systems of the women, I
realized that this group was a mixture of two social movements, the
women's movement and the human potential movement, of which crisis in-
tervention is a branch. Further, the women in the women's movement rep-
resented both wings of the movement. Iris, Fern, and Frances joined the
group seeking a growth group. Naomi and Sue were thoroughly imbued with
the belief systems of the women's movement, and they came from the women's
liberation branch of the movement. They read literature and passed on
the contents to us, for example, Ayn had an early copy of Qur_ngie§,
Ourselves. Angie and I came from the women's rights branch of the move-
ment, AWE, although my own orientation could more properly be described
as Old Left. (I have detailed field notes of the first year of meetings
as well as notes kept by Naomi and Ayn for the first months.)

The group was in constant conflict. Naomi was heavily into sister-
hood. The rest of us did not want to be sisters; we had individualistic
aims in mind. The notion of a growth group comes out of the humanistic
psychology social movement (sometimes called the human potential move—
ment), one of whose branches is the crisis intervention service. The
aims of the humanistic psychology movement overlap those of the women's
movement in that all human beings are considered to be equal. The dif—
ferences will be discussed further in the cahpter on recruitment, for the
crucial difference lies in where the individual's problems are thought
to lie. The humanistic psychology movement locates problems within the

individual and seeks the solution in changing the individual, whereas

 

the women's
seeks to ch
Iris
Nomen's Cer
terested iv
tion betwer
involved.
in working
meet in th
opened, an
a decidedl
This
hances' p
telephone
it was Fri
Newm- S'
the and (
HaNN None
tion of Ni
Ndisp‘ng g
these pro
Nipple NE
w beton
heatingS
help Neel
No

l) Rene

 

#4

62

the women's movement locates problems within the social system and
seeks to change that.

Iris and Fern became interested in the committee to form a
Women's Center and were two of the core founding group. They were in-
terested in forming a crisis intervention center, although the distinc—
tion between this and a Women's Center was hidden from everybody
involved. They were responsible for getting the rest of us involved
in working for the Women's Center. Our group was the first group to
meet in the Women's Center, the week before the Center officially
opened, and our group founded the Crash Consciousness-raising groups,
a decidedly political activity.

This group formed the link with the crisis intervention movement.
Frances' husband was Director of the Crisis Intervention Service, a
telephone hot line service sponsored by Southern Illinois University.
It was Frances' husband who had the initial idea for Crash Consicious-
ness-raising groups, that is, open groups held at a regularly scheduled
time and place with any woman welcome to attend once or many times.

Many women called the Crisis Intervention Service who were in a situa-
tion of muted crisis, lonely with no friends. Our consciousness—
raising group had tried to help start other groups, but we found that
these groups failed after a few meetings. It became obvious to us that
people need training in being group members. So in the summer of T972
we began to hold Crash CR groups weekly. After the Center opened, the
meetings were held in the Center, and by spring T973 two meetings were
held weekly. Smaller, closed groups spun off from these initial groups.

Another link of communication for the establishment of the Center

was Remembrance Crane, who did Abortion Counseling and was on the Board

 

of Police a
to describe
with any gr
sociology.
and the tee
pears and l
vacations.
member of
mi politi
the chairm
Novernor c
Precinct c
Democratic
woman). (
iii Signa-
ls l tepri
Shirley 5
deal of D

W

Nnc
Thirst“
sihngwel
handing
No idea
Vallipuve

it the e

 

 

W7 ——_"" ' w" ‘ ‘4..,_’,

63

of Police and Fire. (Teasley, l976, has coined the term "Free Agent”
to describe women who have an individual project and are not affiliated
with any group.) Remembrance was the wife of a faculty member in
sociology. She had been doing abortion counseling for several years
and the Center worked with her. I had known Remembrance for those
years and had substituted for her as an abortion counselor during her
vacations. She was invaluable in our contacts with the police, as a
member of the Police and Fire Board. She was also our link with for-
mal political structure for she was active in Democratic politics and
the chairman of the county party as well as heading the Walker for
Governor committee. Many of us involved with the Women's Center were
precinct chairmen or chairwomen (these being official titles in the
Democratic party in Illinois; each precinct has a chairman and a chair-
woman). One of the activities of the Women's Political Caucus was to
get signatures on a petition which put Remembrance on the primary ballot
as a representative to the National Democratic Convention pledged to
Shirley Chishom. Women involved in the Women's Center swung a great

deal of political weight in the county.

The Convergence of the Networks

And so the curtain rises on our drama. All these networks of com-
munication came together on December I, l97l, at an all-day workshop
sponsored by the Women's Political Caucus. This is still celebrated as
Founding Day by the Women's Center, for it was at this workshop that
the idea of a Women's Center was conceived. Carmen Stone and Adrian
Vancouver came to the workshop with the idea of a Women's Center, and

at the end of the day had organized a Task Force to Organize a Women's

' .
l
o

 

 

tenter.
In the f
outa call to
in September,
organizing noes
field, the sta
irganization,
and then then
Nights Organi
or the Momen'
into district
bility of org
0n Dece
htNomen's p
0fOrganizing
ill a convert
ill members .
l0Nero's Libe
lffillated c
asked to 51-9

ihhye) for D

“New
This (
hibondaye.

hhhen‘ The

 

 

Center.

In the fall of l97l the National Women's Political Caucus sent
out a call to all the states to form a local caucus in each state. So
in September, l97l, ll women from Carbondale drove north to attend the
organizing meeting of the Illinois Women's Political Caucus in Spring-
field, the state capital. Two women belonged to the Welfare Rights
Organization, eight of us were members of the League of Women Voters,
and then there was Norma, a Socialist. (The members of the Welfare
Rights Organization did not participate further in either the Caucus
or the Women's Center.) At the statewide meeting, the state was divided
into districts, and the women from Carbondale were given the responsi-
bility of organizing the lower thirteen counties.

On December I, l97l, the self-constituted Carbondale Caucus of
the Women's Political Caucus held an all-day workshop for the purpose
of organizing. Approximately 200 women attended the workshop, represent-
ing a convergence of the pre-existing networks of communication, namely,
two members of the Mary Woolstonecraft Society, members of AWE, the
Women's Liberation Front and the League of Women Voters, as well as un—
affiliated concerned women from three counties. Women present were
asked to sign a mailing list, and this list was then used, as mentioned

above, for pledge solicitations for the Center.

6mm

This chapter has traced the background of the women's movement in
Carbondale. The second wave of the feminist movement began in T966 and
T967 with the founding of NOW and the rising consciousness of radical

women. The movement spread to Carbondale in T968 when members of SDS

 

asked for a c
group was for
when women on
dergraduate c
of MIT which
for recruitme
tarbonc
mot spreads
cloud and ra.
Thenew idea
then form 1'
the System v
ally.

 

 

 

 

65

asked for a class on women in the Free University. A woman's discussion
group was formed in the summer of l968. The movement expanded in T970
when women on campus formed a faculty/graduate student group and an un—
dergraduate group. Consciousness—raising groups were formed in the fall
of l97l which became the chains of face-to-face communication necessary
for recruitment into the Women's Center.

Carbondale provides a microscopic case study of how a social move-
ment spreads. In Carbondale was a population of women already politi-
cized and radicalized. A new idea was carried in by various people.

The new idea was picked up by the women in Carbondale, assimilated and
given form in a way peculiar to Carbondale. The movement has changed

the System very little, but the lives of many women have changed radic—

ally.

 

The
speculatio
is such th
chance to
Themselves
hair own

One
provided |
Numicatio
lhvement.

prolltlsiti
lTeenan's
Tester (pp
Thich (a)
“ll tilSt

”W5 the

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR
PRE-EXISTING NETWORKS OF COMMUNICATION

The origins of social movements have long been a question of
speculation forsocial scientists. The nature of social movements
is such that they are most often flourishing before anyone has a .
chance to study their origins. Recently, however, social scientists
themselves have participated in movements and have begun to draw on
their own experiences to elaborate theory.

One such explanation of the origins of a social movement is
provided by Freeman (T975) with her suggestion that networks of com—
munication are a necessary precondition for the emergence of a social
nmvement. The purpose of this chapter will be to examine Freeman's
propositions in the light of this case study. First I will present
Freeman‘s propositions. Then I will present the case of a Women's
Center which failed. Third, I will trace the networks in Carbondale
which lay the foundation for the Women's Center there. Finally, I
will discuss the contributions that this case study has made to Free-

man's theory.

Exposition of Theoretical Themes
In her study of the origins of the women's movement, Freeman
(T975) has utilized communication theory to develop the theme of how

social movements originate and why certain movements are successful.

66

 

 

 

Social movemer
that a situat'
exists-what i
certain condi

Freeman state

.A.m4._H—’-I-OJ(D<UOOO

R0ger

Seamh into

67

 

Social movements do not spring up spontaneously, she argues. Given
that a situation favorable to the development of a social movement
exists——what Smelser (T963) has termed “structural conduciveness"-—
certain conditions must be met in order for a social movement to arise.
Freeman states these conditions in the form of three propositions:

Proposition l: The need for a pre—existing communica-
tions network or infrastructure within the social base of
a movement is a primary pre-requisite for "spontaneous"
activity. Masses alone don't form movements, however dis-
contented they may be. Groups of previously unorganized
individuals may spontaneously form into small local asso-
ciations——usually along the line of informal social net—
works-—in response to a specific strain or crisis, but if
they are not linked in some manner the protest does not
become generalized; it remains a local irritant or dis—
dolves completely. If a movement is to spread rapidly,
the communications network must already exist. If only
the rudiments of one exist, movement formation requires
a high input of ”organizing” activity.

Proposition 2: Not just any communications network
will do. It must be a network that is co-optable to the
new ideas of the incipient movement. To be co-optable, it
must be composed of like—minded people whose background,
experiences, or action in the social structure make them
receptive to the ideas of a specific new movement.

Proposition 3: Given the existence of a co—optable
communications network, or at least the rudimentary devel-
opment of a potential one, and a situation of strain, one
or more precipitants are required. Here, two distinct
patterns emerge that often overlap. In one, a crisps gal—
vanizes the network into spontaneous action on.a new der
ection. In the other, one or more persons begin organizing
a new organization or disseminating a new idea. For spon—
taneous action to occur, the communications network must
be well formed or the initial protest will not survive the
incipient stage. If it is not welluformed, organozong .
efforts must occur; that is, one or more persons must specs—
fically attempt to construct a movement. To be successful,
organizers must be skilled and must have a fertile field
in which to work. If no communication network already ex-
ists, there must at least be emerging spontaneous groups
which are acutely attuned to the issue, albeit uncoordinated.

Rogers and Shoemaker (T97l) have compiled a vast summation of re—

search into the communication process by which social change occurs.

They have d
process of
by mass med
mess and kr
important 1
a two-step
women read
other womer
The p
investigatr
ogorized b;
uovations.
obsession;
hit do no
Stead are
ii the pm
profit mos
Earl
hey are p
“Mites Iii
hid the la
”The atto
Tigers an
The
room 9fo
hiing a

”it of p

 

 

68

They have developed a model of a multi-step flow of ideas in the
process of change in a society where the population is saturated

by mass media. Mass media channels are important in creating aware—
ness and knowledge of a new idea, whereas interpersonal channels are
important in changing attitudes. Carden (l974) similarly describes
a two-step model of communication in the women's movement. Certain
women read movement literature and pass the information along to
other women by word of mouth.

The process of diffusion of new ideas has been studied by many
investigators as reported by Rogers and Shoemaker. Persons are cat-
egorized by these investigators in terms of their acceptance of in-
novations. Early innovators are those for whom venturesomeness is an
obsession; these types are characterized as rash, daring and risky.
They do not form part of the local network of communications but in-
stead are tuned into a cosmopolitan network and are not significant
in the process of diffusion of ideas. They are often the ones who
profit most from a new idea, however.

Early adopters show the greatest degree of opinion leadership.
They are members of the local establishment and their acceptance legi-
timates new ideas. Their followers are divided into the early majority
and the late majority of adopters. Finally there are the laggards
Whose attention is fixed on the rear-view mirror, in the words of
ROgers and Shoemaker.

Freeman utilizes this model of diffusion to describe the mush-
room effect of the women's movement in l970. Adoption of a new idea
fOllows a fairly predictable bell-shaped curve. At some point the

. . I
rate of increase shoots radically upward; in this case, the women 5

 

 

movement ”t
March, l9lt
picked up 1
The w
toward the
whose exiS'
westigatioy
only where
They

this study
tours bet
hint out
others, at
tion treat
tribe the

at the for

dynamic a
workS of
tions, y
toysyyng
interact.
lfllmyum Ci
Minn h

lh

 

69

movement ”took off" following the media blitz between January and

March, l970. For some reason television and the national magazines

 

picked up the idea of the women's movement during that period.

The work of Rogers and Shoemaker is almost entirely oriented
toward the issue of co—optation of the networks of communication,
whose existence they take for granted, although they do cite one in—
vestigation which shows that diffusion of an innovation takes place
only where there are pre-existing channels of communication. I

They point out other aspects of diffusion that are relevant to

this study, such as the fact that transfer of ideas most frequently

 

occurs between a source and a receiver who are alike. They also
point out that opinion leaders have greater social participation than
others, although there is no evidence to indicate whether participa-

tion creates leaders or whether leaders participate more. They des-

 

cribe the case of a village in Colombia where the opinion leader lived

at the fork of a Y shaped trail over which villagers traveled daily.

Other Necessary Networks

This analysis of the emerging Women's Center suggests both psycho-
dynamic and structural reasons for the necessity of pre-existing net-
works of communication in the development of social movement organiza-
tions. Working in an informal organization with others involves
trusting others, a trust which develops only over a period of time in
interaction as one learns how others function. Existing networks of
communication imply that working trust as well as channels of communi—
cation have been established.

This kind of trust becomes even more necessary in a crisis center

 

 

where trust
and sometiwo
were requir
angry male
another fat
wrists. Ir
on others;
support. (
pyohoticr
shift neve
contort.
different
One
rating of
Freeman's
is new 0|"!
WSW e:
cod“tion
"Therm
ire
socyay flit
lonely;
"liters y
“lenient
lists th
tions to

Phony“

 

70

where trust is crucial. Crisis intervention is emotionally draining
and sometimes physically dangerous. Volunteers at the Women‘s Center
were required to handle life and death situations. For example, an

angry male broke down the door and pursued his wife with a tire iron;

another father attempted to kidnap his children; a woman slit her

 

wrists. In a crisis situation one needs to know that one can depend
on others; a volunteer needs emotional support as well as physical
support. One day when I was on duty one of the guests was having a

psychotic episode. The volunteer who was on duty during the next

 

shift never came to relieve me, a lapse of duty which caused me dis—
comfort. This volunteer failed to carry out her commitments several
different times, while others were more reliable.

One aspect of the development of the Women's Center was the coal-

escing of power around pre—existing networks, a further development of

 

Freeman's theme. This will be explored at length in later chapters.
As new organizations develop, lines of power evOlve along these pre-
viously eXisting networks. For example, the Munchies formed a power
coalition in the Center. Freeman discusses this to some degree in
"The Tyranny of Structurelessness" (l973, [l972]).

Freeman's propositions are concerned with the development of a
social movement, whereas this dissertation attempts to utilize them
to analyze the development of a social movement organization. Various
writers have pointed out that the success and duration of a social
nmvement organization require material resources. Wilson (l973) sug-
gests that the high incidence of failure of social movement organiza-
tions comes about from lack of resources, that the members lack

resources originally and are never able to obtain them. This suggests

 

 

another par
an organiza
oonnunity r
such resour
In or
able to not
Discussion
neglected ‘
phasis on '
ewanple, ii
branches o
0f resourc
powders of
bUt she ne
breach or
olsyate (
toggme ms
Mlson 1
Strip] poo
0flower

limit.

The
ll be u
hip to .

lilo int:

7l

another paradox of a social movement organization, that often such
an organization is mobilized by people in order to obtain a share of
community resources, as Oberschall (l973) suggests, but the lack of
such resources dooms the organization to failure.

In order to survive, a social movement organization must be
able to mobilize both material and political networks of support.
Discussion of the control of and access to resources is relatively
neglected in the literature, a neglect perhaps due to a general em—
phasis on ideological rather than material aspects of movements. For
example, in discussing the differences between the older and younger
branches of the movement, Freeman fails to emphasize the discrepancy
of resources between these branches. Over and over she recounts how
members of the older branch had money and access to political power,
but she neglects to relate this to the different strategies chosen
by each branch. For example the women who founded NOW were members
of State Commissions on the Status of Women, which indicates access
to some means of political power although perhaps not direct power.
As Olson (l970) points out in E9wer_in_$ocieties, in order to exert
social power actors must have access to resources, and the strength
of power rests on the resources the actor is able and willing to

commit.

The Case of an Unsuccessful Women's Center

The necessity for networks of material and political support
nmy be illustrated by the case of a Women's Center which lasted from
197l to l974 and is now defunct, the East Lansing Wonen's Center. I

ave interviewed various women who organized the Center in l97l and

“ --.~ u...-

 

 

 

have read
by young w
post part,
llomen's Ce
the commun
ulty membe
leuter, or
wopen at i
Carbondale
I ha
lensing it

contain a

hwilies i

are not a

Llittle of

llationa]

"if taro

LillSl'ng_

 

72

have read one brief history of the Center. This Center was organized
by young women, many of them unmarried; such women had not, for the
most part, accumulated material resources or political power. The
Women's Center in East Lansing did not involve older married women of
the community. Imagine, if you can, the wife of a prominent MSU fac-
ulty member pledging monthly support for the East Lansing Women's
Center, or a city councilwoman devoting her spare time to counseling
women at the Center. Women of comparable status were involved in
Carbondale.

I have lived and worked in East Lansing for many years. East
Lansing in some ways resembles Carbondale, Illinois, in that both
contain a university, and a large proportion of the residents are the
families of faculty members. The political networks of East Lansing
are not all that different from the networks of Carbondale: the
League of women Voters, the Democratic and Republican parties, the
National Women's Political Caucus. Yet none of these networks
were tapped by the women who organized the Women's Center in East
Lansing.

An example of the lack of material support was one instance I
observed. Several women were sitting around the Center in East Lan-
sing chatting when one of the women centrally involved in running the
enter asked the group if anybody had any transportation to move a
Ouch. Somebody had offered to donate a used couch to the Center,
hich badly needed furniture, if the Center would move the couch.
obody in the group had a station wagon or other means of transpor-

ation for the couch, and such means were never found. This is in

 

 

 

contrast t
portation
(typically
who could
tech
was indice
the City (
dale, on i
bl both 0

funds.

has in c
Hl data r
her neygy
tion 2 pp
Hke-lnint
StrUCturi
The llove
llies, a
rent per
The Star

indllldi

ll

piling ‘

linen a

 

#4

73

contrast to the Carbondale Women's Center, which had a list of Trans-
portation Volunteers and a sub-list of women with station wagons
(typically faculty wives—-i.e. older women with material resources)
who could move furniture.

Lack of political support for the East Lansing Women's Center
was indicated when the Center failed to get sufficient funding from
the City Council or any other agencies. The Women's Center in Carbon-
dale, on the other hand, was publically funded after the first year
by both city and county, and in its present fourth year has federal

funds.

Diffusion of the Women's Movement in Carbondale

 

The women's movement in Carbondale spread among the cosmopol-
ites in Carbondale, that is, women associated with the University.
My data records only one native woman involved; Naomi persuaded one of
her neighbors to join the Munchies. This supports Freeman's Proposi-
tion 2 which states that the network must be co-optable, composed of
like-minded people whose background, experiences or action in the social
structure make them receptive to the ideas of a specific new movement.
The movement spread in Carbondale among those faculty women and faculty
wives, also wives of students, for whom the ideas of the women's move-
ment were not threatening, women who already possessed the unit ideas.
The startling new idea was to take action as a group rather than as
individuals, in the name of all women.

The take—off in Carbondale was relatively slow, occuring over a
Period of almost two years. Women on campus organized first, faculty

women and graduate students in AWE and undergraduates in the Women's

..

 

 

 

 

liberation l
the facts n
of women at
each case d
attendance
graduate st
group goals
proving the
lloup consi
The (
composed of
this was a
litract oty
Show and .
wowen eyep
till campus
the Univer
Shower
In t
as a leSul
lllsoectw
leeks a s
we
In

HOWE” fro

the new

30th of y

74

Liberation Front. Freeman's proposition provides an explanation for
the facts noted in Chapter Three that, although a fairly large number
of women attended early meetings of each group, the core group in
each case dwindled to a small number. In the case of AWE, the early
attendance was composed of faculty wives as well as faculty women and
graduate students. Faculty wives dropped out of the group as the
group goals became crystallized around taking action in regard to im-
proving the status of women in the university. Thus the remaining
group consisted of women with the same interests and background.

The core organizing group of the Women's Liberation Front was
composed of women who had been active in the Peace Movement. Thus
this was a group of like-minded women. Week after week they tried to
attract other undergraduate women to the women's movement. Between
sixty and eighty women attended these weekly meetings, different

women every week, none returning more than once or twice. The mood

  
  
  
  
  
   
 

on campus had changed in this fall of l970, following the closing of
the University during the previous spring. Students were sobered,
skeptical of radical ideas.

In the summer of l97l a local media blitz occured in Carbondale
as a result of the efforts of women on campus to organize around the
Prospective compliance review of SIU by HEW. Almost daily for several
weeks a story appeared in either the student newspaper, Ifl§.Q§iLX
E

    

tian, or the local paper in town, Ihg_Southern Illinoisan.

In the fall of 197l, the movement spread to women off campus.
omen from the Unitarian Fellowship organized the OWLs and women from
he League of Women Voters organized the Women's Political Caucus.

0th of these pre-existing networks were receptive to the ideas of the

 

 

 

women's mc
for women,
as liberal
league of
ganizatiov
One
was Avis l
ing as a
members 0
knew that
for women
ties betw
Mu
lttor in
local nei
network 1
came an i
pert by
us agke
'th and
iorkgy0F
lv
the lion
back an
“'19 in
he w

Wuls

 

75

women's movement. Unitarians had long supported the idea of equality
for women, in theory at least, and had actively supported such issues
as liberalizing abortion laws long before the women's movement. The

League of Women Voters had been organized originally as a radical or-
ganization following women's suffrage.

One of the opinion leaders who belonged to both these networks
was Avis Eaves. Avis was a long-time Socialist who remembered march—
ing as a child with her mother in suffragette parades. Several other
members of the OWLs could remember their mothers as suffragettes or
knew that their mothers had been active in the drive to get the vote
for women. These generational links highlight the notion of existing
ties between various phases of a social movement.

My own position illustrates the changing role possible for an
actor in a movement. In l968 I was an early innovator, outside the

local network of communication. By l970 the movement had reached the

  
  
  
  
  
   
 
   
  
  
  

network of faculty women in which I occupied a position and hence be-
came an early adopter. In the fall of l97l I was regarded as an ex-
pert by the networks of local women and became a change agent when I
was asked to deliver a Sunday morning message at the Unitarian fellow-
ship and deliver the keynote address at the Women's Political Caucus
Workshop.

In the fall of l97l I joined three women's groups, the OWLs,
the Munchies, and the Women's Political Causus, and carried information
back and forth like a bee with pollen. Naomi and Ayn came to carbon-
dale in that fall with the knowledge of how a consciousness raising
group works. From participation in the Munchies I learned about CR

groups and in turn imparted this to the OWLs.

_... .- --.-

 

 

 

 

 

l

m -e:g‘—;‘=*$z

w. 554.39..“

From tl
role of consc
get group was
not natives a
wives of gra
found in a u
we originate
were always
by demonstra
the Munchies
dwell-forms
more persons
to the effoi
clvkunicatir
ideas 0i an
the Persona

Over time w
the movemen
we were tap

ltntl 01’] W1

W

hi0 y

tempsr 0w ‘

Support, a

 

 

76

From the beginning of their formation the Munchies took the
role of conscious change agents trying to set up CR groups. Our tar—
get group was a miscellaneous unconnected category of women who were
not natives and not faculty wives, women in their twenties who were
wives of graduate students, part-time students, the kind of women
found in a university town. Our proselytizing efforts failed until
we originated the idea of crash CR groups. Women from the Munchies
were always present at these latter meetings to teach other women
by demonstration how to participate in a CR group. The efforts of
the Munchies illustrate Proposition 3, which states, in part, that if
a well-formed network of communication does not exist, then one or
more persons must specifically attempt to construct a movement. Prior
to the efforts of the Munchies to organize, a well-formed network of
:ommunication did not exist in Carbondale which was co-optable to the
ideas of consciousness raising, especially the central notion that
he personal is political. Naomi and Ayn began organizing a CR group.
Wer time we developed new kinds of organizing skills which allowed
he movement to diffuse. At the time we developed the crash CR group
e were tapping into the client network of the Hot Line Crisis Inter-

ention which referred women to us.

gg] Networks

Two networks contributed to the functioning and maintenance of
he Women's Center in Carbondale. One network of women staffed the
enter on a day to day basis; another network provided the financial
uPport, although to some degree the networks overlapped. The two

etworks are pointed up by the fact of two criteria for membership,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

comtributi
essentiall
support he
Bas

from Sout
was the p
in thapte
wives of
ate stude
mationall
an author
and Sciev
powerful
Physical
lh

lowen' s
ted anm
ping. y
M comma
“New,
iii. an
litende
Subteqy

l

troops
limp y

funnyn

77

contributions of either money or time. The staffing network was drawn
essentially from the CR groups, the Munchies and the OWLs whereas the
support network came from the League of Women Voters.

Basically, both networks derived their power in the community
from Southern Illinois University. It must be pointed out that SIU
was the principle employer in town and in the area. (See census data
in Chapter One.) The women in both networks were for the most part
wives of men employed by the University, either as faculty or gradu-
ate students. Carmen Stone's husband was a full professor, an inter—
nationally know scholar. Alice Scott's husband is a well—known scholar,
an authority on F. Scott Fitzgerald, and former Dean of Liberal Arts
and Science. Zelda Montgomery's husband was one of the three most
powerful faculty men on campus. Some of these men helped with the
physical rehabilitation of the Center before it opened.

The crucial moment of catalyst for the Women‘s Center was the
women's Political Caucus Workshop in December l, l97l, a date celebra-
ted annually by the Women's Center as the anniversary of their begin—
ning. This workshop represented the confluence of several networks
of communication; the formally organized networks of communication
represented were the League of Women Voters, Academic Women for Equal-
ity, and the Women's Liberation Front. Approximately 200 women
attended the workshop, signing their names to a mailing list which was
subsequently used for pledge solicitation purposes.

At the workshop, women were divided into different discussion
groups, and at the end of the day each group formed a task force. The
group which met to consider sexism in the schools wound up its day by

forming a Task Force to organize a Women's Center. Of the seven women

 

who formed i
to the CR gv
tilts, and Iv
The Lv
the llomen's
itial invit
llomen's Pol
up to Sprin
llomen Voter
cal tausus
asupport r
that the Le
the llomen's
bers of thi
luvement n
league who
hwvunicat
lhes
f0” Pre-
Sllth a Che
that formé
luteyyyewE
have of
We of y
leag
l

U9 0V
elite pr

 

78

who formed this Task Force and met regularly for a year, four belonged
to the CR groups. Carmen Stone and Zelda Montgomery belonged to the
OWLs, and Iris Anthony and Fern Woods were members of the Munchies.

The League served as the initial channel of communication for
the Women's Political Caucus. Members of the League received the in-
itial invitation to attend the organizational meeting of the Illinois
Women's Political Causus. Of the ll women from Carbondale who drove
up to Springfield in September, l97l, 8 were members of the League of
Women Voters. These women subsequently organized the Women's Politi-
cal Causus Workshop. The League also provided for the Women's Center
a support network and a political network. It must be made clear
that the League of Women Voters did not as an organization support
the Women's Center. Not all, nor even perhaps a majority of the mem-
bers of the League in any way approved of or agreed with the women's
movement nor with the concept of a Women's Center, but members of the
League who were sympathetic were already in an established network of
communications.

These two latter points need to be highlighted. In searching

for a pre-existing network of communications, it may be found that

such a channel exists within an established formal organization without

that formal organization being officially involved. In subsequent
interviews with informants in Carbondale, no person was found who was
aware of the existence of the League network. Some even denied the
role of the League because of the fact that certain officers of the
League overtly opposed the Women's Center at various times. What the
League provided was a network of women who had worked together in

political reform, women who knew what political and monetary resources

 

 

could be
Fur
this memb
various p
of the Le
a circuit
provided
This Judi
loters a
his next
women we
and me t
knew the
Slowsib"
Or

post ac-

though
which 1'
develop
the ini

Univerg

hmen ‘
of the
eliens
from S

the at

 

could be tapped in the community.

Furthermore, certain women were known as League members, and
this membership carried a halo effect of power. It was assumed by
various persons that these women could mobilize the political power

f the League. In Chapter Six, the incident is recounted whereby

circuit judge awarded temporary custody of a baby to her mother,
rovided the mother remained in residence at the Women's Center.

his Judge had been supported in his election by the League of Women
oters and knew that withdrawal of this support could be crucial in
is next election. Furthermore, he was aware that several of these
omen were involved with the Women's Center. He told Carmen Stone
‘nd me that he had taken this action in the custody case because he
mew that the women running the Center were women who would take re-
ponsibility for the baby.

During the sixties the League of Women Voters was one of the
pst active and powerful political organizations in Carbondale. Al-
hough formally non-partisan, the League engaged in reform politics,
hich is not the experience of the League in most other places. It
eveloped as a political movement in Carbondale as a consequence of
he influx of faculty wives with the expansion of Southern Illinois
iiversity, as explained in Chapter One.

In the fifties, before the University expanded, the League of
)men Voters was functioning as an organization to validate the status
= the business elite. Officers of the organization paid their own
cpenses in offices, thereby effectively preventing faculty wives
“0m serving in important positions, particularly before the days of

ve affluent professor. For example, the secretary paid for paper and

 

 

postage to
organizati
of this bu
with money
faculty wi
to change
99L Furl
during boa
The
his croniw
the longt
about bec
University
llllectio
lwenities
as the win
In 1970,
Elly mane
Leatue.
The
hitter) y
”liberat
lhb has
i woman
The Phh-
couhgehc

Home“ ur

 

 

 

80

postage for all correspondance. This was a common practice in women's
organizations in Carbondale and functioned to maintain the hegemony

f this business elite by effectively limiting participation to women
ith money. A terrible power struggle ensued in the sixties when a
aculty wife was elected president of the League. Her first task was
0 change the by—laws so that League expenditures came out of the bud-
et. Furthermore she insisted that baby-sitting for Board Members
uring board meetings be paid for by the League.

The zenith of the League's power came about when the mayor and
is cronies were swept out of office by a reform candidate, ending
he longtime dominance of the business elite in politics. This came
bout because of the influx of urban people with the expansion of the
niversity, people who wanted street lights, sidewalks and garbage
ollection, at a time when such things were still considered urban
menities. The League became the vehicle for getting these changes,

5 the women with University ties came to predominate in the League.
1 l970, the form of city government was changed and the office of
ity manager instituted, due in large part to the efforts of the
eague.

The political support for the Women's Center was a complex
atter, because the League of Women Voters interlocked with the county
rmocratic Party. The Democratic County Chairman, Remembrance Crane,
m was also the local chairman for the gubernatorial campaign, was
woman who was doing illegal abortion counseling, as well as being on
e Police Board of Carbondale, and was initially the only abortion
unselor for the Women's Center. (Remembrance was illegally helping

men under eighteen get abortions without the knowledge of their

 

 

 

 

parent
Caucus
the or
pledge

T
same w
women
contrc
a Dent
as a l
woman
woman

man a

ing yr
Board
lzati

0fgay

lint

org

 

 

8l

parents.) One of the few political acts of the Women's Political
Caucus was to get signatures on a petition to get Remembrance on

the primary ballot for delegates to the l972 Democratic Convention,
pledged to Shirley Chisholm.

The Democratic Party organization in Carbondale was run by the
same women who were members of the League of Women Voters. These
women were precinct committeemen (sic) of the party and in effect
controlled the party. (In the state of Illinois, each precinct has
a Democratic committee man and a Democratic committee woman, as well
A

as a Republican committee man and a Republican committee woman.

woman can be a committeermuibut only a woman can be a committee

woman. For example, in the seventh precinct, Sue Casey was committee

man and I was committee woman.)

Thus when the Women's Center requested funds from revenue shar—
ing monies from the County Board of Commissioners, sitting on the
Board was Sue Casey, a powerful member of the county Democratic organ—
ization who was a member of the League of Women Voters, had helped
organize the Women's Political Caucus, supported the Center with
pledges, and was a close friend of many of us who worked at the Cen-
ter, as well as being the precinct committeeman of the seventh pre-

cinct. Furthermore, she had allowed the first few issues of Kins-

women to be run on her personal mimeograph machine.

The Systemic Linkage Person

At this point I wish to introduce the concept of a systemic
linkage person, which I define as a person who belongs to several

organizations,thus forming a channel of communication and linking

 

 

 

 

i —

the orga
work in
theory 5
the form
to trace
form a |
views ti
0th wa
ing ide
As
it can
to form
person ,
get cha
the pro
faculty
to the
bounce

ventio

the IT

 

at the

Three

 

 

 

 

82

he organizations into a network. (Figure 2 illustrates such a net-
rk in the women's movement in Carbondale.) As I commented in the

neory section, communications theory does not deal very much with

he formation of networks but assumes their existence. As I began

D trace the various organizations which were linked together to

arm a pre-existing communications network, however, it became ob-

ious that some persons stood in a nexus of communications. The

lLs was a collection of such persons who were central to develop-

ig ideology for the women's movement in Carbondale.

 

As the analysis of the Women's Center in Carbondale proceeds,

. can be seen that the linkage person ties together several groups
(form a complex chain of communication. I was one such linkage
rson, having been a member of the League of Women Voters, the bud-
t chairman for three years, a member of the Democratic Party, and
e precinct committee woman in my precinct, as well as being a
:ulty wife and powerful enough as a faculty member to be elected
the Faculty Senate. I also served as campaign manager for Remem-
ance Crane's attempt to become a delegate to the Democratic Con-
Ition. I was one of the group who went to Springfield to organize
2 Illinois Women's Political Caucus, and I was the keynote speaker
the Women's Political Caucus workshop.

In addition to these organizations I formed a linkage with four
er organizations. One was a consciousness raising group, the
chies. It was through this group that I had been recruited to
k at the Women's Center, and it was this group which formed the
kage with another social movement, that of crisis intervention.

ee members of the Munchies worked as volunteers for the Crisis

 

 

 

 

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Intervention

them, Angie
the Women' s

I for
formed on c
hudity, al

llomen's ten

finding it
hmw
been fired.
The O
was a Board
was also a
of the Fel Tc
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hid until |
women's mg
was a common
were not in
Teasl
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prevent or
Without bel
Studying s

howls oft

abortion c

84

   
   
   

tervention Center, a telephone hot line, and one was a trainer for
em, Angie White. Angie subsequently undertook empathy training for
Women's Center.

I formed a link with two other groups, the two feminist groups
med on campus, the Women's Liberation Front and Academic Women for
ality, although these were peripheral to the organization of the
en's Center. (I was faculty advisor for the WLF.) The radical
en of the WLF did not support the concept of the Women's Center,
iding it a compromise with the establishment. AWE ceased to exist
‘the summer of l972 because the women faculty had all resigned or
en fired.

The OWLs had several linkage persons as members. Avis Eaves

a Board Member of the Unitarian Fellowship, and Zelda Montgomery
also a powerful member. Thus we were enabled to use facilities
the Fellowship; the Fellowship itself formed a network of communi-
ion for powerful faculty men. The Acting Chancellor from July
3 until February T972 was a staunch Unitarian. The editor of the
en's page of the local newspaper was a member of the OWLs, and she
a communications link with various women's organizations which
2 not involved in the women's movement.

Teasley (l976) uses the term Free Agent to describe women who
active in their own project without belonging to any women's
ment organization. These women clearly belong to the movement
out belonging to any movement organization, a fact which makes
Ying social movements the complex matter it becomes. Such Free
ts often become systemic linkage persons. Remembrance Crane, the

tion counselor, was an important link with the police as well as

—

with city
of the we
and a prv
of T973 :
persed f
Trustees

availabl

Th_e_C[i_t
Tl
for pre-
organiza
the horn
llorkshoi
nen‘s Cr
in Jamu
vidimg
ing pl
concer

eweham

 

 

 

 

ith city and county officials. Another such link was Sue Casey, one
f the women pledging support, a member of the League of Women Voters
nd a precinct committee man for the Democratic party. In the spring
f l973 she was a county commissioner sitting on the board which dis-
ersed federal revenue sharing funds. She contacted the Board of

rustees of the Women's Center to inform them that such funds were

vailable and how to apply.

he Critical Experience

The validity of Freeman's proposition concerning the necessity
r pre-existing networks was illustrated by a turning point in the
ganization of the Center. The Task Force for the Organization of
he Women's Center began meeting weekly after the Political Caucus
urkshop. Much time was spent in discussing the purposes of the W0-
an's Center and the extent of its activities. Carmen Stone wrote,

i January l973, "We envisioned [the Women's Center] as a house pro-
iding temporary shelter for women with no other place to go, a meet-
vg place for diverse women's groups, a library of books and materials
mcerning women‘s activities around the country, and an information
change for all women's affairs in Carbondale.“

This Task Force attempted for eight months to raise pledges to
pport the Center. The intent was to ask women to pledge a monthly
nation for the first year of operation. Collection of pledges would
gin when a suitable house had been located. Carmen wrote, "Every
pe of organization in the community was approached by the volunteers,

explain the need for and purposes of a women's center and to ask

r pledges and donations. We talked to public service agencies,

 

 

 

 

i —

church gr
Council .
warm and
all had I
ority:
tions. ' "
shows.
Th
they hel
owned fi
sold the
pledges
raise p'
Tl
house fr
Zelda h
names

“raise

articl

also b

 

iacult
isolat
descri
where
lvvwl

lhl‘E

 

 

86

rch groups, sororities, a Goals for Carbondale committee, the City
ncil, and members of the police force. Some of these people were
rm and receptive and wished us Tuck; others obviously thought we

had holes in our heads. The response from one campus social sor-
ty: 'We don't need a women's center—-we know where to go for abor-
ns.'" Members of the group appeared on local radio and TV talk
ws.

The Task Force collected money in other ways. In the spring
y held a daffodil sale. A woman sympathetic to the idea of a center
ed fields of daffodils; women in the Task Force picked them and
d them on campus.' Later they held a bake sale on campus. But
dges only trickled in. It is important to note that attempts to
se pledges was a failure until the network was tapped.

Then the precipitant occurred. The Task Force found a suitable
se for rent, and pledges were needed immediately. At this point
da Montgomery tapped the network of communication by calling the
as on the mailing list from the Political Caucus Workshop and
ised close to $200 in pledges in less than three days." (Source:
icle by Carmen Stone.)

Zelda, who was a member of the OWLs, was an assertive woman who
i belonged to the upper echelons of faculty. In Carbondale, the
flty formed a social community, which I called the American Colony,
ated in Little Egypt. The best-selling author, John Gardner, has
ribed this group in his rgman_§_glef, The Wreckage of Agathon (l970),
e Gardner characterizes the faculty as Spartans and the native
lation as Helots, the slave caste. Gardner also discusses them

forthrightly in an article in Change (l973), where he describes

 

 

 

 

how facul'
were froza
pledge fo

band's jo

ME
The
positions
movement
hi the no
istence (
existence
power.
it
failed ti
fortunat
hrbonda
able to
possible
UtiliZay
“likshoy
twistihh
Thus, iv
1'
hudaye
my, Su

sitting a

 

87

how faculty left SIU not because they were fired but because they
were frozen out at cocktail parties. Refusing Zelda‘s request for a
ledge for the Women's Center might well mean the loss of one's hus~

and's job. Who can say?

onclusion

 

The purpose of this chapter has been to examine Freeman's pro-
ositions that a necessary pre-requisite for the formation of a social
ovement is a pre-existing network of communication which is co-optable
y the movement. I have added the proposition that the continued ex-
stence of a social movement organization over time depends on the
xistence of networks able to mobilize material support and political
ower.

First I have examined the East Lansing Women's Center which
ailed to find networks of material support and political power. Un—
)rtunately, I lack data to explore why this failure occurred. In
Irbondale, on the other hand, the women organizing the Center were
ale to find such networks. Initially the Task Force contacted many
ssible sources of support with no success. It was only through
ilization of the mailing list from the Women's Political Caucus
rkshop that pledges were obtained. This list tapped various pre-
isting organizations,forming a web of networks in the community.

15, in this case, Freeman's proposition T has been supported.

It has also been pointed out that the women's movement in Car—
vdale spread to those groups of women who were receptive to the idea,
5 supporting Freeman's second proposition. In retrospect, it

ms as if the ideas of the women's movement were lying fallow, just

 

 

ready to b
in the Lea
ists. The
to work fc

One
theory by
testable I
served to
women serv
ganizatiov
linkage pi

Suc
ment beca
cause the
on social

within ti

 

88

ready to be pieced together into a new gestalt. For example, Women
in the League of Women Voters were already skilled political activ-
ists. The new ideas concerned banding together on women's issues and
0 work for themselves as women.

One of the purposes of this dissertation is to develop grounded
heory by making empirical observations which can be developed into
estable hypotheses. In tracing the channels of communication which
erved to diffuse the women's movement, it has been observed that some
omen serve as links between organizations, allowing the various or-
anizations to form a network. Such persons I have called systemic
inkage persons.

Such persons are often enabled to develop power within a move-
ent because they control an important resource, information, and be-
ause they have access to persons to form coalitions. More research
n social movements needs to be done relating them to sources of power

ithin the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thi
a social
origins o
movement
communica
dividual
bl Loflar

Fir
slow. it
the homey
allv, 1i

model ,

CHAPTER FIVE
THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT

This chapter is concerned with the process of recruitment into
icial movement organization. The previous chapter delineated the
pins of a social movement organization, describing how the women's
:ment was diffused in Carbondale through pre—existing networks of
Tunication. This chapter will address the question of how the in-
dual gets into the movement. I am following the model set forth
.ofland (l966).

First I will present Lofland's model of the process of conver-

Then I will discuss and differentiate between conversion to
women's movement and recruitment into the Women's Center. Fin-
, I will discuss the data I have observed in relation to Lofland's

l.

flggel

Lofland (T966) describes a model for the process of conversion
a social movement organization. It should be pointed out to
I with that Lofland studied a small esoteric religious social move-
organization, whereas the Women's Center is a politically orien-
rganization. Social movement organizations differ along several
sions such as degree of commitment required of the member and

tation of the group, although sometimes these boundaries are

89

 

 

fuzzy.
of a cul
taneousl
an encoi
Us
either I
describe
previou:
allevia‘
ceives
self is
source
Structi
source
natural
I
tion hi
i Dart
script-
r9))in
whereh
Uldi‘ly
ideolo
lsvchi

PEISQH

dlffeh

 

90

:y. For example, Newsweek (March I, l976) reports the existence
a cult group called Creative Initiative which seems to be simul-
eously a religious organization, a political pressure group, and
encounter group.
Usually social movement organizations can be classified as
her religious, political or psychiatrically oriented. Lofland
:ribes people as selecting an organization on the basis of their
vious perception of the source of their problem and the means of
eviating that problem. The person psychiatrically oriented per-
ves the source of problems in the psyche and manipulation of the
f is advocated as a resolution. The politically oriented sees the
rce of problems in the social structure and the solution as recon-
wction of society. And finally, the religious person sees the
"ce and solution to problems as emanating from an unseen super-
oral realm.
Lofland's description of the selection process raises a ques-

v which I feel he has not clarified, that of how the person learns
rticular position, because social movements also teach such pre-
ptions. Lofland deals only with persons already committed to a
gious orientation, neglecting freshman seekers and the process
eby the individual comes to that point. This question is partic-
ly relevant to the women's movement where a large sector of the
logy is devoted to changing the orientation of women from a
iiatric solution to a political solution. -Hence the slogan: The
anal is the Political.

Whatever their orientation, social movement organizations also

r in the degree to which they demand total commitment from the

 

 

 

 

individual.
total cornmi I
brings about
not demand 1
develop sucl
March, I973
Loflav
contingenciw
social never
that is, wi
sons to jog
explain why
land sees i
tion contin
Some disTun
Ordinary ro
Lofla

Wit- The
must be her
Thence, M
be actlvatc
elemehh is
time ghch i
Step
Sitting ten:
whhh the

)th givEs

 

 

 

ndividual. Lofland studied a Communal cult group, which demanded
otal commitment from all members. Although the women's movement
rings about a radical change in world view, the Women's Center did
at demand total commitment.) Some few individuals, however, did
evelop such commitment. Prudence Rock, who became a resident in
arch, l973, did for a year totally commit herself to the Center.

Lofland distinguishes predisposing conditions from situation
ntingencies. He argues that most sociological discussions of
cial movements have been concerned with predisposing conditions,
at is, with widespread conditions in society which predispose per-
ns to join a social movement. These conditions, however, do not
plain why certain individuals and not others are recruited. Lof-
and sees individuals as recruited into a movement because of situa-
ion contingencies, that is circumstances in their own life histories.
vme disjuncture occurs which breaks the individual out of his/her
dinary routine.

Lofland outlines seven additive steps as necessary for recruit-
nt. The notion of additive steps comes from Smelser (T963) and
st be mentioned here. According to this model, steps come in se-
ence, and previous steps must accumulate before the next step can
activated. Thus the steps are ordered in sequence but the time
ement is not important. The model is essentially that of a board
1e such as Monopoly.

Step I, is tension. Lofland does not specify any way of mea-
ing tension but does emphasize the subjective nature of tension,
ch the recruited individual feels more acutely than others. Lof-

d gives no independent measurement for this, that is, there is no

 

 

 

I

 

T,: "_w
_ ,_. :2 ;;.———-.—.;g

way in whi
those with
into membe
theory has
Step
a solutiov
tion of ti
how or wh,
Ste
is recrui
llil a sol
troop sta
ious grot
influencw
seekersh
St
dlsrupti
“Ill men
dislunct
St
bpods.
dlvect
of fhye
two of
and in
5

 

 

in which the observer can distinguish those with more tension from
se with less tension until the person joins the cult. Recruitment
:0 membership is the measurement of acute tension (which makes his
tory hard to test).

Step 2 is a process of selecting into a track. The person chooses
olution--religious, political, psychiatric-~to fit his/her percep-
n of the problem. As explained above, Lofland does not deal with
or why the person selects a particular track.

Step 3 is seekership, a stage of active looking; the person who
recruited into an organization has been previously involved in seek—

a solution to his/her problems. The persons who joined the cult

 

up studied by Lofland had spent sometimes years seeking from relig-
5 group to religious group. Here again I think Lofland was too
luenced by the population he studied. I found little evidence for
cership among the women I studied.

Step 4 is the turning point. Converts have come to a point of
‘uption or failure. Hence we have a picture of the prospective
.member as a seeker oriented toWard religion who arrives at some
uncture in his/her life history.

Step 5 is what Lofland calls the presence of cult affective
5. By this he means that the disjunctive seeker is linked in some
:t personal way with the cult group. In Lofland's study, a chain
‘iends was converted; the leader converted a woman who converted
If her friends. The husband of one of these friends was converted
n turn converted a man who worked with him.

Step 6 concerns the absence of affective bonds outside the cult.

rts had no strong ties to persons outside the cult. Strong

 

 

 

 

affective
sometimes
since St.
unequally
Lof
have ritu
tribes su
their fan
detailing
where M0(
to
witment.
tensive
and Luck
choose t
Process
Sthhling
ellllltlbna
Be
the PM
take; 0‘
0' Conui
the wor
worth.
”El vor
tilhall

I

 

 

93

fective bonds outside the cult, such as a non-believing spouse,
metimes deterred potential converts. This has been known at least
nce St. Paul was writing, when he suggested that Christians be not
qually yoked with non-believers.

Lofland here neglects the possibility that the cult itSelf may
e rituals to break off ties outside the cult. Kanter (T972) des-
'bes such rituals for the Shakers whereby converts broke ties to
ir families of origin. The newspapers at present are constantly
ailing the controversies surrounding the cult of the Rev. Moon
re Moonie children break ties with their sad families.

Lofland views Step 7 as necessary for conversion to total com-
ment. The individual must remain for some period of time in in-
sive interaction with believers. This is also emphasized by Berger

Luckmann (I966) in their discussion of conversion, which they
ose to call alternation. Berger and Luckmann point out that this
cess of alternation requires processes of re—socialization re-
)ling primary socialization in which the novitiate must develop
tional dependence upon the socializing agents.

Berger and Luckmann use the term alternation because they view
process as one of exchanging identities, where the individual
,5 on an alternative identity. In other words, total commitment,
onversion, involves more than cognitive processes. One's view of
world changes and one's view of oneself as an inhabitant of that
d. In order to maintain this conversion experience, however, the
world view must be shared by others to whom the convert is emo-

ally committed, that is, significant others.

According to Berger and Luckmann, two aSpects are necessary for

 

 

 

 

the mainte
structure.
to him/her
by contint
off from a
finding in
not possi
Clothing
lievers f
cussion 0
studied.
Bit
Of member
has discs
on the be
lilfl'st ca
world. '
the more
leatheap.
Outside
Bi
Tll'Ssion
lhuw.
If It ca
tTreaty
peeIlle,

the mum

 

 

he maintenance of conversion, a social structure and a plausibility
tructure. The individual finds a new world of reality which is given
0 him/her by significant others and whoSe legitimacy is reinforced
y continuous interaction. This process entails separating oneself
ff from alternate reality structures and former significant others,
inding new significant others in a new community. If separation is
at possible in a physical sense, then this must be done mentally.
lothing and appearance have always been one means of separating be-
ievers from non-believers. Lofland devotes three chapters to a dis-
ussion of the plausibility structure maintained by the group he
tudied.

Bittner (l969) points out the same theme, that affective ties

f members to persons outside a group must be abandoned. Bittner

as discussing the radical mind, and he differentiates among groups

1 the basis of radical ideology, which he defines on the basis of
wrist consistancy, i.e. a scientist has a purist conception of the
orld. The more radical the ideology and the more set apart the group
re more nearly must the individual cut all outside group ties. The
atherpeople, for example, in l970 severed all ties with persons
tside the group (Source: Sale, T973).

Bittner also suggests that in a radical group commitment to the
ssion of the group must supercede ties to individuals within the
)up. A community set apart from the larger society can thrive only
it can absorb its members totally. One especially disturbing
'eat is the dyadic pair, particularly a sexual pair. The Weather-
vple, for example, as they radicallized insisted on breaking down

monogamous pair. Coser (l974) points out that celibacy and

 

 

 

meMt

fill ldent

hwhga
Tm

unshe
Mmdm
mmhm
'Wemh
MHMB
than
mhha
Wmuh
M
MMMT
thmw
PMmm
lumm
mm,“
hmm
WWW.
Mun
“me
mm
which c
F
hmu

 

95

'omiscuity, each practiced by various successful Utopian groups, ful«

ll identical sociological functions in preventing dyadic attachments.

eology and the Plausibility Structure
The relationship between religious cult groups and social move—
nts is a cloudy issue in the literature. Blumer's (l95l) definition

social movements as "cultural drift" doesn't adequately fit the

 

tuation described by Lofland. Ash (l972) defines cult groups as
e-political movements,” defining a social movement as a "set of

titudes and self-conscious action on the part of a group of people
rected toward change in the social structure and/or ideology of a
:iety and carried on outside of ideologically legitimated channels
which uses these channels in innovative ways" (p. l).

At this point in time my own thinking is that the difference
:ween religious groups and protest groups may lie in the nature of
'plausibility structure necessary to maintain the conversion ex-
ience. As Lofland points out, the religious person sees the source
solution to problems as emanating from an unseen supernatural
lm, whereas the politically oriented person sees the source of prob—
; in the social order and the solution as the reconstruction of
iety. Persons who seek to change the existing political order can
ms realistically whether or not their problems are solved, where-
he unseen supernatural realm is difficult to validate. Ideological
fitment must be stronger in support of a plausibility structure
h cannot be physically tested.

Festinger gt. 21- (l956) discuss at great length the nature of

ity testing. The hypothesis they tested in When Prophecy Fails

 

 

 

 

 

—-5 .: 2:13,
7 V ": é» w,
A;

.‘ , __.

was that
growth 0‘
nitive d
can be p
validate
others r
A
confirms
must con
still hi
disconf‘
end becl
‘0 has
to redu
he tha
disconf
l
ity gt}
tion w-
Sect 9‘
Which
This In
the he
Ellen
her,
hare f

has].

 

96

that disconfirmation of a millenarian prophecy results in the
ith of a social movement. They begin with the premise that cog-
ive dissonance occurs unless beliefs are validated. Some beliefs
be physically validated, whereas social beliefs can only be
idated by confirmation from others. In other words, significant
ers reaffirming one's belief system reduces cognitive dissonance.

A prophecy that the world will end on a specified date can be
:irmed or disconfirmed. If the world does not end, the prophet
: come up with an explanation for his followers of why they are
l here. This rationalization cannot be physically confirmed or
:onfirmed. An example of such a belief is that the world did not
because the group prayed all night. Hence members exert efforts
Iroselytize in order to increase the number of significant others
'educe cognitive dissonance. Considerable data does exist confirm-
that many millenarian movements have experienced growth following
onfirmation of prophecy.

I would extend this notion of cognitive dissonance to plausibil-
structures in general. Movements which believe that social revolu-
will take place in some distant future, such as some Marxist
groups, may demand more total ideological commitment than groups
h are concerned with changing the social structure here and now.
may provide an explanation for the history of the New Left and
vomen's movement in the 605. In the initial enthusiasm, people
:ted to change society here and now. As it became apparent, how—
. that changes in society are difficult to bring about, more and
sect groups split off from each movement. (See Sale, l973,

ey, 1976).

 

 

 

 

li
case of
confirm
individ
rationa
Order w
Each ra

l
that ti
1 am at
little
legitii
0f the

ration

ieligi

leavai

97

The failure of the movement to produce immediate changes is a
case of the disconfirmation of prophecy in a generalized way. Dis—
confirmation was not clearcut in any one time and place, however;
individuals perceived disconfirmation at different times. Different
rationalizations of disconfirmation appeared, for example, the New
Order will only appear if all women withdraw to Lesbian communes.
Each rationalization formed the basis for a new sect.

To summarize the above discussion, it should be pointed out
that the plausibility structure is only one aspect of the ideology.

I am arguing that if a group is engaged in performing a visible task,
little need exists to construct a set of legitimations although such
legitimations may develop over time. On the other hand, if the goals
of the group are invisible, commitment to an elaborate set of legiti—

nations is necessary to group cohesion.

Individual Distress and the Social Movement

 

General agreement, however, does exist that both political and
*eligious movements rise out of widespread social and cultural up-
ieaval. In general, it can be said that social movements are basic—
llly concerned with the meaning of the world and one's position in
:he world (See Bittner, l969). The person in everyday reality takes
br granted that particular subjective reality. It is only with some
Hsjuncture that this taken—for—granted nature of the world crumbles.
erger and Luckmann point out that one potential source of tension
hreatening to disrupt the institutional structure of any society is
iscrepancy between primary and secondary socialization.

In this society today women experience severe discrepancies in

 

 

1
.il

__.____.__-__.- _.4

various
that sh
yet the
the eco
end of
expects
fill ti
i
explane
but hi:
discovr
Loflan
and th
joined

to pre

 

 

98

ious aspects of the socialization process. A little girl is told

t she will find meaning and fulfillment in being a wife and mother,
the content of her primary socialization prepares her to enter
economic marketplace. She is oriented toward achievement. At the
of school, whether this is high school or a PhD program, she is
ected to get married and become a mother with little preparation to
1 this role.

Lofland argues that predisposing conditions are not a sufficient
ilanation for recruitment into a social movement, and he is correct,
; his own analysis is tautological. He does not indicate ways of
.covering if one individual is more acutely distressed than another.
:land says that acutely distressed individuals join social movements,
i the evidence of this acute distress is that the individual has
ned the social movement. At this time there is not data on which

predict who will and who will not join a social movement.

Pathway Chosen
Lofland does not deal with the question of why his subjects chose
eligious solution. This decision was made in the wings before his
y opens. Presumably distressed individuals seek solutions in ways
h are already familiar to them. At the end of his study he does
ion “freshman seekers,” but he doesn't fit them into his analysis.

the most part he discusses “veteran seekers, who have long been

i

a religious quest. This disrupts the comparison with the Women‘s
ter because most of the women involved were not veteran seekers;

/ had not been shopping among movements. For most of the women who

ively worked in the Center, this was their initial encounter with

 

 

any or

educat
the hu
intere
makes
is wrt

withli

left i
the r
order
and e
ilito
part

SEE l

tent

5l0n

 

 

ny organized activity.

The most prevalent mode of solution for the affluent and the
ducated in our society is psychiatry, and out of this mode has grown
he human potential movement, a sub-category of which is the crisis
ntervention movement. The psychiatric definition of the situation
kes sense for the more fortunate in our society. Obviously nothing

wrong with their position in the social order; the fault must lie
'thin themselves.

A less prevalent mode is the radical political stance, whether
ft or right. Those more psychiatrically oriented would argue that
e radical individual is externalizing his/her conflict onto the social
der, just as the politically radical would argue that psychiatry
rd encounter groups are luxuries of the fortunate, and individual
proaches to a problem social in nature. This conflict itself was
rt of the ideological conflict of the Women's Center, as we shall
e in subsequent chapters.

This ideological conflict came about because women working in

Women's Center came from two orientations, the human potential

ement and the women's movement. These two orientations were resent
P

.m the beginning of the organization of the Task Force. Some, such
Adrian Vancouver, the psychiatric social worker, saw it as a crisis
ter, thus emphasizing the individual solution. Others like Carmen
ne envisioned it as a women's center with a more political stance.
As I analyse the data for this dissertation it becomes obvious
t the primary purpose of a Women's Center is to provide a place for
gnificant conversation,” in the language of Berger and Luckmann.

omen's Center is a place where converts can isolate themselves and

 

 

re-inforc
Lofland' s
can separ
reinforce
centers '

the never

grim
Mai
women's
in an ar
Jane O'R
wife's n
has incr
Freidan
SOlutior
tights n
Native,
ll
CllCums-
i had n
in 1970
l8$0cj a

 

lOO

e-inforce each other's conversion experience. To rephrase this in
)fland's terms, a women's center provides a place where new recruits

in separate themselves from outsiders and interact intensively to

einforce the plausibility structure. Thus the proliferation of women's

=nters in the United States is intimately tied up with the spread of

e movement.

nversion to the Women's Movement
Many written accounts can be found today of conversion to the

men's movement. Gloria Steinem (l973) has described her conversion

 

an article originally written for M§_magazine. In the same magazine

e O'Reilly (1973) first called it the "click" sensation, the “house-
e's moment of truth.” The affluent housewife in the United States

; increasingly suffered from "the problem that has no name,“ as
aidan (l962) described it. During the fifties and early sixties the
ution she found available was almost always psychiatric. The civil
hts movement and the peace movement, however, presented a new alter—
ive, the possibility of a political solution.

The process begins with an awareness that others share the same
:umstances. For example, I felt myself a personal failure because
id not written my dissertation and completed my studies for a PhD.
970 I attended the annual convention of the American Sociological
ciation and went to an”atrocity” workshop sponsored by the women's
us. There I met other women who were in precisely the same situa-

We re-defined our plight as oppression built into the system.

I did not yet consider myself a member of the women's liberation

nent (Journal, August 26, 1970).

l
potenti
ficant
long gr
structi
Jul y, '
of the

want"?

til i ty
examin

women,

 

del lbe
an 901

filtra

"liver

lOl

The process of conversion continues over a period of time. The
potential convert engages in significant conversation with new signi—
ficant others, and the structure of one's social reality changes in a
long gradual process. It seems to me that one builds a new cognitive
structure and suddenly walks in to live there. My moment of truth was
duly, l97l, when a group of faculty women (AWE) met with the Chancellor

f the University. He asked the classic question, ”What do you women
ant"?

Following conversion, the old everyday reality loses its plausi-
ility, its quality of being taken for granted. The new convert must
examine every activity in the light of his/her conversion. For many
‘omen, perhaps for most, conversion to the women's movement is not a
ieliberate choice, that is, one does not sit down one day and say, ”1
im going to convert to the women's movement.” New ideas seem to in-
iltrate one's consciousness.

At this point women seek other women to affirm and validate their
ew consciousness. They seek out other women with whom to carry on
ignificant conversations. It is in this context that the data for
llS study begin to make sense. Every woman I interviewed told me,

I believe that the Women's Center is important. I can't explain why.
just know it is important.” This then brings us to the process of

veloping a social movement organization.

:ruitment to the Women‘s Center

 

As stated earlier, the Women's Center was initiated by women from
isocial movements: the women's movement and the human potential

ement. Two women, Carmen Stone and Adrian Vancouver, attended the

 

 

Nomen's
center.
daughte
ing ate
and wan
chiatri
She hat
ing hit
of “O(
cerned

And so

that t
viousl
the we
in an)
Fern i
Each l
With

totyp
ment.
aitho
been

dew
Peru
the :

but

l02

men's Political Caucus Workshop with the idea of founding a women's
nter. Carmen was a convert to the women's movement through her
ughter, a student at the University of Wisconsin. She had been read-
9 about the proliferation of women's centers in the United States
d wanted to organize one in Carbondale. Adrian Vancouver is a psy-
iatric social worker on the staff of the County Mental Health Clinic.
had had a long time dream of a shelter house for women. In work-
with women clients she believed that individual therapy was often
no avail if women had no place to go. In particular, she was con-
ned with wives of alcoholics and other men who beat their wives.
i so the dialogue began about the purpose of a women's center.
My data does not conform to Lofland's step 3 which specifies
lt the person who is recruited into an organization has been pre-
iusly involved in seeking a solution to his/her problems. Most of
i women involved in the early stages of the Women's Center were new
any organization. Of the original task force, Carmen, Iris and
n had never belonged to any organization. In the fall of l97l
h of them had joined a consciousness raising group, simultaneously
1 organizing the task force. Zelda, on the other hand, was the pro-
rpe of a seeker, having sought in every kind of psychiatric move-
Penelope had been active in radical politics on the west coast,
ough she was never too specific about what organizations she had
part of. She was paranoid, probably realistically, I have since
ded. Thorne (197T) discusses the need of another word to describe
ioia or anxiety which turns out to be justified in the reality of
:ituation. Andy was the sixth regular member of the Task Force,

have little data on her because she moved out of town before the

field

munit

perce
stant
judge
in th
inqui

rupti

 

the
lids
It in
Crea
on e

any

how
his
ten
he

Way

 

 

l03

field work for the study began. She was a graduate student in Com-
munity Development.

Parenthetically, I found it difficult to collect data about the
perceptions of others' belief systems. Denial of conflict was a con-
stant motif in the Women's Center, perhaps functionally so. Women
judged each other's commitment to the Center in terms of support either
in the way of hours of work or financial contributions. One did not
inquire into the belief systems of another. It might have been dis-
ruptive to activity had ideological differences become well known.

Step 4 Lofland calls the turning point, when the potential con—
Iert comes to a point of personal disruption in his/her life history.
:or most of the wmen involved in the Women's Center, moving to Carbon-
lale had been the disruption. The women who pledged money to the Cen-
:er, long time residents of Carbondale suffering no disruptions, for
he most part did not work in the Center. The one exception to this
as a woman who had recently lost a beloved son in an auto accident.
t might be pointed out that Adrian Vancouver wanted a shelter to be
reated but she never spent hours of time working, although she was
n emergency call and essential to the Center. She had not suffered
1y disruptions in her work or her marriage.
Iris and Fern were the wives of graduate students, recently
ved to town, who had not yet found jobs or a way of life. Carmen
s in the process of ending a thirty year marriage. Penelope had
cently moved to Carbondale to be with her husband, a student. Zelda
d recently been divorced and remarried and was searching for a new
y of life.

Pamela Rice and I were elected to the Board of Trustees in

 

Decen
as at
Soutl
very
her .
Per ‘
came
ing

arme

stuc

jobs

 

l04

ecember, l972. Pamela had recently been divorced and begun college
5 an undergraduate in her forties. I had recently been fired from
)uthern Illinois University. Prudence Rock and Per Asquith became

ery active during the winter of l973. Prudence had recently quit

 

er job and returned to Carbondale to be with aging and ill parents;
r was the wife of a student. Agnes Wells and Frances Waxmore be-
me board members in the spring; Agnes was our second guest follow-
9 a most disruptive experience of being arrested on a charge of
med robbery. Frances was the wife of a graduate student. Almost
H of the women who staffed the center were the wives of graduate
udents who had recently moved to Carbondale where there were no
bs available.
According to Lofland, recruitment into group membership involves

It affective bonds. The original task force began meeting as a con-
yuence of the Women's Political Caucus Workshop. (See Chapter Four).
ereafter, recruitment was through friendship bonds. In tracing pat-
‘ns of recruitment, it seems that the consciousness raising groups
‘ked as recruitment devices for the Women's Center. Women came to
ups and developed affective ties with each other. Carmen recruited
ela Rice and others from the OWLs. Iris and Fern recruited those of

ho were in the Munchies. After the Center was running, new staff
bers were almost invariabley recruited from the weekly crash con—
usness raising groups. Prudence Rock was one of these.

As explained in Chapter Four, the crash consciousness raising
ps were formed to alleviate the c0nditions of those having no
ctive bonds. The Director of the Crisis Intervention hot line be—

ed that the problem of many people who called was loneliness and

that thi

iiunchies

iiednesda

tantly,

tial rec

Ir

extragrc

to be or

ing in i

much tii

because

[I the occ
izing t

F

‘ iplace

find we
goal ma
has a f
needed
the bat
flit Chi
tOnsgq‘
Dart, ‘
total
the Dr
which

 

 

 

l05

at this problem could be helped by forming groups. Members of the
nchies set up an open consciousness raising group that met every
dnesday nightvvhere any woman was welcome to attend. Thus, inadver-
ntly, conditions were set up to attract those women who were poten-
al recruits into the Women's Center.

In Step 6 Lofland emphasizes the importance of the absence of
tragroup affective bonds. The matter of the Women's Center appears
be more complex. As a woman became more and more committed to work—
; in the Center, she either recruited her friends or ceased to spend

:h time with them. Many of the women came to the Center originally

 

‘ause they had no friends. For me, the Center took the place of

occupation I had lost; Iris also reports that she looked on organ-
ng the Center as a job.

For most of us, both staff and clients, the Center was seen as

lace of shelter, a place for healing and growth, where we could
d warmth and sustenance in a time of trouble. In this sense our
l may have been different from our ideology. In my view the Center
a field hospital for casualties of the struggle, for women who
ied to be patched up and put together to go forth once more into
battlefield. In other words, our perception was that the struggle
change was taking place somewhere outside the Center, not as a
equence directly of any activity carried on by the Center.

Step 7 involves total commitment to the group. For the most
9 participants in the Women's Center were not expected to develop
l commitment. Some few people did, however, and as an example of
process of recruitment I will describe the case of Prudence Rock,

h I consider to be an ideal type.

l ir_ud_ee

in the
dale.

in a p
turned
skille
small

was a

was in

out oi

 

cal pi
not he

went.

l06

*udence Rock: A Case Study of Total Commitment
In early fall, T972, Prudence returned to live with her parents

the small county seat town of Murphysboro, seven miles from Carbon-
le. She had been working for more than ten years as a statistician
a plant having something to do with the Apollo mission, and she re—
rned because her father had become ill. In other words, she was a
illed technician with a responsible job, returning to live in a
all town with no immediate prospect of anything to do. Her father

s a retired coal miner, and the environment to which she returned

 

; impoverished and restricting. Thus she passes Step l, tension.
Step 2 concerns problem—solving perspective. Prudence came
of technology and approached the Women's Center as a technologi-
problem. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Prudence did
i have a body of systematized beliefs concerning the women's move—

t. Her commitment to the Women's Center was task oriented.

Pradence came first to the Women's Center early in January,

3, attending a crash consciousness raising session. She was not-
e because she came wearing a skirt, an almost unique occurance in
Center. She appeared looking very ”Straight“ in a green suit,
ed with a notebook for writing observations. We were having

ble with the furnace. Prudence immediately knew what to do and
me our furnace expert.

Step 3 is seekership; a stage of active looking; the person
is recruited into an organization has been previously involved
eeking a solution to his/her problems. I have no evidence that
ence had ever been involved in seeking a solution to her problems.

:ame to the Women's Center for companionship, a conventional

 

thing

disrut
in th
mater
cause
quit
affai

this
her i
techv

ated

bond:
behii
her

move
lnte
denc
litca
(l r

duri

E‘iei

 

l07

thing to do when a person moves to a new town.

Step 4 is the turning point; converts had come to a point of
disruption in their lives. This is, of course, glaringly obvious
in the case of Prudence; she gave up a satisfying job to return to a
materially and emotionally impoverished environment. Her immediate
cause of return was illness on the part of her father, but before she
quit her job she had also experienced an unhappy ending to a love
affair.

Step 5 concerns what Lofland terms ”cult affective bonds,”
i.e. the potential convert has friendship ties within the group. In
this case, Prudence's only source of personal satisfaction came from
her interaction within the Women‘s Center. She possessed skills,
technical skills, that none of us possessed, skills that we appreci-
ated and praised.

Step 6 has to do with the absence of extra-cult affective
)onds. In this case, Prudence had made a geographical move, leaving
)ehind all her friends. The intensity of the affective bonds with
er parents was low and she had almost no interaction outside the
ovement. Total commitment occurs, according to Lofland, following
ntensive interaction with cult members. After January, l973, Pru-
ence spent most of her waking hours at the Women's Center, and she
ecame a resident in the Center from March, l973, until March, l974.
A resident lives in the Center and is on duty as a staff member
uring the night.)

The meaning of total commitment in this case is unclear, how—
ver. Prudence devoted all her time and resources to maintaining

1e Women's Center as a going concern. This commitment was task

 

orient
viewec
the we
is a g
about
bring‘

Seven

Mom

Lofia
fies
ent i
consi
recri
Deter
land
unte:
work

Willie

Pier
tall!

50c

 

108

iented. She was never committed to a formal ideology. I inter-
ewed her in June, l974, and she said that she was not a member of
e women's movement. She says she believes that the Women's Center
a good thing and she believes in that. She has firm beliefs

out how the structure should be organized and run. Her part in
inging about structural changes will be described in Chapter

ven.

jification of the Model

 

 

One of the purposes of a case study is to develop models, as
fland has done; Kaplan calls them pattern models. This study modi-
es Lofland's model by trying to apply it to a movement quite differ-
: from the small religious cult he studied. Lofland's model
isists of seven additive steps which he argues are necessary for
:ruitment into a social movement organization. Step l is tension;
;ential recruits experience tension more acutely than others. Lof—
d details no means of measurement so that this is a completely
estable hypothesis. I have no way of knowing whether women who
ked at the Center experienced tension more acutely than other

n.

Step 2 is a process of selecting into a track, where the person
ses a solution--religious, political, psychiatric--to fit his/her
eption of the problem. This step needs considerable modification,
use it does not fit the women's movement at all. Part of the
ess of indoctrination into the women's movement consists of being
ht that the solution to the individual's problems lies in the

al and political structure. Most women are recruited into the ‘

 

moveme

who is
in see
his C(
the pe
chiati
movem

not a.

loin
with
a Pl
Step
wear

lied"

 

 

l09

vement before they understand this.
Step 3 is seekership, a stage of active seeking; the person
0 is recruited into an organization has been previously involved
seeking a solution to his/her problems. Lofland makes clear in
s context that he means cult group solutions; he is talking about
e person who goes from religious group to religious group or psy—
iatrist to psychiatrist. This does not hold true for the women's
ement where most of the women recruited into the movement were
active seekers.
The model is also circular. Step 4 is the turning point where
convert has come to a point of disruption or failure. Lofland

ers no evidence to indicate that Step 4 does not cause Step l.

‘tainly his converts have experienced enough trauma to feel tension.

rould prefer to start the model with Step 4. All the women in
*bondale who were recruited into the movement had experienced some
juncture in their lives. No evidence exists, however, to explain
these women chose the Women's Center as a solution. Why did Jane
e to work in the Center when her son was killed? She could have
ame a grey lady in the hospital.
Step 5 is the necessity for cult affective bonds. In order to
i a movement, the potential convert must have friendship bonds
I someone in the group. The Women's Center itself functioned as
ace where cult affective ties could be developed. Given a two-
model of the conversion process (or message diffusion), this
s that the potential recruit received a message from the mass
a about the women's movement. The potential recruit often came

he Center seeking more information. Here she was greeted warmly

 

and encou

Ste
tive ties
the group
as import
demand to
groups wi

Ste
must remt
This can
Movement.
with bel‘
have beer

the more

3mm!

Th
version
to a NUC
Will wi
Side We]
l00sely

L
lilllzat
his or
”f C0nv

itcruyt

 

 

llO

d encouraged to join the kinship group.
Step 6 states that the potential convert does not have affec-
e ties outside the group. Here Lofland neglects the ability of
group to break affect ties outside the group. This step is not
important to the women's movement because the movement does not
and total commitment separated from the world, although some sect
ups within the movement may demand such.
Step 7 is necessary for total commitment, that the individual
t remain for some time in intensive interaction with believers.
s can be stated in reverse fashion for a movement like the Women's
'ement. The more the individual remained inintensive interaction
h believers, the more her commitment became total. This seems to
e been the case in the Women's Center, where the more time spent

more involved the woman became.

nary i

This chapter has examined Lofland's model of the steps to con-
;ion in a cult group. This study is an attempt to apply the model
1 much different group. Lofland was studying a religious cult
ip with a supernatural belief system whose boundaries with the out-
v were tightly drawn. The Women's Center, on the other hand, was
ely structured with no demands for commitment to belief.

Lofland's model is too narrow to apply to a social movement or-
zation in a large mass movement, whether that movement is relig—
or political. Lofland does not provide for a two—step process
onversion necessary to deal with a mass movement. The potential

wits receive a cognitive message from the media. For example,

this '
which
movem
oping
consc

plore

ment,

thinl

to ea

the I

soci

 

 

lll

is is happening right now to the cult group led by the Rev. Moon,

ich is caught up in a media blitz. In the case of the women's

vement, women created their own groups for the purpose of devel-
ing affective bonds in order to recruit into the movement, i.e.

nsciousness raising groups. These were formed by women to ex-

ore the messages they were receiving from the media.

Lofland does not offer any explanation for selective recruit-
nt, for why one person selects the cult and another doesn't. I
ink this selection process is some kind of histroical accident.
disjunctive points in life a person looks around for some means

ease the pain or salvage his/her life. What happens to provide

e solution is an historical accident.

A mathematical model could be developed for the origins of a
:ial movement based on the statistical notion of a random walk to
Each individual could be assigned a probability
The

gambler's ruin.

joining a movement, a probability which changes over time.

ld-up of a critical mass would then explain the process whereby

'evival movement sweeps over a culture.

 

 

ogy '
tent
curr
of t
than
in r

legi

llltill

toi

ilbe

bel

thi

9h

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

IDEOLOGY

 

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the changes in ideol-
|y which occurred during the first year of existence of the Women's
inter. First I will examine some theoretical notions about ideology
rrent in sociological literature. Second I will examine the ideology

the women who organized the Women's Center. Third I will trace
anges in the ideology and analyze the direction these changes took
relation to the original belief system and pressures to become
gitimate.

The literature on social movements usually defines such a move—
lt as a group of people who share a belief system running counter
the belief system of the society. An example of this definition
that of Neil Smelser (l963):

In this study we shall attempt a delineation of the field
of collective behavior which differs considerably from
those just reviewed. As a first approximation, we define

collective behavior as mobilization on the basis of a be-
lief which redefines social action.

 

 

rschall (l973) essentially accepts this notion of a social movement
adds to it that the new belief system usually comes from alternate
TEf systems in the society.

I would argue that this is the social movement as it appears to
outside observer. Social movement organizations develop ideolo—

s for public presentation which are studied by outside observers.

112 y

 

liithin
(l973)

exlie

elie

 

ll3

ithin the movement the experience seems more like this, as Rowbotham

l973) expresses it:

In order to create an alternative an oppressed group
must at once shatter the self-reflecting world which en-
circles it and; at the same time, project its own image
onto histroy. In order to discover its own identity as
distinct from that of the oppressor it has to become
visible to itself. ..The first step is to connect and
learn to trust one another.

It is hard to put out our hands and touch the past,
harder still to bring the past into the future. Nor does
the same definition necessarily do from one day to the
next. Circumstances transform themselves and our rela—
tionship to them. Nothing seems fixed in the world.
Familiar ideas don't fit the new reality. The mirror
dissolves into a light show. When you watch a light show
you see one coloured pattern created by the slides in a
projector disintegrating in the very moment in which it
appears distinctly and immediately to be altering its
relationship to all the other colours which are themselves
going through the same process according to their own
unique pattern. (pp. 27—28).

In order to sustain my position concerning ideology, that is,
at the women's movement does have an ideology but that this ideology
as not conform to the usually accepted definitions, I will present
argument essentially deriVed from Berger and Luckmann (l966), who
“row heavily from Marx and Harry Stack Sullivan. Berger and Luck—
in define ideology as any particular definition of reality which

mes to be attached to a concrete power interest.

eology Defined

Definitions of reality are always social, that is, they must be
red with some significant others. These significant others need
be present in face-to-face interaction after the initial sociali—
lOn process, although the maintenance of a sustained conversion
erience requires face—to—face interaction. Saul had his conversion

erience alone on the road to Damascus, but once there he sought

 

out i

The i
he pi
tion
this
feel

that

him!
My
ably
thi

 

 

ll4

out the Christian community to re-inforce his new identity.

Social definitions of reality can be looked at in three layers.
The bottom layer consists of objectifications of interaction itself.
le perceive behavior through learned concepts, e.g. crisis interven-
Lion counseling makes a distinction between emotions and feelings on
Lhis basis. Emotions are defined as physical states of being whereas
eelings are the names given to emotions. The rationale for this is
hat often persons are unaware of their emotions because they do not
ut words to them or they put the wrong words to them. Recent re-
earch on obesity seems to indicate that obese people define the
notion of anxiety as hunger. The first step in counseling is to
elp persons become aware of their emotions and put the right words
) them. Implicitly this process assumes that consciousness is a
rmbolic system.

Thus the individual paints a picture of everyday life for her/
mself which must be constantly reinforced by daily interaction with
.hers. The functioning individual must apprehend reality as inevit—
le, at least most of the time, but even for the most successful
is taken-for—granted reality is threatened by marginal situations
human experience. Chaos forever lurks in the wings. Therefore
e reality of everyday life is maintained by routines.

The precariousness of everyday life is especially vivid to those
us who worked in a crisis center. Many of the women who sheltered
th us had an extremely tenuous hold on reality. In order for the
st of us to maintain our reality, routines for crisis intervention
l to be set up. This process will be examined in subsequent chapters

Structure and professionalization.

I
further
dividua
of this
an illu
tion of
family.
born of
to some
mother.
give b‘
tions,
structv
can be
Variou
Mother
heavy
sacred
the sa

fied b

if soc
Oil cc
the 5.
"Reilly

mWeill

 

ll5

These objectifications forming the basic layer of reality are
further summarized and organized in roles and institutions. The in-
dividual's reality consists of an image of him/herself in the context
of this social structure, sort of a life history called identity. As
an illustration let us examine the concept of mother, an objectifica—
tion of a biological relationship, a role in the institution of the
family. Every individual ”knows” what a mother is and knows s/he was
born of a mother. Furthermore, each individual's identity is based
to some degree on whether or not s/he is a mother or can become a
mother. Gender is defined on the basis of whether or not one can
give birth.

Supporting this complex of institutions is a set of legitima-
tions, a second layer of reality, which constitutes the plausibility
structure. Legitimations are ways by which the institutional world
can be explained and justified. Again, motherhood is justified in
various ways. Women can only find their real selves in motherhood.
iothers are responsible for whatever their children become; it's a
Ieavy responsibility. The legitimations shade into the over—reaching
acred canopy of society whereby the everyday reality is blended into
he sacred. Motherhood is sacred. The pain of childbirth is justi—
ied by the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Discussions of ideology are usually vague about which dimension
f social reality is being considered. I wish to argue that an ideol—
W consists of four parts, an individual's identity, a definition of
e situation, a set of legitimations, and a symbolic universe of
aning. Furthermore, I think that the total process of a social

vement consists of breaking down all these four aspects of an

 

existin
ogy per
of the

society

ldeoltw
but in
ideolo
(l970)
the in
with 0

has of

belief
Oil" f
tain t
contra
though
asDec

Sener

SlSte
refle
PUSlt
ibbve

ual i

 

116

xisting ideology and replacing them by a new set. If the new ideol-
gy persists over time it will become embedded in the total structure
f the society or, in the case of a revolution, take over the entire

ociety, as in Russia.

deology and Social Movements

 

Ideology and social movements are inextricably inter-twined,
ut in analyzing the data of my study I have concluded that the word
deology is tossed around with small regard for definitions. Marx
1970) introduced the notion of ideology as those ideas which serve
ie interest of a particular class, although he also used the term
ith other meanings (Olman, 1971). Following Marx, the word ideology
is often been used as a pejorative.

Mannheim (1936) would use the term ”utopian thought” for the
lief system of a social movement, and he would use the term “ideol—
y" for the belief system of a political class which wishes to main-
in the status quo, thereby obscuring aspects of reality which
otradict their interests, whereas he would use the term utopian
)ught for the belief system of an oppressed class which obscures
)ects of reality in their interests. This terminology has not been
rerally adopted, however, and will not be used in this study.

In this study I intend to use the word, ideology, to mean a
tem of ideas held in common by several people. This definition
lects my value position that social reality is perceived from the
ition that a person occupies in society. Furthermore, as explained
re, I have broken this system of beliefs into four parts: individ—

identity, definition of the situation, legitimations and a

 

transc

their
use de
tingui
"philc
knowle
of the
other:
socie‘
the i
iousl,
knows
every
cause
Chang
Chang

ltdtl

dSper
Ptcty
coun
indi

Dllc

find

C0n(

 

ll7

ranscendent order, often but not always supernatural.

Mannheim explains that persons belong to a group by virtue of
heir shared ”definition of a situation,” and that every concept we
se derives from a shared group meaning. At another point he dis—
inguishes this definition of the situation from what he calls a
philosophical credo.” Mannheim's general theme, as a sociology of
nowledge, is that individuals and groups can become self-conscious
f their own system of beliefs as different from the world view of
thers when two groups are struggling for power. In a stabilized
)ciety, the ruling elite need not take seriously the world view of
ie lower classes because the latter are not in a position to ser-
)usly challenge the elites. In such a stable society the individual
rows his/her place in an overall transcendent order of meaning where

'eryday behavior is meaningful. Changes in everyday interaction

 

use disjuncture in the social definitions of reality, whether these
anges come about from external invasion or internal technological
ange. Slow changes can be adapted to, but faster change produces
actions, one of which may be a social movement.

Different kinds of movements seek to change or shape different
)ects of reality. Psychiatric movements aim at the subjective as-
:ts of reality and the individual's identity. Crisis intervention
nseling, as well as other kinds of therapy, aim at changing the
ividual's word picture of him/herself and society. This is ex-
citly delineated in the manuals for crisis intervention.

Political movements seek to change the institutional structure
the structure of legitimations, whereas religious movements are

:erned with the transcendent order of the universe. This

 

dist
legi
ious
than
medi

orde

but,
at l
the

rea'

def

tio

Po\w

90h

Pew

Gov

lZl

 

 

ll8

distinction is hard to make, however, because the demarcation between
legitimations and cosmology is hard to draw. In the long run, relig-
ious movements can change the political order (e.g. Christianity
changed the Roman world, and the Protestant Reformation changed the
medieval world) and political movements can develop transcendent
orders of reality (as Marx did for socialism).

I would prefer not to categorize social movements in such terms
but, rather, to examine the overall process of change. Social reality
at best is a shifting dancing projection, as Rowbotham points out.
When large numbers of people share a single stabilized version of
reality we speak of an institutionalized order. A few people sharing
a vision of reality, perhaps a vision of how reality could be, are
defined by others as deviant. This observation brings us to the no—

tion of power.

  

ower Dimensions of Realit

 
 
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  

Power is related to universe—maintenance because those with more
ower can impose their definitions of reality on others. The confron-
ation of alternative symbolic universes always becomes a problem of
ower, an important point for the sociologist to keep in mind.
uldner (1971) argues that social theorists are attempting to normal-
e their universe, to reduce tension between a social event the
eorist believes is real and some value of the theorist that the
ent has violated, and that it is hard for people to believe that
at is powerful in society is not good. Thus it is difficult for
eorists to assign power to an alternative symbolic universe. An~

her way for the theorist to avoid a confrontation with his own

 

 

"wri'

beli
reli
pm

I asl

 

 

l19

belief system is to try to develop value-free theory. All of this is
relevant to the literature on social movements because for the most
part mainstream social theorists covertly categorize social movements
as bad.

Berger and Luckmann define ideology as any particular definition
of reality which comes to be attached to a concrete power interest.
In this sense both the New Left and the women's movement do have ideol-
ogies. What these movements lack, being relatively recent, are full—
blown systems of mythology. This is what Rowbotham implies in the
passage I quoted above. She describes the steps necessary to develop
an ideology. First, the oppressed group must develop an identity,
at the same time as it shatters an old identity. Rowbotham sees this
taking place in the context of interaction, which is the same point
made by Lofland as well as Berger and Luckmann. Only later can legitf
imations and a symbolic universe develop.

One difficulty in the development of an ideology by a social

movement organization which seeks to obtain resources from the exist—

 

ing structure is that the social movement organization must present

to outside audiences an ideology which does not threaten the "precar-

ious vision” of the existing order. Peter Berger (1961) discusses the

:ollusion between oppressor and oppressed in The_Precarious Vision:
The astonishing thing is that commonly not only is it the
oppressor who envelops his actions in the fictions of his
role, but the victim is seriously expected to do the same.
What is even more astonishing is that sometimes he fulfills
this expectation. (p. 91)

n the case of women the expectation is fulfilled beyond anybody's

lorious dreams. Women are expected to find self—fulfillment in self—

mmolation. Berger goes on to explicate how people in power seek

 

 

legi
for
task
sour

suci
howe
sour

POS‘

sic

120

egitimacy by means of social fictions and how threatening it becomes
'or those in power to tear aside the illusions. Thus it becomes the
ask of a social movement organization, if it wishes to obtain re—
ources from the legitimate social order, to couch its ideology in
uch a way as not to threaten the illusion.

This development of legitimating ideology has another face,
owever. In the process of developing legitimacy, in sharing the re-

ources, the social movement organization comes to lose its radical

 

sition.

cial Roles and the Development of Social Movements.

In this section, my previous arguments will be applied to the
omen's movement. I have developed the notion of different aspects
’social knowledge and hence ideology because I want to emphasize
at the notion of ideology and social movements has not been closely
amined on an empirical level. I want to state that a social move-
nt can begin to develop around dissatisfaction with an existing
stem, that in the beginning stages a group may not have a formalized
t of legitimations, and that such a formalized set of legitimations

what is usually meant by the word ideology.

It is my contention that social movements arise out of a situa-
1n where individuals are prevented from carrying out the roles which
ey have been socialized to anticipate. In discussing this notion
must be kept in mind that as the word role is used in this study,

a notion of identity arises from the roles one is taught to play.
t often the notion of role conveys to the reader something exter-

to the person, but that is not in any sense my definition. Any

 

persoi
form

surro
the c
If th
happe
tions

lllOVElll

tutio
ing 1'
apprc
ideni
lie ta
tion,

new 5

0i bi
blldiv
if b.
or y
icce
iole
is t
i ii
havi

besi

 

   
 
      
     
   
   
   
      
     
   
   
   
      
    

lZl

erson's identity is deeply embedded in a set of roles which together
form institutions. One's identity is embedded in the legitimations
'urrounding the institution, and part of that legitimation explains

he circumstances under which the person is expected to play the role.
f the person is prevented from entering the role, it may very well
appen that the person begins to question the structure of legitima-
ions. It must also be emphasized that organizing or joining a social

ovement is only one of several alternatives.

 

Now Berger and Luckmann keep emphasizing that roles and insti-
tions are always embodied. A role is a set of instructions for act—
9 in a given situation, as well as a prescription for defining the
propriate situation. An actor learns a role by learning when to
lentify the appropriate situation and what behavior to engage in.

a talk about "role playing" to learn new behavior for an old situa-
on, such as assertiveness training, or to learn how to behave in a
w situtation.

Primary socialization consists of teaching the individual a set
behaviors and a set of expectations for the behavior of others, em-
ied in a configuration of roles. The child engages in many kinds
behavior, learned in various ways. These behaviors are reinforced
inhibited by the socializing agent according to some standard of
eptability in the latter's mind. First the child is taught which
es are appropriate for him/her. The earliest is gender role which
taught by both verbal commands and modeling behavior. ("You are
irl. Little girls do this; little girls do not do that.“) Be-
iors are attached to roles, and thus behavior is learned on the

is of role appropriate behavior.

 

abi

The

 

 

l22

At this point I wish to enter a caveat. In order to make the

above paragraphs clear I have had to oversimplify the presentations.
The human being after all is a biological organism with certain innate

drives. All food—gathering animals have innate curiosity drives as

well as drives for food, drink and sex. These drives can be suppressed
at terrible cost to the individual, as can be observed in animals in

the zoo. I believe that one reason social movements develop is because

people like stimulation and change. Bureaucratic routinization of

activity is just plain boring. I believe that one reason the Ghost

Dance developed is that people were just plain bored sitting around
the reservation eating beef after the buffalo were gone.
To continue with the argument, as individuals are socialized

to enter adult roles in society, they come to internalize a set of

expectations. This set of expectations forms a large portion of the
self structure and is most complex. The individual gets his/her iden—
:ity from his/her anticipated role. Further, s/he anticipates a set

if rewards for behavior conforming to the role expectations. Hence

t can be seen that an individual experiences a great deal of anxiety

n a situation where s/he cannot perform her/his role behavior. Not

nly is s/he deprived of expected rewards for behavior but s/he fears

unishment for nonconformity, and his/her identity is shattered or

ithheld depending on the circumstances.
The perception of the rationality of the behavior of members of

social movement depends upon the position of the observer. Men, for

ample the President of a university, perceive something other than

emselves when they talk to a faculty woman. This woman, however,

5 been socialized in the same graduate process as the male faculty

 

membe
facul
to he
behav
mous

perce

of a
acces
ests
dain
Supp
the l
purm

in Si

tion

tist

 

123

ember and anticipates equal rewards for performance. Thus the female
aculty member may be behaving in eminently reasonable ways according

0 her perception of her legitimate expectations from a situation. Her
ehavior, on the other hand, may seem patently ridiculous or blasphe-
ous or in other ways threatening reality to the persons who do not
erceive her as a legitimate occupant of the role to which she aspires.

In addition to the internalizations of role behavior, occupancy
if a role often carries with it certain perquisites of power, Such as
.ccess to scarce resources. Individuals already having vested inter-
:sts in a social structure attempt to prevent other individuals from
.laiming these resources, and both groups will devise ideologies to
upport the legitimacy of their claims. Thus we can perhaps suspect
.he tradition of sociological literature as being ideology for the
vurposes of supporting the legitimacy of the entrenched power group
n society.

As a matter of fact, I see the latent function of this disserta—
ion as legitimation of the women‘s movement. In our society, scien-
'sts are the myth makers. Physical scientists supply the cosmology

how the universe began, and social scientists recount how social
'fe began. In these pages I am taking the definition of the world
lled sociology and reworking it in such a way that social movements
e defined as an inherent aspect of organized social life. By my
ry use of pronouns, I am attempting to redefine the social defini-
on of women in such a way that the women's movement seems a lOgical,
itural response of women to the circumstances in which they find them-

elves.

124

Ideology and the Women's Movement

 

Freeman (1975) argues that the women's movement does not have
an ideology, although I think she confuses ideology with the formal-
ized belief systems which Mannheim (1936) calls philosophical credos.
I have argued that the movement does not have a full—blown set of
legitimations and a formal symbolic universe, but that members share
a definition of reality. I would also argue that the two wings of
the movement differ in the vision of this reality. They do, however,
share one basic assumption, that women are not all that different
from men and that women are not inferior to men. (Some sect groups
stress the superiority of women over men.) Carden (l974) believes
that I'all share a common concern with the constraints of their social
role" (p. 45).

One interesting datum I have turned up is that women active in
the Women's Center who claim not to belong to the movement are women

ho act inappropriately to their gender role, i.e. act as if they were
en. They engage in male occupations, e.g. Prudence Rock was a statis-
ician in the space program, and define themselves as independent, in-
elligent individuals who are supposed to achieve. In existentialist
erms, they see themselves as subjects. I have discussed this with
lice Scott, PhD candidate in counseling, who has worked as a counselor
t the Center for four years. Incidentally, speaking of appropriate
ole behavior, Alice's first contribution to the Center was an elabor-
te hand—carved wooden sign to hang on the front porch, carved by her-
elf. My analysis is that women with cross—sex role identification
lready possess what for others is a new definition. They simply don't

eem to understand what women in the movement are talking about when

 

l25

 

the Movement women ”find it difficult to live within the traditionally
defined feminine role" as Carden (1974; 45) puts it.

I would argue that women in the women's rights wing essentially
ccept the prevailing ideology of individualism and natural rights.
hey simply want to extend natural rights to women as well as men.

11 men are created equal with certain inalienable rights to life,
iberty and the pursuit of happiness but change the men to persons.
reeman (1975) argues that acting on this liberal ideology will re—
ult in radical consequences.

On the other hand, women in the women's liberation wing accept
perhaps modified Marxist view of the world, expressed, for example,
n Juliet Mitchell's Women's Estate_(l97l). This group is much more

rone to ideological splits (Teasley 1976) because their point of view

The ideology of struc—

 

5 less well institutionalized in this society.
irelessness grows out of this definition of reality.

Let us turn now to a description of the content of the ideology
i the Women's Center, which I describe as the development of a new

lf-image. In addition there were several plausibility structures

veloped for presentation to various audiences.

Ideology of the Women's Center
Six women met regularly as a Task Force for almost a year to

anize the Women's Center. These women have been described in an

lier chapter. I have no data on Andy, who moved out of town be-

e I began working at the Center. Zelda was a veteran seeker in

y modes, whose ideology shifted from time to time. Penelope had a

plete set of matching contradictions; whatever anyone was doing,

 

 

 

l26

Penelope proposed doing the opposite. The only firm belief I ever
recorded for her is that we should not call the police to deal with
violent males. (The male in question was literally bent on homicide
and eventually did shoot somebody, although not fatally.) Her reason-
ing was that police are agents of the Establishment.

Carmen was a radical feminist, although she never presented
herself in this manner. She looked like any dowdy faculty wife in
her forties. She opposed legal marriage for her daughter on theor-
etical grounds, and was only reluctantly persuaded to attend the
wedding. At the time of the study she almost totally denied her anger
and was always bent on compromise. Many events later, in particular
during the Lesbian crisis during the summer of 1974, she reported that
she had been extremely naive. She said, ”Penelope kept talking about
aower and I didn't believe there was such a thing [as power].”

Iris and Fern had no ideological commitments of any kind. Iris
wrote me in January, 1975: ”My feelings at the time centered around
i need for recognition, of being capable of functioning in a community
'ole--TV interviews-—name in paper——lots of recognition. This sort
f thing made me feel important. I was unemployed, thus a central
lement of responsibility was important, a challenge, both organiza—
ional and intellectual.“

The identities of the women working in the Center began to

range as a consequence of reinforcement from significant others. Iris
:thony began as a flower child and eventually got her Master's in
cational Rehabilitation Counseling. She is currently a Director of
Sheltered Workshop. Fern Woods was disorganized and disoriented;

a became efficient and is currently working on a bachelor's degree.

 

 

 

127

Agnes Wells came to us on bail from a charge of armed robbery. She
became a Board Member and is currently finishing a master's degree in

accounting. Elizabeth Nall returned to graduate school to finish her

long delayed PhD as a direct consequence of counseling Iris to enter

graduate school. All of us developed a new sense of ourselves as

capable people. This illustrates something important abOut the women's

movement. Various observers (Carden, 1974; Freeman, 1975) have

pointed out this change in the self-image of women as expressed in

new activities. This new self-image is not usually considered as

ideology, but it does follow from the argument of Berger and Luckmann,

'as outlined in the beginning of the chapter. A great many women have

glimpsed a new image, a new earth.

 

My analysis of all this is that the Women's Center is organized
as a place for significant conversation where an ideology can develop

through interaction. In the beginning of the chapter I quoted Rowbo-

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
 
  
  
  

tham (1973: 27) ”The first step is to connect and learn to trust each

other." In order to develop an identity other than the identity given

to them in a symoblic universe created by males, women must come to—

gether and talk about their subjective experience of the world. Most

of the women who come to the Center are inarticulate about any kind

f ideology. Somehow they have glimpsed a dazzling vision that women,
00, can be human beings. At the time they come it is just that, a
azzling vision toward which they struggle.

Women in Carbondale have received a message through the mass

dia that the women's movement exists. The messages are jumbled,

xaggerated and contradictory, but most of all they are not embodied

n the reality of interaction. Carmen Stone represents a clear

 

 

 

128

example of this. She had developed a cognitive structure of what the
women's movement meant but she had not yet translated this cognitive
structure into the subjective taken—for-grantedness of everyday realtiy.
In order to do this she needed a place where she could come together
with other women and develop an identity through interaction. Women
with cross-sex role identification, such as Alice Scott and Prudence
Rock, have a subjective experience of everyday reality that is totally
out of synchronization with any cognitive reality presented to them.

I know this from subjective experience. The women's movement presents
a cognitive structure which makes sense of subjectively experienced
reality.

The long theoretical section on Berger and Luckmann in the intro-
iuction to this chapter is an attempt to construct a legitimation struc—
:ure for the subjective experience of the Women's Center. That
experience is not defined in anything I have read in the sociological
iterature. Social reality, including sociology and social psychology,
5 constructed by men for all human beings. This becomes very confus—
ng to women because men simultaneously deny that they construct social

ality for women. A female anthropologist related to me her click
perience: "It came to me one day reading anthropology books that
en writers say man they mean man.”

The cracks in this definition of social reality come slowly.
men feel discomfort but it remains ”the problem with no name“ until
iedan (1962) writes that women are not fulfilled as wives and mothers.
e myth down. The Federal and State Commissions document that women
ffer economic discrimination, thus de-mythologizing whole sectors of

ality. Women in the radical movement feel severe discrepancies.

All of t
It
that new
track!
use Rowl
through
Other.
no iden‘
T
ing a n
that re
out. I
teract
Center
to been

Act.

129

of this I have discussed at great length.
The moment of conversion to the women's movement seems to be
t moment when a woman rejects the male definition of reality.
ck! The mirror cracks and she steps beyond the looking glass, to
Rowbotham's metaphor. She has been finding her identity only
ough her reflection back from male eyes; she is perpetually an
er. (This is de Beauvoir, 1952.) When the mirror cracks she has
identity, and this is when she needs the Women's Center.
The women in the Center shared the belief that they were build—
a new identity for themselves. I have been emphasizing the point
t roles and institutions must be embodied, that they must be acted
In order to develop a new identity women must withdraw and in-
lCt among themselves separate from men, whether in the Women's
:er or in a women's caucus in a professional association. In order

recome a Subject rather than an Object (de Beauvoir, 1952), she must

The Women‘s Center enabled women to act. Iris Anthony points

that organizing the Center enabled her to function in a community
Women banded together to found a corporate organization, to get

d, to run a crisis center. Women had to take responsibility for
elves as a group, as women. Crawling out of a cocoon is not

as any butterfly can tell you. The conflicts which arose at the
r were focused on this "act” of acting. Discussions were oriented
d behavior. My analysis is that this represents the bottom layer
entity and hence ideology.

Women became significant others for each other through the ideol-

f kinswomen, i.e. that we are sisters, mothers, daughters,

 

grand
in ne
such

Prude
reini
maste

(more

how t
Views
In ti
tity
for e
Sodde
runs
HECEE
ihoug
belie

inst-

Outs'

 

 

130

andmothers, granddaughters. They reinforced each other for acting
new ways, e.g. Carmen put up little signs on the bulletin board
ch as, ”Prudence Rock is beautiful. She makes the furnace work.”
udence taught a class in automobile repair and maintenance. This
inforced both Prudence and the rest of us in defining technological
stery of machinery as good, not to mention enabling us to master
re or less) the machine.
This emphasis on acts like repairing an automobile or learning
v to write a grant application raises a point discussed in the pre-
)us chapter concerning reality testing and validation from others.
the Women's Center women were concerned with acting out a new iden—
:y in the here and now, repairing the VW in the driveway, not waiting
' an automatic car which needed no repairs sent by the great white
dess in the sky. These acts could be readily identified; the VW
s or it does not run. Very little plausibility structure was
essary. This seems to be what Freeman (1975) is saying also, al-
gh she identifies ideology with plausibility structure. Freeman
’eves, as do I, that women are making far-reaching changes in the
itutional structure.
The Women's Center did develop plausibility structures aimed at
ide audiences. They couldn't expect to receive funding on the
s of developing a place for significant conversation. (I suspect
is why other Centers have failed to receive funding, that they
not developed plausibility structures oriented to their audiences.)
e Center had been studied by an outside investigator, particularly
e basis of written documents, s/he would have characterized the

ogy of the Center on the basis of these plausibility structures.

Iggy

llVll
The l
wome
wome
They
the

They

pate

Term

ret
cou

she

Dre
on

ten
the

eve

 

131

The Plausibility Structures

The women who remained of the Women's Liberation Front, now
living in a radical women's commune, as a group rejected the Center.
The Center was, to them, simply a stronghold for upper-middle—class
women to play Lady Bountiful. It should be pointed out that these
women were now formed into a cult group, separated off from the world.
They had their own radical ideology. They had cut affective ties with
the outside world; those who were married had left their husbands.
They interacted with each other intensively.

One former member of WLF, Jan Wayne, who had actively partici-
pated in violence, was a resident in the Women's Center during Winter
Term 1973. She left at the end of the term very upset by the conflicts
she felt over her own ideology, derived from the WLF, and the func-
tioning of the Center. She believed that women should be trying.to
change the System whereas she perceived the other women in the Center
adapting to it, but nevertheless she had developed strong affective
bonds for some of the women. Her distress illustrates Lofland's point
and Bittner's point about cutting off extra-cult affective ties. Jan
retained affective bonds with both WLF and the Women's Center but she
could only maintain this position for a limited amount of time. Then
she left both groups.

Besides the internal belief system, the Women's Center had to
aresent itself to outside audiences. After the Center began operation
In November 1, 1972, many new women were involved in running the
enter, and the possible audiences developed into at least five. On
he one hand women must be recruited to staff the Center. Another

udience was possible guests of the Center. A third audience were

 

 

professii
fourth av
Council i
sharing I
vately f
Th
ship mee
part mod
tension
these me
an artic
t0 the v
lrlS deg
0f the 1
their p'
Kinswoni
hailed '
is an e
Women a
T

PUblic
as an a
not rac
Out, ty
09y em;
"Men-

help 0.

 

132

professional social workers who made referrals to the Center. A
fourth audience was made up of the funding bodies such as the City
Council and the County Commissioners who dispersed federal revenue
sharing monies. The fifth audience were the women whose pledges pri—
vately funded the Center during the first year.

The women who pledged money and attended the annual member-
ship meetings to vote for the Board of Trustees were for the most
part modern traditional women who saw the Women's Center as an ex-
tension of women's role in modern society. The relationship between
these women and the Center was always tenuous. Iris Anthony wrote
an article on self—help in the newsletter, Kinswomen, which was mailed
to the women pledging money as well as to others. In the article
Iris described using a speculum to observe one's vagina, and the use
of the word "vagina” horrified some women who threatened to withdraw
their pledges. Zelda objected to the use of the word "ass" in the
Kinswomen on the grounds that her husband regularly read the copy we
mailed her, and he was horrified to see women using such a word. This
is an example of people trying to retain their "precarious vision” of
omen as delicate ladies.

The Task Force had from the beginning developed an ideology for
ublic presentation. On Carmen's part this was consciously developed
5 an attempt to fool the public into thinking that the Task Force was
ot radical. This emphasizes the theme Peter Berger (1961) pointed
ut, that symbolic illusions must be maintained. This public ideol-
gy emphasized the notion of kinswomen. It was pointed out that many
omen in Carbondale were far away from their families and needed the

elp of other women. Women needed to meet with women to share their

 

probl

the c
he fe
who v
volur
tile

diape

imagi
that
up t
orga
tain
stan

ostr

new
lent
Clea
tru
oth
Sel

lidS

 

problems and their solutions.

This public ideology reflected and emphasized what was part of
the collective belief system shared by women who worked in the Center.
We felt that We shared a collective household, and we squabbled about
ho was going to do the housework. The residents complained that
volunteers left dirty coffee cups for them to wash, and the most hos—
ile act that a vengeful guest could think of was to stash dirty
iapers in a closet so that the house smelled.

For the most part we tried to present the community with the
mage of a voluntary association doing good. We kept emphasizing
that we were doing this for instrumental reasons, and this points
1p the paradox that Wilson (1973) discussed. The social movement
vrganization must accept constraints on its behavior in order to ob—
ain resources. In this instance we covered up any possible radical
tance that we might have had. I think also we did not want to suffer
stracism in the community, as individuals.

Ideology did not so much change as proliferate. We invented a
ew image for each new audience we became aware of. Lofland (1966)
iscusses the change in approach as the cult group sought to recruit
w members. In the beginning, potential converts were subjected to
ngthy presentations of the belief system. Eventually it became
ear to the members that such presentation discouraged potential re—
uits. The presentation was shortened and made more palatable. An-
her change was the covert presentation of the belief system. Complete
lf-disclosure was delayed. As Lofland describes the leader, ”she
S quite cautious and did not cast her pearls before swine” (p. 97).

The next audience we had to reach was potential recruits for

 

volun
our p
consc
the 3
seem
group
Again
caric
famil
and r

WOUll

seek‘
were
bad

did

stud
ihet
Coun
To i
sess
thre
99k

ith

lOWi

ing

134

volunteers. This was a younger group and we became more radical in
our presentation. The method of recruitment was through the crash
consciousness raising groups where we tried to present our goals as
the self—development of women. As I have pointed out above, this does
seem to me to be the central core of the women's movement. In our
groups we did play down any anger at men or critique of the System.
Again this was an attempt to proceed slowly to break down the "pre-
carious vision.“ Most women are caught up in the ideology of the
family, the notion that women find their self-fulfillment in marriage
and motherhood, and a direct attack on this "precarious vision”

would prove too threatening.

In the beginning we also had to recruit clients. The women
seeking shelter mostly came from the rural working class, and they
were frightened by us. This was at a time, a year after student riots
had laid waste the town and closed the university, when townspeople
did not walk down Main Street because they were literally afraid of
students. The Women's Center was close to downtown, in the student
ghetto, and we wore blue jeans. One woman who came to the Center for
ounseling told me how frightened she had been to come to the Center.
0 her we were like visitors from outer space. In the weekly training
ession for volunteers we discussed the problem of acting in a non-
hreatening way, particularly in our use of language. Again our strat—
gy was to play down ideology, to stress how "normal” we were. We
ried particularly to avoid any behavior which indicated hostility
oward men or deprecation of the nuclear family. Incidentally, guests
clients) were not expected to subscribe to any ideology. The counsel-

ng at the Center consisted entirely of crisis intervention counseling

 

 

 

whic

intc
and
atte
the
coni

Inr

llai
tic
whi
vie

for

The
i i
fee
Sta
th
of

Oil

 

135

which is in no way politically oriented.

As the Center became successful in recruiting clients, it moved
into a new relationship with social welfare agencies. Carmen Stone
and I presented talks at staff meetings. As Volunteer Coordinator I
attended a Regional Workshop for Volunteer Coordinators sponsored by
the State of Illinois Agency for Voluntary Associations. In these
contexts we presented ourselves as dedicated volunteer professionals.
In our presentations we did not divulge ideology but tried to give an
image of ourselves as entirely rational and task oriented. Most of
the workers in these organizations were women who themselves were
members of the women's rights movement.

And finally there were the funding agencies. A Board member, Jane
Wainwright, became our expert at writing grants and compiling statis-
tics. We had to present our activities in terms of cost accounting,
which specifically pushed the belief system of the women from partic-
ularistic to universalistic. Kinswomen became clients. My Journal
for January 25, 1973, reads:

I have personal qualms sometimes. Is this only a re—run
of Hull House or is this the revolution?

The thrust of the Center has continued in this direction, according to
a recent letter from Carmen Stone (April 1976). The Center is now
federally funded with a paid coordinator who must compile elaborate
statistics. (This paid coordinator is Prudence Rock.) This is but
he end result of a process begun in November, 1972, when the Board

f Trustees voted that the Women's Center could not take a position

n any political matter because it might jeopardize the non-profit

tatus of the corporation.

 

 

 

 

 

the
esse
fasi
rose
on '
occ
Rev
jux
rea

to

g

 

136

To an outside observer the ideology of the Center would resemble
:he reports of the six blind men concerning the elephant. For me the
essence of the Center has always been the Sunday morning I had break—
'ast in the kitchen with Jan Wayne wearing flannel pajamas with pink
*osebuds on them, scrambling eggs as she told me about the police raid
In the Bridge Street House which changed her life. (She and the other
vccupants were beaten without provocation.) Always about the Center,
.evolution presented itself in a cosy domestic guise. Violence was
uxtaposed with tranquility. My Journal entry for March 31, 1973,
eads in part, after a long account of how I took vomit covered sheets
0 the laundromat:
Saturday Night at the Women's Center—-
The glass is swept up, the window in the door nailed over
with a big piece of plywood (where an irate husband broke
the door down in order to pursue his wife with a tire iron).
Lorelei sits in the living room on the floor playing records.
Billy Jo is on the phone making counseling appointment.
Bette Mateer is making rose hip tea. Debby Peary is reading
Ms at the table while Molly (age 3) looks at slides.
mmar
This chapter has presented a definition of ideology and a discus—
on of what that definition implies. Berger and Luckmann define ideol—
y as a definition of reality attached to a concrete power interest.
argue in this chapter that, by this definition, the women's movement
es have an ideology consisting of a new definition of reality but
at it does not have a full—blown set of legitimations and symbolic
iverse.
The core of the ideology of the women's movement lies in the defi-

tion of a new self-image for women. I argue that ideological differ-

es do exist in the two branches of the movement, that these

 

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137

differences entail a whole symbolic universe concerning the nature of
humans and society.

This chapter has presented the Women's Center as a place where
this new self-image of women can be defined and acted out. Conversion
to the women's movement occurs when a woman rejects the male defini-
tion of reality and begins to shape her own. Before conversion she
has found her identity reflected in the eyes of men. The mirror cracks
and she steps beyond the looking glass. Developing a new identity
necessitates having a place where women can talk and act among them—
selves separately from men. Women have recently been developing these
structures for themselves, and one such is the Women's Center.

In order to obtain resources from the surrounding community,
women of the Center develop ideologies for public presentation. These
ideologies emphasized the aspects of the Center which did not threaten
the "precarious vision“ of the community.

To the community at large the Center presented the image of Women
elping women in a traditional way. To the social welfare agencies

he Center presented an image of professional competence. Public fund-
ng necessitated the adoption of cost accounting procedures. Kinswomen

ecame clients as they were counted and categorized.

opme
exti
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an.

rev
the

Olil‘

 

CHAPTER SEVEN
STRUCTURELESSNESS T0 BUREAUCRACY:
THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZATION

One of the central purposes of this study was to trace the devel—
opment of structure in the Women's Center. Although structure is in—
extricably interwoven with the ideology of the women's movement, it is
possible to separate the two for analytical purposes. The developing
structure may be examined as a case study of the bureaucratization of
an organization without particular reference to the women's movement.

As pointed out in Chapter One, the paradox of a social movement
revolves around the fact that organizing collective effort to change
the world demands acceptance of that world as a constraint upon one's
own behavior. The Women's Center was an attempt to change the exist-
ing social structure, but in the process of adapting to that structure
its own structure was changed. In tracing this developing structure
of the Women's Center, I will first discuss the ideology of structure-
lessness which has characterized the younger branch of the recent fem-
inist movement. Second, I will discuss the paradox of accepting the
demands of a world the movement wants to change. Third, I will speci-

fically trace the development of structure in the Center.

138

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139

The Ideology of Structurelessness

 

During the first years of the younger branch of the women's
movement, the women's liberation movement, a great emphasis was placed
on leaderless, structureless groups as the main form of organization.
The notion originally derived from the New Left as a protest against
the over-structured society in which we live. Also important was the
concept of participatory democracy which had been basic to the early
years of the New Left (Sale, 1974). Women coming out of the New Left
were accustomed to this form of group participation.

Women took over the notion of structureless groups with the
rationale that since all women form an oppressed class, all women are
equal and none should be leaders. For some women, all authority was
suspect because in a patriarchal society men are more often authority
figures. To some degree, this notion of structurelessness is functional
for women who have no experience in organizing. The lack of structure
allows some women to develop their talents in a relatively free atmos-
phere. Another aspect, as I pointed out in the previous chapter, is
the ideology of kinswomen which was developed and held by many women
who entered the movement through participation in the Center. Women-
folk in the family do not form a hierarchy of authority.

”The Tyranny of Structurelessness“ has been analyzed in an art-
icle by Joreen (Freeman) (1972; also see Freeman, 1975). She makes
the obvious sociological statement that there is no such thing as a
structureless group. Striving for a structureless group is deceptive
and becomes a smokescreen for some persons to control the group with-
0ut the accountability of formal structures. Thus structurelessness

masks power. Structure and power within any group develop over time

 

 

 

 

140

as a consequence of interaction. Some persons spend more time in
group activities; by default they come to control these activities.
Other persons control resources needed by the group, either material
resources, organizing abilities or specialized skills. These persons
wield power in a group. Yet other persons have a need to see others
as powerful. Over time a pattern of interactions, involving implicit
structure, begins to emerge.

The opposite side of the coin is the tyranny which the group
can exert over those who take some kind of leadership. Kate Millett
discusses this in her memoir, Elyjflg_(l975). Both on a nation—wide
I scale and on a small group scale women who become known as leaders
are objects of hostility for other group members. Freeman (1976)
has recently written an article in M§_magazine on “Trashing”; she
points out that women within the movement who are assertive and
achieving-—who, ironically, are going against traditional notions of
feminity--become objects of agression by other women within the
movement. My explanation for this phenomenon lies in the very lack
of structure itself. I believe that in this culture persons are
socialized to be hostile and aggressive to others. Our hierarchical
society is enabled to function because the structure shields authority
figures from the hostility of subordinates. An organization without
structure lacks this shielding device for leaders. Hochschild (1975)
has this to say about deflection of anger and the use of structure:

Under certain social conditions, anger, insofar as it is
deflected at all from its “rightful" target, tends to be
deflected “down” into relative power vacuums. Thus anger
is most likely to be aimed at people with less power, and
least likely to be aimed at people with more power....

Needless to say, not all anger is displaced. Also, for
the powerful, doormen and secretaries for instance may

141

provide a human barrier against exposure to hostility that
powerless people less often enjoy. ..One reason people want
power, and even more so honor and glory, is precisely this
immunity from hostility and exposure to awe and liking.
Olson (1965) in Ihg_ppgjp_pf_Collective Appipp_points out an-
other hazard of certain kinds of small groups, voluntary groups work-
ing for a larger good, e.g. labor unions, social movement groups,
ladies church auxiliaries, the ”surprising tendency for the 'exploita-
tion' of the great by the small” (p. 35). Olson explains this exploi—
tation in the following manner. He argues that a group provides a
“common good,” something that can be consumed by any member and from
,which no member can be excluded. In other words, every woman could
come to the Women's Center; nobody could be excluded. The question
then becomes, if a person benefits in any case, why should she parti-
cipate in working for the common good? Thus the result in most groups
is that some few members wind up doing all the work. There seems no
way to motivate everybody.
The Women's Center began with an emphasis on the lack of struc—
ture. Over a period of time, structure developed in response to
various pressures from outside and from within. The following is an

account of that process.

Steps in Organization

As described in earlier chapters, the idea of a Women's Center
was first put forth at the Women's Political Caucus in Carbondale on
December l, 1971. During the following year six women met regularly
to develop the idea of a Women's Center. Two questions formed the

major foci of these meetings: the purpose of the proposed Women's

 

 

142

Center and the structure of the Center.

The belief systems of these six women were explored in the pre-
vious chapter. It was pointed out that of the group only Carmen had
a firm, stable belief system. Carmen believed in a system of ideas
which can be described as radical feminist, that is, she believed in
radical change in the system directed at patriarchal authority. Cen-
tral to this system was the notion of structurelessness. In June,
1974, she told me that in retrospect she thought that she had been
naive because she had never worked in an organization before and she
knew nothing of power.

Penelope was directly opposed to Carmen over questions of struc—
ture. Nobody ever understood much about Penelope's belief system.
(Sources: Journal; interview with Carmen Stone, June, 1974; communica—
tion from Iris Anthony, March, 1975.) In meetings Penelope was firmly
committed to structure of all kinds. (Later, in the everyday inter-
action of the Women's Center, she rebelled against the structure she
herself had instituted.) Her commitment to structure seemed to be a
reaction to her years of experience in the New Left on the West Coast,
before coming to Carbondale. Years of participatory democracy had
left her afraid of ”infiltration” by other groups. None of us under-
stood her at the time, but I have since read about and experienced
such infiltration. Members of a highly structured group can take
over another group by voting as a bloc. A structureless group is
particularly vulnerable to such take-over, in the very nature of the
case. (An example is the way in which, in various parts of the country,
the Young Socialist Alliance, which is highly structured, took over

some loosely structured feminist groups. [Freeman, 1975])

 

 

 

 

143

About her own position Iris Anthony wrote in a letter in March,
1975:

I believe in structure—-haven't changed on that but
the group originated as a nonstructured entity--no roles
of authority were to be assigned. There were many personal
differences over this issue. Carmen against structure—-
wanting an egalitarian center. Penelope afraid of the
lack of structure because of 'subversives.'

I ideologically agreed with the lack of structure that
the center should be for all women and therefore all should
be able to control it however felt that it was necessary in
the practical matters for responsibility, final decision-
making and I suppose for [financial] credit also. Maybe
I believe in a benevolent controlling body for a small or-
ganization as the Women's Center is.

Notice that Iris is discussing structure in terms of equality. Notice
also that she is talking about two groups, so to speak, women who run
the Center and women who use the Center. All women should be free to
use the Center but somebody should be responsible for running it. It
did not occur to anybody that structure might be necessary to maintain
equality.

Iris sums up what I think was a crucial aspect of the Women's
Center:

Compromise was an important concept. It kept the group
together. That is probably why the central issue of the
Women's Center—-whether or not it should be a political
body Supporting basic issues of women's liberation——was
never settled.

This points up one of the emerging themes of this study, that women
participating in the Center were committed to the Center rather than to
a formal ideology.

The first step in organizational structure was legal incorporation
in October, 1972. The motives for this remain obscure; none of my in—
formants remembered why they felt it necessary to incorporate. At this

time the members of the committee had begun to accumulate several hundred

_v

 

 

144

dollars, from the daffodil sale, bake sale and flea market, and un-
doubtedly fiscal responsibility had something to do with the decision.
Iris thinks in retrospect that again it was Penelope who, out of her
fear of infiltration, pushed the issue. Thus the first step in StPUC*
ture came about as a consequence of control of resources. It was
necessary that some person or persons become fiscally responsible,
that is, have control of resources. Only the treasurer could disperse
money, under authorization by the Board of Trustees. This gave the
Board crucial power.

Legal incorporation was the first step in developing a formal
structure of differentiated roles, because incorporation entailed
appointing a Board of Trustees. In the beginning the original commit-
tee members perceived this as nominal, but legal authority carried with
it expectations of the general membership. Members in general per—
ceived the Board as having ultimate power and authority. This is an-
other critical theoretical point. Members of the organization abdicated
their power in favor of the Board. As I see it, organizational struc-
ture comes about in part from the mind sets with which members enter
the organization. Persons are socialized to play roles which they
tend to impose upon a structureless situation.

Selection of Board Members raised a new problem: definition of
membership in the Women's Center. Board Members were to be elected
by the membership in annual elections, which led to the question of
what constituted a voting member. Here again more general issues were
covertly raised. People supported the Center in two ways, by pledging
money and by working at the Center. Few people did both. In the end,

two criteria were used, either financial contributions or hours of

145

work at the Center. Thus organizational structure began to emerge.
By the time the Center opened, two distinct roles had been differen—
tiated, member and Board member. Decision-making power had been
delegated to Board Members.

The second step in developing structure came about as a conse—

 

quence of coordinating tasks. As events turned out, I developed this
differentiated role, which one respondent in 1974 called the key role
in the whole structure, that of Volunteer Coordinator. The first
general meeting of the Women's Center was held on Wednesday, October
18, 1972. At that time people were asked to sign up for committees
to work on the Center. Various committees were organized: house re—
pair, house maintenance, library, scheduling (room use for organiza-
tions), volunteer scheduling, and publicity. At this time the most
important task was perceived to be houskeeping, and staffing was con-
sidered to be something which would take care of itself. For example,
I signed up for a committee because I felt under pressure from Iris
and Fern, who were members of my consciousness raising group. I
looked around for the least important committee, involving the small-
est amount of work and signed up to schedule volunteers. I expected
to devote two or three weeks to getting a schedule organized, after
which staffing would run itself.

At the time I began the job, as nearly as I can remember now,
I assumed that people would take responsibility to perform their
tasks because of commitment to the organization. I assumed that
people usually did not take responsibility in organizations because
they were powerless, and that power was vested in the top echelons

of authority. I discovered immediately, however, that bureaucratic

 

 

146

structure arises in part from the expectations of the members of an
organization. Members of the Women's Center attributed authority to
me in my role as Volunteer Coordinator, and rendered themselves power-
less. Volunteers did not take responsibility for signing up for hours
nor for their time on duty.

Structure developed also out of task differentiation. A new
category of member rapidly evolved, that of "volunteer.” Women came
in to staff the Center, and it became necessary to draw up a formal
list of duties. The ”role" of volunteer began to develop; women were
conscious of being volunteers and took pride in this new role. By
December 5, 1972, and after I was using the word ”volunteer“ in my
Journal as a common noun, as in ”the volunteer on duty called." (It
is interesting to note that new terminology evolved along with new
roles and differentiated structure.) The person on duty was always
referred to by others as ”the volunteer.”

Role expectations arise in part from conflicts between group
members. As two_other categories of persons began to use the same
facilities as volunteers, the behavioral expectations of volunteers
became further defined, through differentiation from other roles.

One or two women lived in the Center and became known as ”residents";
women who stayed temporarily were termed "guests." Originally little
differentiation was made between volunteers and guests. Our first
guest immediately signed up to be a volunteer and in the following
spring was elected a Board Member. Agnes Wells came to the Center on
November 9, 1972, after she and her husband had been arrested on
charges of armed robbery. After being released on bail she stayed

at the Center while trying to raise bail for her husband. While

147

awaiting trial, she and her husband became residents of Carbondale.
Differentiation of the role of volunteer from the role of guest
was one important example of how changing structural needs shifted
ideology. The women's movement emphasizes the equality of women; as
an extension of that belief group members held that all women should
participate in the Women's Center on an equal basis. As structure
evolved, however, some women became the target of help while others
became helpers. The roles of helper and client, however, imply status
differentiation. Social class differences, particularly differences
in education, became operative in the Women's Center. On November 13,
1972, I note in my Journal that some women who needed the Center be-
came volunteers rather than clients. This applied, however, to women
with some college education. As the Center became busier, working
class women came more and more as clients, rather than as volunteers.

An example of the possibility of maintaining equalitarianism

 

is described by Pizzey (1974) in Scream Quietly pr_tpp Neighbors Will i

 

prp, a book about a women's center in London called the Chiswick
Women's Aid. (The August, 1976, issue of M§_magazine carries the latest
news about the consequences of starting this shelter. More than 50

such shelters now operate in Britain.) This Center started out, as

did the Carbondale Center, as a reading room and meeting place for
women of the neighborhood. Gradually women began to come to the Center
for refuge after being beaten by their husbands. The women who orig-
inally organized the Center were consciously aware of the lack of
equalitarianism in the helper—client relationship. So it became the
rule in this Center that the Center could be staffed only by women in

residence. Women not in residence continued to play roles as fund

 

 

148

raisers and liaison persons with formal agencies.

The founders of the London Center were consciously aware of the
function of benevolence in maintaining status differentiation. In
both England and the United States, charity is used to reinforce the
existing class structure. Redistribution of goods is seen as an act
of benevolence, thus reinforcing the dependency of the recipient and
the property rights of the donor. The upper status person reinforces
her rights to property and superior abilities at the same time that
she makes these accessible to the lower status person. The lower
status person has the use of valuable services, thereby alleviating
deprivation to some degree, but the basic hierarchy remains unchanged
and its legitimacy unchallenged.

Pizzey believes that part of the treatment for battered women
consists in running their own center. Being required to take respon-
sibility helps the woman to get back a belief in her own ability.
Pizzey also believes that the secret of the growth of Women's Aid is
that the Center is run by battered women for battered women. (Ms
magazine, August, 1976, reports some fifty such centers now scattered
around England.) She contrasts Woman's Aid with an emergency center
she calls “Shelter” which began as a dynamic force and is now bogged

down in bureaucracy, although she does not describe its structure.

The Process of Role Differentiation

Role expectations for volunteers began to be formalized immedi—
ately after the opening of the Center. At the request of some of the
women who signed up as volunteers, I organized Volunteer Effectiveness

Training. Volunteers were requested to attend weekly training sessions,

 

 

149

although there were no sanctions to enforce such attendence. A scar—
city of volunteers always existed; demand exceded supply. Hence
neither training requirements nor screening procedures could be effec-
tively enforced.

My idea in the beginning was to have the role requirements grow
organically out of task performance. As people worked as volunteers,
they would come to systematize procedures. This worked to some degree
over time but never to the degree that I initially envisioned. People
are already too conditioned to expect authority figures to provide
role definitions. Bureaucracy was carried into the Women's Center in
the personality structures of the volunteers. They came demanding
authority, and I responded.

In addition to rap sessions during which we discussed what the
duties of a volunteer should be, Volunteer Effectiveness Training con-
sisted of crisis intervention training. Angie, a member of the
Munchies, was a trainer for the telephone Hot Line Crisis service and
agreed to become a trainer for volunteers. Again this is an example
of the intertwining of the women's movement with the crisis interven-
tion movement. The conflicts this generated are discussed in more
detail in Chapter Eight.

At the first board meeting after the opening of the Center, I
was appointed Director of Volunteers, the first formal office in
addition to the Board of Trustees. This meeting also saw the begin-
ning of the struggle between two coalitions, one wanting structure,
the other opposed. Initially Penelope was the only person wanting
structure. I was adamantly opposed. Penelope wanted all the proced—

ures codified and written down in a notebook. I wanted procedures to

 

 

150

develop out of task performance rather than to be drawn up in advance,
because I thought that developing procedures was part of taking respon-
sibility. I thought that every volunteer should be involved in draw—
ing up rules and procedures.

We began staffing the Center on November 7, 1972. During the
first two weeks the volunteers were afraid to stay alone at the Center
because they felt that they could not handle any crisis which might
arise. During those weeks I stayed continuously at the Center during
the day. In this way the Director of Volunteers became the focus of
power in the actual running of the Center. It became clear to me that
it was necessary for someone to co-ordinate knowledge of the activities
of the Center. Pizzey also points out how one person can corner power
"by locking up a vast amount of information in their head” (p. 130).

During November and December our most serious problem was lack
of business. Volunteers and Board Members alike were discouraged be-
cause nobody came to the Center and it seemed to be a useless project.
Individuals kept talking about shutting down the Center. At this
point I used some applied sociology. I had read Stotland and Kobler
(1965), Lifg_aflg_geath.pf'p_M§ptpl_Hospital. The authors concluded
that hope is the single most important factor in maintaining an inno-
vative organization, that the staff of such an organization must have
strong faith in the importance of their efforts. So I consciously set
about reinforcing morale; I was as discouraged as everybody else, but
I never allowed this to be apparent. I talked to everybody, telling
them how important the project was and how important each individual's
contribution was. In retrospect, it seems that this brought about a

personality change in me, as I learned the value of positive

 

151

reinforcement rather than criticism, and in turn this gave me power
in the Center.

My analysis of the situation at the Center was that, in addition
to hope, one of the most important cohesive forces for the gr0up was

the task of making the furnace work. The furnace symbolized the demonic

 

forces we were fighting. Often the house was cold; alternatively the
furnace smoked. Sometimes both. This furnace was an ancient coal-
eating monster in the basement, fed by an antiquated stoker. Our
triumph over the furnace symoblized our ultimate victory. Care and
feeding of the furnace became the focus of the Volunteer Effectiveness
Training sessions. Each new volunteer was taken to the basement, shown
how to fill the stoker, fill the water tank and extract clinkers from

the fire pot.

 

Coalitions of Power

Coalitions of power began to develop in the Center. The first
general meeting to elect Board Members was held December 3, 1972,
following the First Anniversary potluck dinner (the first anniversary
0f the idea of the Women's Center). I took my women's liberation
asparagus casserole. Per Asquith nominated me as a Board Member, and
I was elected as were Pamela Rice and Jane Wainwright. We three were
to serve in addition to the original four until the first regular
election to be held in April. (Andrea Pilsner had moved out of town
and Zelda Montgomery refused to serve on the Board at this time.)

This was the beginning of a coalition between me, Per Asquith
and Prudence Rock, who did not appear on the scene until January.

Eventually we three formed a power group which brought about

 

 

 

152

organizational structure, to be described later. My relationship with
Per illustrates how such coalitions are formed. We gradually started
talking together during Per's stint as a volunteer and found that we
held similar opinions about how things should run. Furthermore we re—

inforced each other and created our own definition of the situation.

 

My behavior also illustrates how individuals in power positions
operate in a double bind. I held a firm ideological belief in struc—
turelessness. I believed that all members of the Women's Center, that
is, any woman coming to the Center should hold equal power and take
equal responsibility. Yet I was never able to implement this belief.
Tasks needed to be done, and someone had to do them. Who else was
willing to take vomit—covered sheets to the laundromat? Because I

allocated tasks and behaved in an authoritative way, I was looked to

 

by others as an authority figure. I attempted, in the Effectiveness
Training sessions, to talk about this and educate women, but it was
a long, slow process. And in the final analysis, even being the
educator is a role of authority.

Another aspect of becoming an authority figure was something I
had anticipated but in the long run was unable to cope with. I be—
came the target of generalized hostility. On December 5, 1972, I
wrote in my notes:

I am tired and upset about the Women's Center. I am used
as a target for staff hostile feelings. I know that this
is inevitable. Effectiveness Training has been divided
into two groups, Primary and Advanced. Advanced Group,
handled by me, is made up entirely of those who bitch,
primarily Penelope H. Everybody blames me when a staff
member is not there.

This syndrome of "dependency dissatisfaction“ is pervasive in

organizations developing out of the women's movement. Millett (1975)

 

 

 

 

 

 

153

discusses it in flyjpg, Women are carefully trained to be submissive
and dependent, and in trying to construct new organizations they con—
tinue to behave in old patterns. By dependence dissatisfaction, a
generalized term taken from Crisis Intervention Counseling, I mean
that a dependent individual cannot initiate action and does not take
responsibility for her/his actions, but after s/he turns to someone
to tell her/him what to do, that is, to initiate action for him/her,
s/he is angry, an anger stemming from ambivalence about dependence.

An example of this is the Volunteer Effectiveness Training. I
initiated the training sessions at the request of women who signed up
as volunteers. These women felt they did not know what to do and
would be unable to handle a crisis situation. As soon as these train-
ing sessions were instituted, however, the same women began to com-
plain that the sessions were a waste of time. The complaints of some
volunteers were lowering the morale of new recruits. So we set up
two training sessions, Primary and Advanced.

Angie White continued to handle the Primary Group, while I
took over the Advanced Group. In part, this was to deflect hostility
from Angie. At that time I was more prepared, both theoretically and
psychologically, to handle the hostility because I recognized that it
was part of the structure. By spring, however, I was no longer emo-
tionally capable of withstanding the endless hostility generated by
the ”dependency dissatisfaction” syndrome.

As I stated above, this is a problem which has arisen in gr0ups
in the women's movement. It may be present in other social movement
organizations, but it is intensified by the ideology of structureless-

ness. In highly authoritarian, structured organizations, authority

 

154

figures have more legitimacy and there are built-in ways of buffering
authority figures from hostility. One way of buffering is to have
separate facilities for different roles, e.g. executives' washrooms
and officers quarters. Patterns of deference behavior are also ways
of deflecting hostility. Furthermore there may be more hostility, be—
cause of increased frustration, where hopes are up, anticipation is
high, and where norms are ambiguous.

Another complicating factor was the ideology of sisterhood.
Most of the more dedicated members of the Women's Center believed in
the mystique of sisterhood. Part of this mystique involves the denial
of conflict. Attempts to openly discuss hostile feelings were met
with the rationale that sisters love each other and love will conquer
all. This is reinforced by the socialization of women to deny con-

flict and anger. Many of the women were unable to admit anger.

Further Role Differentiation

 

Yet another category of persons were residents. Our first
resident, Carol Haines, stayed for six weeks during November and the
first half of December. She left because the demands on her privacy
were too intense. As it turned out, there was continual turnover in
residents. Each resident had a bedroom upstairs in the house, off
limits to volunteers and guests. They were forced, however, to share
the kitchen with guests and volunteers making coffee.

This is another example of the tyranny of structurelessness.
Intense emotional demands were made on residents, who were on duty
from eleven at night until eight in the morning, when many of the

guests arrived, escorted by the police after being beaten up by their

 

 

. x“ . s.
N.» *‘1

 

 

 

 

 

155

husbands. In addition, residents were required to pay rent of $35

per month. Yet other group members rarely recognized the demands

made on residents. I was exasperated by this at the time and in ret-

rospect it seems incredible that women were asked to pay $35 per month

for the privilege of being on duty all night. My analysis is that

this is part of the ideology of kinswomen. Socialized into self-

sacrifice, the founders of the Women's Center were wives and mothers

who had no conception of buffering themselves from the demands placed y

on them by their families. This extended, then, to the Women's Cen-

ter, where all were sisters. 1
Another step in organizational structure was the differentiation

of volunteers into groups with different tasks. Our third overnight

guest, a woman with a child, arrived on December 19. The woman worked

as a waitress from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. and needed a babysitter. One

 

 

of the women volunteered to stay during the night and babysit. This

was the first of many women who needed babysitters. A conflict arose

 

over the question of babysitting, and the issue was discussed at
Volunteer Effectiveness Training. Many women who volunteered to staff
the Center did not want to be responsible for babysitting. Eventually
the conflict was resolved by compiling a list of baybsitter volunteers.
Some women preferred to staff intermittantly, taking care of children.
Eventually we had three lists of volunteers: Staffing Volunteers,
Babysitting Volunteers and Transportation Volunteers. These latter
were women who volunteered to drive guests on errands, such as driving

women to the county seat to apply for food stamps.

 

 

156

Recruitment and Structure

A problem continually facing organizations staffed by volun—
teers is that of recruitment. Volunteer turnover in any organization
is high. Turnover at the Carbondale Women's Center was coordinated
with the rhythm of Southern Illinois University. Volunteers enlisted
enthusiastically at the beginning of every term and began to dwindle
away as the term ended. Board members spent many futile hours discus—
sing why the turnover occured. Comparative data from other voluntary
organizations suggests that turnover is a consequence of normal func-
tioning. Volunteers sign up as a consequence of whatever psychological
needs are motivating them, and when the needs are met they drop out.

One of the factors contributing to the development of structure
in an organization is this problem of recruitment of new members. As
it becomes obvious that new volunteers must be actively recruited, new
procedures are instituted. Attempts to retain new members also re—

sult in structural changes as conditions are made more favorable for

 

members. In addition to volunteer staff, the Center had the problem
of recruiting and retaining residents.

The principal method of recruitment of both volunteers and resi-
dents were the Crash Consciousness Raising Groups, which were also the
only specific political activity carried on by the Center. These
groups were mentioned in an earlier context. Our consciousness-raising
group, the Munchies, had been the first in Carbondale. We wanted to
start new groups, but after several attempts had failed, we decided
that people had to be trained in group participation. We then began
to sponsor an open group where people could come and see what it was

all about. From this open group small groups periodically broke off

 

 

 

 

 

I:————v

 

157

as new consciousness—raising groups. When the Center opened, we
began to meet in the Center. These group meetings were not planned
as recruitment devices, nor were they ever overtly recognized as
such. At the beginning of each term, many new people attended the
groups, sometimes as many as twenty. Some of these new participants
signed up as volunteers, and Alexandra Berkey and Prudence Rock were
recruited as residents in this way.

Many Board Meetings were devoted to the discussion of recruit-
ment and volunteer turnover. The expectations of Board Members were
that volunteers once recruited would remain permanently. This was
not the case. I estimate that every term saw a two-thirds turnover.
The one term for which I have data was Winter 1973. Sixty-two women
were on the volunteer list. Of these, only 24 were active at the

beginning of spring term. I called all the women, and their explan-

 

ations involved time schedules and commitments. Some continued to
come to the Center for other activities.

Power began to accumulate in the hands of those few members who
remained active in the Center over time. They acquired more knowledge
about what was happening, and they developed specialized skills. Fur—
thermore, sheer incumbancy gives one power, as all the news commenta-
tors keep pointing out. Socializing new recruits gives one an aura
of authority.

The most radical shifts in both structure and ideology came
about as a consequence of crisis. An unprecedented situation created
a procedural vacuum, and those of us who spent the most time working

in the Center felt the lack of procedures most strongly.

 

 

 

158
The Lorelei Crisis

On Monday evening, January 22, 1973, the police brought to the
Women's Center a young mother and her baby, after arresting the
husband for assault. Lorelei and the baby stayed in the Center until
April, and this prolonged stay resulted in many conflicts and struc—
tural changes. Within a week I had changed my ideological position
in substantial ways, as I felt events getting completely out of con—
trol. I attributed much of the confusion we experienced to the lack
of standardized procedures in dealing with guests and changed from
advocating structurelessness to advocating and helping to set up a
complex bureaucratic structure.

The first issue was intake procedure. Who has authority in a
situation where a guest is coming into the Center? What does the
person in charge do? These procedures had never been standardized,
in part because I had been vehemently opposed to such standardization.
But subsequently I felt that all our problems began with lack of in—
take procedures, and I and others began to argue the need for such
procedures to obtain some rational control over the situation.

In the case of Lorelei, Zelda Montgomery had taken over the
intake procedure when Carmen Stone was on duty. When Lorelei arrived,
Zelda was present in the Center attending an Open Forum meeting, and
she immediately took over from Carmen, who had no confidence in her
own authority and judgment, according to her own account of the situa—
tion at the time. Zelda, on the other hand, was a highly unstable
woman who acted on impulse with no judgment.

This thesis has been tracing the relationship of task speciali-

zation to structure. Task specialization itself usually arises out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

159

of demands placed upon an organization, and Lorelei's case strained
the system almost to the breaking point. Ordinary untrained persons
without experience were not capable of dealing with the reality of

Lorelei's case, which hardened case workers from various social wel-

fare agencies had given up in despair. Lorelei presented herself to

 

the women of the Center as a forlorn victim, bruised and beaten, only
too eager to tell her story of how she had been beaten, to show her
bruises, and to climax the tale with the story of how her husband had
jammed a pencil up her anus. Over the weeks another version of her
story slowly unfolded, eventually sworn to by witnesses in a court of
law. Lorelei was self-mutilating, and she and her husband had parti-
cipated in beating and torturing their four-month old baby.

Another issue raised by Lorelei's advent was self-presentation
of the group. This issue had been implicit from the beginning, but
we had glossed it over. How did we present ourselves to the outside
world? There were several audiences to whom the group must present
an image. One audience was the women of the community from whom we
need to draw monetary support and volunteer work. Another audience

was the funding agencies, and a third was the network of social wel-

 

fare agencies. Lorelei's case plunges us into the network of social
welfare agencies.

From the beginning Carmen kept saying we were just a bunch of
amateurs. This annoyed me a great deal, because I felt like a profes-
sional. This conflict illustrates how often women find it difficult
to see themselves as competent. When we began to contact social wel-
fare agencies I wanted to present an image of ourselves as competent

professionals. I had two reasons for this. One was my own self—image.

 

 

 

 

160

I wanted to present myself as a competent professional. The second
had to do with ideological position. I was trying to refute a whole
system which insisted that competence had to be certified and paid
for. I wanted to prove that trained competence could be voluntary.
This is part of the ideology of self—help which will be examined in
Chapter Eight.

At this time in January, the Women's Center was negotiating with
the state mental hospital about the possibility of becoming a half—
way house for discharged mental patients. Tuesday morning, January
23, four counselors from Anna State Hospital came over to the Women's
Center to see what we were doing. I wanted to present the Center as
a highly professional setting. Instead I was overcome with embarras-
sment at the behavior of Zelda Montgomery. As several of us were meet-
ing with the counselors in the living room, she barged in to interrupt
with a lurid, eroticized account of Lorelei's case, inviting people to
examine Lorelei's bruises.

Another problem with structurelessness is that the group has no
way of constraining the behavior of one individual. In this case, no-
body had any power to prevent Zelda Montgomery from representing her-
self as an agent for the Women's Center. Zelda undertook many actions
in regard to the community which the rest of us had to mop up. This
led me to advocate some means of controlling and authorizing relation-
ships with other organizations.

At the court hearing on Wednesday, the judge said he had never
seen so many community agencies mobilized in such a short time. Zelda
and Fern Woods first took Lorelei to the local doctor's clinic for

medical examination, and after that they met with the states attorney

 

 

 

 

161

where Zelda harangued him for not protecting women. Zelda was the
wife of one of the most powerful professors on the Southen Illinois
University faculty and hence could behave as she wished with impunity.
Another incident occurred Wednesday afternoon where I pre-empted
command of the situation. At noon I received a call from the volun-
teer on duty at the Women's Center that the state was planning to take
the baby into protective custody because the father was expected to
get out on bail. So I raced over to the Center and took charge of the
situation. When two male social workers arrived later in the after-
noon five of us volunteers were sitting on the front steps, blocking
the way into the house. I talked to the caseworker, who seemed a
reasonable man, although I found out later that he was not telling
the whole truth. A court hearing had been held that morning (Wednes—

day) and the judge had ordered the child taken into temporary protec-

 

tive custody, away from the mother. In this instance Zelda's actions
had the reverse effect of what she had intended.

The father was probably going to be released on bail because he
came from a wealthy Persian family who could afford to post bail, and
his brother, also a student at Southern Illinois University, was avail-
able to post the bail. The court could offer no protection for the
mother; it could only take the baby into protective custody. The baby
had been almost killed on Sunday, and the social worker felt that this
was a matter of life and death. What he did not tell me was that
Lorelei had been involved with various agencies for years, and it was
the consensus of opinion that she had participated in the child abuse.

Again I was concerned with the image of the Women's Center. I

had never believed Lorelei's stroy. In this instance I was an

 

 

 

162

experienced person. I had worked before with mothers who abused their
children, and something about Lorelei was giving off cues to me. I
had had enough advance notice to get Lorelei out of the county and out
of the state before the social workers arrived at the Center, and in
fact had considered this possibility. I did not want the Women's
Center involved in defiance of the court order unless I could see this
as necessary, however. So we let the social worker persuade us to let
him take the baby away. We took the caseworker inside and persuaded
Lorelei to give up the child.

An example of the discrepant cues that Lorelei was emitting was
that her main concern about giving up her baby was packing the child's
extensive wardrobe. She had brought a dozen elaborate baby dresses to
the Center on the morning after her arrival, when a policeman had
accompanied her to her apartment to pick up some luggage. With the
court removing her baby from her custody she and her parents were
fussing over packing the dresses. Furthermore, as soon as the social
workers departed with the baby, Lorelei's parents drove back to St.
Louis. Her father was a minister and had to be back for the mid-week
evening prayer service.

This was also our first contact with the University counseling
services. Subsequently their flying squad came out frequently to deal
with recalcitrant males on the premises. In this instance, a crisis
counselor visited the brother of Lorelei's husband and persuaded the
brother not to post bail but to leave the husband/father in jail to
undergo psychiatric evaluation. We were able to mobilize University
resources because the husband/father was a student and the alleged

beatings had occurred in student housing.

 

 

 

 

 

163

Everyone involved with the Center was exhibiting a total state
of paranoia. The husband/father was uttering murderous threats, and
we did not know when he would be released on bail. For two days,
Tuesday and Wednesday, we had extra volunteers at the Center on a 24
hour basis, and the police were keeping constant vigilance. Mean~
while Penelope was protesting that we should not utilize the police,
the agents of the Establishment. After the baby was taken away, a
volunteer named Margie took Lorelei home with her.

I was exceptionally brave because I did not believe all these
hysterical threats. Fortunately, I did not know that I was wrong. In
April, as a finale to the stroy, the estranged husband entered Lore-
lei's apartment with a gun. He shot andwoundedLorelei's current
boyfriend and took Lorelei and her r00m-mate hostage. He was stopped
by a police barricade, a block away from where I lived, where he held
a gun to Lorelei's head and threatened to shoot her, but eventually he
was persuaded to give himself up.

Berger and Luckmann (1966: 137) point out that reality—mainten-
ance differs in a crisis situation from routine maintenance of a par-

ticular sense of reality, but they don't elaborate on this further. In

 

this instance I believed that reality—maintenance for all of us had
broken down, including myself. By this, I mean that all of us were
engaging in mildly bizarre behavior, saying and doing things we would
not have said and done under ordinary circumstances. I had analyzed
Just such a crisis situation in my master's thesis (Nall, E., 1956)
and had found that those organizations which functioned efficiently in
disaster were those which had routinized emergency procedures.1 As

a consequence of my specialized knowledge, I determined, in the midst

 

 

 

164

of the reality breakdown, to develop some crisis procedures.

I was continuing to get a corner on in-coming information. On
Thursday, the day after the hearing and the removal of the baby, a
counselor from the University Counseling Services called on the phone
to talk about the Lorelei situation. This was an instance where I
was legitimized as occupying a special role in the Center, that of
one who was privileged to hear special information. The counselor had
been involved with Lorelei and her husband for several years and
filled me in on some of the history. There was some question in his
mind about who had battered the child, Lorelei or her husband. Per-
haps both. The husband had beaten Lorelei in the past but she had
also engaged in self mutilation. The baby had been horribly tortured.
On the Sunday before Lorelei came to the Center either she or her hus—
band had held the baby in a washtub of water, upside down, until the
baby had passed out. There was some indication that the baby's hip
was out of joint, and several of us who had observed the baby felt that
the baby may have suffered brain damage. We had the baby at the Cen-
ter for ten weeks, and we observed that the baby's responses were de—
layed for her age.

This week of crisis pointed up vividly the inadequacies of the
Women's Center. First, we had no adequate intake procedures and no
method of making decisions about what actions should be taken. We had
no means of interacting with the other agencies and no standardized

methods for obtaining necessary information from other agencies. In

»1My thesis was a study of the Flint—Beecher tornado in 1953 where
the Michigan State Police functioned so well that the Michigan legisla-
ture gave them authority to take command in all subsequent disasters
in Michigan. ‘ ' ’

 

 

 

 

165

the lack of such information, we had done several things which made
the situation worse. Furthermore, we had no way of constraining any
single member from taking any action she pleased in the name of the
Women's Center. As a consequence several of us determined that we
needed structure in the Women's Center.

Another incident which was another turning point for me occurred
January 26, on Friday. I was called to the Center by Carmen, the
volunteer on duty, during lunch hour because Lorelei, Margie and
Zelda were creating a scene. Carmen was on duty but she felt that she
could not handle the bizarre scene the other three women were creating.
They were inciting each other to hysteria, afraid that Lorelei's hus—
band would kill her. Eventually I got them calmed down, and after
that I went home with Carmen. Carmen was incapable of handling the
emotional disturbance, but she was supportive in dealing with the
various agencies. I called Lorelei's caseworker at Home and Family
Service and told him that some of us at the Center felt that Lorelei's
behavior was bizarre. I did not know then that Lorelei had been in-
volved with that agency since the baby's birth. The baby had been
born prematurely when Lorelei had shot herself in the hand in order to
feel pain. Ever since the baby's birth Lorelei had been under the
surveillance of a home worker, a social case worker who visits mothers
in their homes and attempts to help them care for their children more
adequately. In the state of Illinois, the assignment of a home worker
is often the first step taken in the case of a neglected or abused
child.

Thus far the Women's Center seemed to have been able to mobilize

agencies in a concerted effort to help Lorelei. What the Center had to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

166

offer was a centralizing or coordinating effect which had been devel-
oped through experience with various clients besides Lorelei. Fern
Woods was particularly skilled in this kind of help. A woman would
come to the Center and we would discuss with her what she needed and
set out to obtain whatever that was. This is contrasted with formal
agencies which are set up to provide specialized services. From the

beginning the Center had been visualized as a central clearinghouse

 

for information.

The Center also functioned to pick up the pieces created by the

 

inefficiency of various welfare agencies. Social welfare agencies
are not allocated enough money to provide the services demanded of
them. Individual caseworkers have an overload of work and cannot
perform their tasks adequately. Volunteers at the Center could give

something the professional workers were too pressured to give, that

 

is, time and attention to individual cases. Filling the interstices
in organizational operation is one of the functions performed by vol-
untary associations in all areas of American society. Certain human
needs cannot be met by a rigorously functioning bureaucratic machine,
and volunteer workers can meet some of these needs. The reward for
volunteer workers is the emotional satisfaction of helping others.

I argue in my master's thesis that voluntary associations may be ;
necessary for the functioning of a highly technological society, and l
I would now add for a profit-oriented society. In the beginning of
this chapter I pointed out how benevolence allows redistribution of
goods and services without challenging the legitimacy of the social

class hierarchies.

The impetus to bring about crucial structural changes came about

 

 

 

 

167

during a special Board Meeting on January 30, 1973. No procedures ex-
isted for convening a special board meeting; Carmen and I just called
everybody and asked them to come over to Peggy Rice's house, where our
social work consultant, Adrian Vancouver, gave us a presentation of
Lorelei's case. Most of the women present at the meeting were shocked
and horrified that any person could engage in such behavior as self-
mutilation. At that Board Meeting, Carmen, Peggy and I acted as a
power clique who utilized Adrian's professional authority to structure
the situation according to our definition of the situation, the need
for more structure. We three presented an example of power cliques
discussed by Freeman (1973 [1972]) in "The Tyranny of Structureless-
ness.” Freeman points out that within a group a friendship clique
can become a power clique through the use of informal channels of
communication. In the absence of formal channels of communication

in a group without structure, this informal network of communication

 

may become the only network. Just such a situation was that of Carmen,
Peggy and me. We had belonged to the OWLs rap group since the winter
of 1972. We had worked together, we trusted each other, but most
importantly we had participated in a shared world of meaning. We com-
municated with each other.

At that Board meeting the Board set up structured rules for crisis
procedure. The volunteer on duty was defined as having responsibility
and authority when a woman came in ”in crisis.” If the crisis was
severe, as determined by the volunteer on duty, she was to call a Crisis
Supervisor. The list of such Crisis Supervisors was drawn up from the
members of the Board of Trustees. This had nothing to do with training

or ability to handle a crisis but was purely a matter of lines of

 

 

168

authority. The Crisis Supervisor would make the decisions necessary
for contacts with other agencies and for the nature of those contacts.

In addition to Lorelei, we were getting squeezed by another set
of circumstances. The poor develop a particular symbiotic dependency
relationship with social welfare agencies. To some women we were just
another welfare agency, and the untrained women in the Center, such
as Carmen, did not understand this syndrome. They were being exploi—
ted, emotionally and financially, by certain women and did not know
what to do. At this point I began to understand how the profession
of social work had developed. This is discussed more thoroughly in the
chapter on professionalization.

The custody hearing on Lorelei's child was held on February 1,
1973. On that day I was called to the Center by some volunteers who
were having a hassle. Arriving at the Center I found Lorelei and her
baby. The Judge had postponed the final hearing until April because
the physician who was to provide evidence was out of town doing his
tour of duty as a reserve officer in the Army. Meanwhile the Judge
awarded temporary custody of the baby to Lorelei under the condition
that she stay at the Women's Center. Subsequently Carmen and I went
over and pleaded with the Judge to rescind his order. He stated that
he knew the women running the Center and that they would protect the
baby.

At this point I precipitated a minor crisis myself which illus—
trates another aspect of the consequences of the ideology of struc-
turelessness, a result of the covert nature of power and authority in
such a situation.

If a group is structureless by ideology, but nevertheless

 

 

 

 

 

169

engaged in task accomplishment, almost invariably task leaders develop.
Group members engage in a conspiracy of silence, pretending that such
task leaders don't exist. Undercurrents of hostility and conflict

are resolutely denied. At some point, however, the conspiracy of si—
lence breaks down. Leaders engage in overt leadership behavior and
are accused by others of "elitism.”

In this case I was the task leader engaged in a conspiracy of
silence with the others, pretending not to be an authority figure.

When I found Lorelei at the Center, prepared to stay for another two
months, I lost my cool. In my fantasies I saw the ”volunteer on duty”
calling me as Volunteer Coordinator to pull the body of the dead baby
out of the toilet bowl. I broke the conspiracy of silence and lectured
the volunteers and the resident, Jan Wayne, in an authoritarian manner,
because theyiwere having a fight about volunteers making coffee in the
kitchen.

This breakdown in the conspiracy of silence had come about as a
result of the stress surrounding Lorelei's presence in the Center, in
part produced by Lorelei herself. Lorelei manipulated members of the
Center; she played one person against another. In order to keep the
Center operating, some of us began to function in a rather authori—
tarian manner. This pull toward authoritarianism began to consolidate

a power coalition composed of Prudence Rock, Per Asquith and myself.

The Flowering of Bureaucracy

 

On February 27 Per Asquith and I attended a conference for Volun-
teer Coordinators sponsored by the State Department of Volunteers on

the use of volunteers by Agencies. Here we picked up several ideas

 

 

 

 

170

about the use of structure. This represents a clear example of the
adaptation of a social movement organization to the existing social
structure. We began to perceive existing structure not only as a
constraint on our behavior, but also as a model.

During the following days Per and I together drew up a new plan
of organization for the Women's Center. One of my specific concerns
was to deflect hostility from myself. To that end we formed the idea
of having three coordinators, a Volunteer Coordinator, a Guest Coordin—
ator and a Resident Coordinator. Each of these coordinators would be
responsible for a specific category of members. This is a further in-
stance of the need for task coordination creating differentiated roles.

By this time the guests were creating problems. Some of them
were overstaying their time limit and somebody had to help them make
arrangements to go elsewhere. An unforseen contingency was that some
of them had pets. Does kitty litter come out of the emergency food
fund or the housekeeping money? Too many people were living together
in a cramped space, and they had arrived under stress to begin with.
Fights broke out between guest and guest, between guest and resident
and even between guest and volunteers. Some people didn't pay for
their long distance calls. So Prudence Rock as Guest Coordinator took
over responsibility for doing something about the guests and their
diapers, kitty litter, and long distance calls.

The residents felt oppressed by everybody: Board Members, vol—
unteers, guest, and, in particular, the Volunteer Coordinator who was
trying to run everything. They felt they needed some advocacy in
Board meetings. $0 Per became Resident Coordinator with the purpose

of developing channels of communication within the Center. It should

 

 

 

 

 

fi
171

be pointed out that the structure of coordinators formalized an al-
ready existing network of communication consisting of Per, Prudence,
and me. The three coordinators would attend Board meetings where policy
was decided and communicate this policy to the members. Furthermore

the coordinators were also supposed to provide information to the

 

Board members about the day to day functioning of the Center. Many of
the Board members did not work in the Center and were unaware of the
developing crises.

One impetus for the development of this structure was to retain
volunteers and residents. The need for this has been mentioned earlier.
No house rules existed for guests, and their actions were driving away
volunteers and residents. Procedures had been drawn up for volunteers
in order to protect guests, but nobody had taken into consideration

that guests would be anything other than polite, considerate, grateful

 

and more grateful. Unfortunately, suffering does not create happy,
pleasant people. Procedures had to be devised to protect volunteers
and residents from guests.

Per and I presented our proposal to the Board on March 4 where
we met with a great deal of opposition. Board Members did not see
any need for structure and procedures. In particular they did not
want rules. The argument lasted hot and heavy all afternoon and in
the end we prevailed because we threatened to leave. We had bargain-
ing power because we had been doing most of the supervisory work in
the Center.

Two power coalitions existed in the Center, with Carmen in the
middle trying to compromise. One was the triumvirate mentioned above;

the other was Zelda and her women who pledged funds. Each coalition

 

 

 

 

172

controlled resources necessary to the functioning of the Center. These
two foci of power collided at the general membership meeting in April.
Zelda Montgomery had gone to Carmen and threatened to leave the Center,
taking all the pledges with her if something wasn't done about removing
me from the Center. Carmen was frightened by this threat and did not
oppose Zelda when she packed the general meeting and was elected Board
Member, a post she had declined in November.

I felt I could not function in the Center with Zelda as a Board
Member. So in effect I stopped working at the Center. Prudence Rock
had become a resident and thereafter took the brunt of responsibility
for running the Center, combining two roles, resident and Guest Coordin-
ator. In September, 1975, she became the first paid coordinator of
the Center. Despite Zelda's presence, however, the structure remained
and proliferated.

In May, 1973, it was felt necessary to write job descriptions for
Board Members, officers and coordinators. Thus another criterion for
bureaucracy came about, written rules and regulations associated with
each office. Formalized procedures came about as a result of changing
personnel; new Board Members had been elected and I had found a replace-
ment for myself as Volunteer Coordinator. Board Members were each
given a specific task to perform. Fern Woods was president and House-
keeping Coordinator. Carmen was treasurer and Anna Johnson was secre-
tary. Agnes Wells was in charge of publicity. Iris Anthony was in
charge of general fund raising; Zelda Montgomery was in charge of pri-
vate fund raising; Jane Wainwright was in charge of agency fund raising.

Note that for the most part Board Members are concerned with obtaining

resources from outside the Center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

— '--" #LM . N, ...

173

Operations had become so complex that a new routine for crisis
procedure was set up. The volunteer on duty at the time of a guest's
arrival is responsible for maintaining continuity so that the guest
Vdoes not feel she is "being passed around." The volunteer must remain
in contact with the guest and make sure that the guest is making active
arrangements to leave within the week time limit. Note that this is
further task specialization. Formerly all these things had been taken
care of by first the Volunteer Coordinator and then the Guest Coordin-
ator. Now the Coordinator was expected only to coordinate, to make
sure each volunteer was doing her job.

I obtained minutes of Board Meetings for the year T973-74. In
each meeting further task specification took place, and further pro-
cedures and role expectations defined and written down. One perennial
problem remained which structure never solved-~housework. We experi—

mented with every structure known to woman. We set up a Housekeeping

 

Coordinator. We tried to get a list of housekeeping volunteers. Noth-
ing worked; nobody ever wanted to do the dirty work. Housekeeping

also had come to a crisis during Lorelei's stay. She stashed dirty
diapers in the back bedroom closet, and often the smell in the house
was nauseating. The Board discussed and debated but nothing was ever

solved.

Conclusion

 

In this chapter I have traced chronologically the development of

structure in the Women's Center and related it to Other pressures, ex-

 

ternal and internal. Internal pressures bringing about structure seem

to have been control of resources and task specialization; external

 

 

 

174

pressures were the necessity for obtaining support and relationships
to other organizations. Written rules and procedures came about as a
consequence of conflict between task specialists and as a result of

change in personnel. A crisis situation heightened the intensity of

all the pressures.

 

The first step in structure was legal incorporation which came
about when the group began to accumulate money. Legal incorporation
was authority which in turn translated into power. Other resources
which developed over time were information and special skills. Per-
sons controlling these resources developed power in the organization.

Freeman (1973) has pointed out that unstructured groups may be
very effective as consciousness-raising groups, but that when they
undertake tasks they flounder around. The alternative to floundering

is to develop formal structure as the Women's Center did. The first

 

necessity is task coordination, and task leaders develop. Over a
period of time task specialists also develop and in time may become
institutionalized as roles.

Relationships with other organizations produce constraints in
many ways. Legal incorporation implies a relationship with the state.
Members of the Board were legally liable for what occurred in the
Center, a point which began to have meaning when suicide and
homicide .were attempted on the, premises. Being liable for
whatever happened, Board Members began to take control over what was
happening.

Other organizations imposed responsibilities on the Center, such
as the Judge essentially awarding temporary custody of a baby to the

Center. Attempts to control this imposition brought about specialized

 

 

 

175

roles of persons who were authorized to speak for the Center and to
act in its behalf.

As categories of members developed such as volunteers, guests
and residents, conflict occurred over task performance, e.g. volunteers
were leaving coffee cups for residents to wash. Arbitration of these
differences brought about formalized procedures which were written
down as rules, e.g. all volunteers must wash any dishes they use.

Turnover in personnel brought about written rules and procedures.
The volunteer on duty changed every two hours; so written reports were
necessary to transmit information. New volunteers were constantly re-
cruited, and orientation procedures were devised. New Board Members
were elected, and job descriptions for board members and coordinators
were devised.

The Women's Center was a crisis center where emergencies occurred
daily. Emergency procedures had to be routinized in order for persons
to cope over time. The first few emergency guests produced a heightened
sense of exhileration, a new sense of participating in life for the
volunteers running the Center. Over time, however, volunteers burn out.
In order to maintain the Center, persons had to be trained in crisis
intervention skills, and authority to control a situation had to be
given to trained persons.

And finally, funding by outside agencies meant that accounting
procedures had to be adopted. The category of client became firmly
differentiated because they had to be counted. In the beginning, guests
were often volunteers, and the two categories blended into each other,

but guests gradually became clients. And clients are not kinswomen.

 

 

 

 

IIII::::7--------------------------------—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-=:::r

CHAPTER EIGHT
PROFESSIONALISM: FROM KINSWOMEN TO CLIENTS

An interesting phenomenon has occurred during the past decade:
social movements have arisen challenging the activities of the most
prestigeful professions. Writing in 1966, Corinne Gilb pointed out
that there had been at that time no sect movements within the profes-
sions, although she may not be completely accurate. Gilb was compar—
ing professional organizations to denominations, conventional, staid
and supporting the status quo. With the movements of the sixties,

however, came the free clinic movement and the women's self-help move—

 

ment to challenge medicine as well as organizations of radical M D.'s
and health workers such as the Medical Committee for Human Rights
(M.C.H.R.) and organizations of Third World People regarding health
care; the legal aid movement to challenge traditional methods of law
practice; and within the mental health field developed the crisis in-
tervention movement, the Radical Therapist, as well as liberation
movements for mental patients.

These social movements have been of all kinds but a tri—partite
categorization can be made: (1) challenges made by clients who appro-
priate specialized knowledge and challenge professionals' monoply of
it (e.g. the women's self-help movement); (2) client groups pressing
professionals to change (another facet of the self-help movement);

and (3) professionals pressing for changes within the profession

176

 

 

 

177

(e.g. the M.C.H.R.). The Women's Center was a composite of two of

these movements: the women's movement emphasized self-help, women
helping women; on the other hand, the crisis intervention movement is

a movement of professionals trying to deliver services in new ways by (// i
training lay persons as paraprofessionals to work, for example, in
legal aid and medical free clinics.

Conflict in the Women's Center swirled around these two move-
ments, but the lines were never clearly drawn. The advocates of wo—
men's self-help did not have an ideology strong enough to counter the
already established ideology of psychology, and they were outnumbered
by trained professionals. The exigencies of running a shelter house
pushed the Operations of the Center toward becoming a crisis interven-
tion center and this chapter will trace that development. First, I
will present a theoretical discussion of professions, prefessionalism,
and the two social movements. Second, I will present a narrative of
events in the Women's Center, and finally, I will present an analysis
of the events in the Women's Center as an example of conflict over

those in favor of and those opposed to professionalism.

Professions

 

 

Various sociological writers have attempted to define what a
profession is (Gilb, 1966; Friedson, 1970; Hughes, 1971). Essentially
a profession is an occupation whose members claim a monopoly of some
esoteric knowledge as well as a monopoly over using that knowledge
in the service of clients. In the case of a well-established profes-
sion, such as medicine or law, legal licensing has been set up. Both

Friedson and Hughes point out that a profession is an occupation which

 

 

 

178

has persuaded the public to believe in the occupation's competence
and in the value of its professed knowledge and skill, as well as the
service orientation of the practitioners.

Another aspect of a profession is autonomy, that is, control
over its working conditions. The professional defines the situation L/,/
for the client; the client is presumed not to know enough to set up
conditions of employment for the professional. The professional works
on his/her own terms, and, furthermore, the profession claims the right
to determine the criteria which qualify a person to work in the occupa-
tion.

Occupations range in a continuum from occupations firmly estab—
lished as professions, such as medicine or law, to those trying to
borrow the status of professional. This study is concerned with the
profession of counseling, which has some aspects of a profession, but
not all. The principle aspect which counseling lacks, as opposed to
law and medicine, is a central organization which controls and regu-
lates work.: Both Hughesand Friedson emphasize that law and medicine
have convinced legislative bodies to pass legal sanctions controlling
access to the practice of these professions. For example, women's
medical self-help groups are continually being threatened with legal
actions for practicing medicine without a license, whereas unpaid
crisis counseling is not threatening to established professions.

Steps are being taken in the direCtion of control, however, e.g.
Michigan has recently established certification for social workers.

On the other hand, counseling does possess, as an inherent part

of the situation, what Hughes and Friedson point out as one of the more

focal aspects of a profession, the quality of defining social reality

 

 

 

 

 

179

for the client. The training of a counselor, whether s/he be a highly
trained psychiatrist or a partly trained paraprofessional like a crisis.)
intervention agent, consists in large part of gaining situational con- i
trol of the client/counselor relationship. Clients are expected to
disclose totally whereas the counselor does not self-disclose at all,
and the essence of the counseling relationship is that the counselor
can define reality for the client. This is a point little appreciated
in the literature and too complex for more than brief mention here.
This study is not concerned with any struggles of an occupational
group seeking professional status or a self-help group struggling
against the professionalorganization. Everybody in the Center defined
counseling as a profession, whatever evaluation she might attach to
the term. Little or no differentiation was made among professional
groups. Our principal Volunteer Effectiveness Trainer, Angie White,
wasam1advancedgraduate student in clinical psychOTOQY; Adrian Van-
couver was a psychiatric social worker. Alice Scott was a graduate
student in vocational rehabilitation counseling, which means something
different at Southern Illinios than elsewhere. The Department of Voca-
tional Rehabilitation at Southern Illinois was organized by a Rogerian
psychologist fleeing the behavioral modification orientation of the
psychology department and offers one of the best counseling programs
I have encountered anywhere. Alice, still working at the Women's Cen-
ter, is now pursuing a PhD in Guidance Counseling. Another Volunteer
Effectiveness Trainer was an intern in transactional analysis. These
illustrate the diversity of the professional groups represented at
the Center.

The central focus of this chapter will be the controversy which

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

180

developed in the Women's Center around the notion of "professional-
ism." Friedson (1970) points out that professionalism seems to be
able to exist independently of professional status. The preceding
discussion has been concerned with the notion of professions as or-
ganizations,in order to define what I am not discussing 'H1 the re-
mainder of the chapter. The matter of "professionalism" has come
up in several social movements which in some way give assistance

to non-member clients. Some momement members become skilled and
highly knowledgable at counseling or some other service, which then
differentiates them from other movement members. The use of I'pro—
fessionalism" to describe this technical skill is part of the lan-
guage of recent social movements and is in no way meant to describe

a paid, institutionalized form of work.

Professionalism

 

The controversy in the Women's Center was focused on the attri-

 

butes of counselors, exemplified by admonitions to volunteers to take
a "professional attitude." The key concept of this professional
attitude seems to be detachment. The professional is expected to re-
main distant from the client, to be interested in the client's problems
but not the client as a particularistic human being. This detachment
is possible only if distance is maintained between professional and

client, e.g. a doctor is not expected to be able to Operate success-

 

fully on a loved one.
Detachment is in part developed to protect the professional from
the client. Presumably, the professional cannot treat the patient if

S/he gets too involved in the patient's problems. Counseling in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

181

particular has develOped an extensive ideology designed to protect
the counselor from the client's emotions. Counseling deals with the
emotions as its subject matter; the problem area of the Counseling
relationship consists of rules for feeling. (See Hochschild, 1975,
for an explication of feeling rules.) The long training of a coun—
selor consistsin large part of learning situation management.

A derivative attribute of professionalism is llelitism." In

our society the professional, that is, the person occupying a pro—

 

fessional role, has a great deal of status, not to mention income.
The professional is superior to the client, and this aspect is the
one most protested by radicals who claim that these rewards of the
professional are unearned, that his/her claims to a service orienta-
tion are false.

In sum, then, the ”professional attitude" consists of being
distant and detached from the client and maintaining a feeling of

superiority. The professional is non-self-disclosing, unemotional,

 

rational, all traits directly opposed to the mystique of sisterhood.

The Women's Movement as Mental Health Self-Help

Many self-help groups have arisen in mental health, such as
Synanon, X-Kalay, Recovery,Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous. The philoso-
phy of self-help has been expressed by Dorothy Temor (l976) writing
in Epime_limp, the voice of Older Women's Liberation:

In self-help programs, individuals gather together to
learn from one another in organized groups. Not unilateral
do-it-yourselfism, self-help implies study and experiment,
rather than uninhibited individualism. Despite its name,
it does not mean doing things for one's self as an individ—
ual, but rather the by-passing of professional assistance.
In most self-help programs, professions are by-passed

 

 

 

 

 

182

because they have not demonstrated effectiveness (e.g.
drug programs). The self-help programs have often suc-
ceeded where the professional has failed. (p. 6)
The women's movement is ambivalent about this whole area of
self-help in mental health, however. Consciousness raising groups
are self-help groups, but their avowed purpose is to realize that the

personal is political, e.g. Pauline Bart (1975) writes "we are not

suffering from private problems but from public issues." The effec-

tiveness of a CR group seems to depend upon the problems of the woman.

Women who are depressed often do well in such groups. Depression is
usually considered by psychologists to be suppressed anger; when the
woman is given permission to release this anger, as in a CR group,
she feels better.

Women with disturbed thought processes, however, do not fare so
well in CR groups. (I make this statement based on five years of
experience in various CR groups.) The purpose of the CR group is to
change the consensual definition of the situation for its members.
Women with disturbed thought processes already suffer from shifting
definitions of the situation, and the group process is too overwhelm-
ing.

The radical extreme of the attitude of the women's movement to—
ward professionalism is expressed in another quote from Temor (1976):

Feminists do not practice therapy on their sisters.
Ispprofessionalism a necessary part of a "helping rela-
tionship?“

Most self-help programs are based on the opposite assump-
tion--that professionalism interferes with the "helping
relationship." The professionaleuais paid by the client
has vested interests in being hired. The status differ-

ences between client and ”helper" undermine the relation-
ship even when the "helper" is not paid.

 

 

 

 

ilk

 

 

 

 

 

 

—_ -’-~'r.1~*_9:..:v' ...- - . _ ._ ...-— - -----—-- -. '-—-- ‘

183

In summary, the more radical wing of the women's movement is
very much opposed to professionalism because the professional atti—
tude is detached, distant, unemotional, non-self-disclosing and elit-
ist. On the other hand the women's movement has not gone very far in
providing self-help groups for those women who are not capable of

functioning in society.

Crisis Intervention and Counseling as a Profession

 

Crisis intervention is a movement designed to provide better
distribution of counseling services. Professionals still maintain a
claim to control of esoteric knowledge, but volunteers are trained as
paraprofessionals to perform part of the tasks. My terminology here
is derived from Friedson (1970) who argues that nurses and pharma-
cists, among others, remain paraprofessionals because the control of
the tasks is maintained by physicians. In the same way, crisis inter-
vention volunteers work under the supervision of professional or pro-

fessional-in—training.

 

As far as I know, no systematic study exists of crisis inter-
vention, and I can speak only definitively of Carbondale and from my
experience as a paid training coordinator at the Open Door Crisis
Center in Lansing. Nothing that I have read contradicts my experience.
In Carbondale, the Crisis Intervention hot line was under the super-
vision of an advanced graduate student in clinical psychology. The
flying squad of the Counseling Center was set up by faculty members,
and graduate students were given credit for counseling. The counsel-
ing in the Women's Center was always done under the supervision of

professionals-in—training, and for some period of time Alice Scott;

 

 

 

 

184

the counselor in the Center, was supervised by her major professor
at SIU.

Various kinds of counseling were done at the Center. Volunteers
engaged in ”crisis counseling,” that is, just talking to women who
called or walked in. There were trained rape counselors on call who
would talk to women who had been raped, accompany them to the police
station or to the hospital. If a woman wanted more sustained counsel-
ing in depth, she could make an appointment with Alice Scott, who
worked a certain number of hours per week at the Center.

The Women's Center was never challenged by outside agencies for
being a crisis center. The only challenges came from women within the
center objecting to professionalism asanattitude on the part of volun-
teers. The professionals working in the Center were all legitimated
within their respective professional systems.

Let us turn now to a discussion of the pressures which pushed
the Women's Center toward professionalization. Briefly, my analysis
is that a structureless group has no defenses, structural or emotional,
to cope with the problems of running a crisis shelter house. Structure
has been discussed in the previous chapter; this chapter focuses on

emotional defenses.

Why Professionalism?

Many of the women coming for help to the Women‘s Center were al-
ready socialized as clients; many had had extensive experience with
various social welfare agencies. Their only experience with middle
class women was as social workers. Whatever the ideology of the women

at the Women's Center, half of the pattern in interaction was already

 

 

 

 

185

established.

Very little has been written in the literature on the women's
movement about the difficulties of organizing the truly oppressed of.
a society. The white middle class woman is only oppressed as a woman;
the lower class white woman is totally oppressed. (I don't talk much
about black w0men in this study because the women coming to the shelter
were all white. Carmen writes, 1976, that the Center may lose its fed-
eral funding because black women do not use the shelter.)

The lower class white woman is financially helpless and trained
as a woman to be passive and dependent. (My hunch is that lower class
black women are not so dependent.) Her class position reinforces her
socialization as a woman. White middle class women, on the other hand,
are frequently not aware of the realities of the helping situation where
the client is lower class. The middle class is sheltered by a myth-
ology which states that everyone is equal and that others will respond
to their overtures. They attempt to remain unaware of the covert power
manipulations inherent in any helping relationship.

The conflicts which arose are multi—layered and by no means pecu—
liar to the women's movement. The same difficulties arose in the SDS

movement, according to Sale (1970) and in the draft resistance move-

 

ment, according to Thorne (1971). The central ideology of all these
movements of the 60s was absolute equality and participatory democracy.
Two realities of the situation came into conflict with this ideology.
One was the situation of social class differences, between the student
radical from the upper middle class and the member of the working
class whom s/he is trying to help, and the other was the development

of technical expertise on the part of movement members, expertise that

 

 

186

set them apart from non-experts.

This brings us to another aspect of the development of the con—
flict over professionalism, the development of technical skills. In
the beginning I was committed to absolute equality. I believed that
dependent persons are dependent because they are oppressed by the Sys-
tem, and I still believe so. I have discovered, however, that depen—
dency is not so easily eradicated. As the Center began operations, it
became clear that important differences existed among the women. Some
of these differences were

(a) some of us saw more tasks to be done than others

(b) differential background and training produce different

levels of skill

(c) different levels of commitment

(d) different levels of task performance

A further difficulty in the Women's Center, as I have implied,
is that the participants did not fully understand what the conflict
was all about. In retrospect, an analysis can be made from the threads
of the conflict but at the time hostility raged over the daily details
of living. One guest piled her baby's dirty diapers in the closet,
and the whole house smelled. What could we do about this? Who was
responsible for doing the laundry of the departing guest whose child
vomited all over the bedclothes before they left? Was the leader of
Volunteer Effectiveness Training exempt because she had more important
skills?

Some of us were already trained professionals who wanted to use
our skills to further the movement. Opposing us, vehemently and with

great hostility, were those opposed on the grounds of professionalism

 

 

 

 

 

 

187

being male oriented. Those of us in the Women's Center, including the
professional women, were caught in a double-bind. The pattern in our
culture for handling emotional crisis is referral to a psychiatrist,
priest or ministerial counselor, usually a male. We are taught to rely
on professional psychiatric help as a solution for crisis; on the other
hand we were rejecting male professionals.

Furthermore, organizational skill is different from the skills
necessary to handle a crisis on an individual basis. The ability to
conceptualize an organization appears to be a rare skill. The women
who originally organized the Center were skilled housewives. They
organized the physical building, makingzapresentable household out of
rummage, but a household is not a crisis center. Soon women with skills
in organization and crisis counseling took over the operation of the
Center.

Now let us turn to a more specific narrative of events at the
Center. This narrative will trace the events leading to the develop—
ment of professionalization: the development of task specialization,
the role conflicts, and the pressures from the women we tried to help.
Women came to the Center already socialized as clients, and our re—

sponse was to become professionals.

Narrative

At a general meeting in October, 1972, I signed up to schedule
volunteers to staff the Center. The week before the Center opened I
was engaged in recruitment efforts. I remember standing in front of
the bulletin board in the Center on a cold, rainy day, idly looking at

the notices when Penelope approached me. She said that people were

 

 

 

 

 

188

afraid to be volunteers, that they needed training in crisis interven—
tion. It was then that I conceived the idea of Volunteer Effectiveness
Training. I called Angie White, a member of my consciousness raising
group, the Munchies. Angie was a graduate student in psychology and a
trainer for the Crisis Intervention hot line. I explained the idea of
volunteer training, and Angie agreed to act as trainer. Angie used the
empathy training model.

Two kinds of models are in general use for Crisis Intervention:
empathy training and transactional analysis. Empathy training is based
on the ideas of Carl Rogers where the counselor l'reflects back” the
client's feelings. The training sessions consist of listening exercises.
One person plays the role of a person in crisis and another person
listens. The listener practices repeating back the words and feelings
she has heard.

Later in the spring, a woman came to the Center and asked to lead
a training group based on transactional analysis, training which comes
out of the work of Eric Berne. Persons are considered to have three ego
states, Parent, Adult, Child. Although the leader gives more theoreti-
cal explanation of human behavior than in empathy training, the training
itself is based on role playing. In both kinds of training the emphasis
is placed on being non-judgmental. The crisis counselor listens to the
client and tries to help the client get in touch with her own feelings
and needs.

The idea of effectiveness training met with opposition from the
beginning. I would analyze the situation as one where women tended to
be "dependent dissatisfied," a term taken from crisis intervention coun-

seling. The women who staffed the Center for the most part were

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

189

unemployed married women with no professional training. They had no
identities in the community; they had no goals. They came to the Cen-
ter because they wanted something, something illusory and ephemeral.

The official policy of the Board of Trustees reflected the ambig-
uities which had existed from the beginning. The members of the Board
of Trustees had no professional training and little movement ideology.
Furthermore, they took refuge in their lack of knowledge. Confronted
by a crisis, one of the Board members persisted in saying, ”We're just
a bunch of amateurs.”

One difficulty we encountered was that we did not have enough
volunteers to either screen volunteers or to enforce sanctions. Estab-
lished Crisis Centers have rules that volunteers must undergo a train—
ing process before they can work. Trainers are usually professionals.
In order to keep the Women's Center open at all, we were endlessly
seeking volunteers, who came to work with no screening process and no
training.

Some of our problems came about because we did not have spatial
separation. Both Goffman (1967) and Reusch and Bateson (1968) point
out that in United States society spatial arrangements are developed
to keep people separated because rituals of interaction do not exist
to socially separate people who possess unequal power. The situation
in the Women's Center was even more critical because the ideology pre-
cluded ritual separation and the spatial arrangements precluded space
separation. In the house on Walnut Street in 1973, residents and guests
shared the same kitchen, including the same refrigerator. Guests kept
eating up the food that residents had purchased for themselves. Not to

mention that I was horrified because urine samples for pregnancy testing

 

 

 

 

 

 

190

were kept in the same refrigerator as the food. Until the revolt of
the residents in late January, 1973, volunteers spent most of their
time on duty sitting around the kitchen table. Residents wanted
spatial separation so that they were not always "on—stage“ for guests
and volunteers. Role conflicts had developed between volunteers and
residents over who had authority in the house. This was resolved in
part by spatially delineating territory over which each had control.

The residents requested the Board to declare the kitchen off—
limits to volunteers. After the formal decision by the Board, a sign
was posted on the kitchen door. Volunteers were incensed because they
believed that the Center belonged to them. This provides a particu—
larly clear example of how conflicting needs bring about both struc—
tural and spatial changes in the organization.

Carmen and I sat down together to decide what to do to relieve
the tensions in the Women's Center. We analyzed the situation func—
tionally. We asked why volunteers like to sit in the kitchen and came
to the conclusion that they like to sit around the kitchen table. So
we decided to fix the dining room to imitate the kitchen. Previously
the dining room had been furnished like a second living room, with a
couch and chairs, so that meetings could be held there. We found a
kitchen table and chairs, replacing the couch. In one corner was a
built-in china cabinet which we converted into a coffee corner with
an electric percolator, sugar, creamer, cups and spoons. Interest-
ingly enough, after the changes the room was used more frequently for
meetings than it had been before.

Professionalism was not the only solution to the problem of

keeping distance between volunteers and clients. Another spatial

 

 

 

 

191

delineation occurred when the "office” was set up in the sun porch
and was declared off-limits to guests. Originally, the sun porch
seemed like a handy place to put the desk, telephone and file cabinet.
Gradually the sun porch evolved into the office. Eventually enough
conflict was developing between volunteers and guests that some place
was needed where volunteers could be private. Furthermore, notes on
clients were kept in the desk and intended to be kept confidential.

So the desk was kept locked and the office declared off limits.

The crisis over professionalization came about over the handling
of Lorelei's case as reported in Chapter Seven. At this time a coal-
ition formed of Prudence Rock, Per Asquith and me because we wanted
something to be done about the situation. Others withdrew. Carmen
took refuge in saying, "We're just a bunch of amateurs. We can't
handle this situation.” It also seemed to me that the Women's Center
was being used by the network of social welfare agencies to take up
the slack and be responsible for an insoluble problem, namely Lorelei.
Lorelei and her husband had been clients of various agencies for two
years.

The focal point of the anti-professional forces was Zelda Mont—
gomery. She stated her position explicitly. In her view, professionals
were males, and professionalization was a male orientation. For example,
she accused me of acting like a man. (Millet, 1975, also discussed the
accusation of acting like a man.) For Zelda, being a woman was to be
warm and loving, spontaneous. She, like many of the others, probably
including me, was seeking in the Center an all—pervading, all-encompas-
sing warmth in the community. In the middle of March Zelda went over

to see Carmen and threatened that she would withdraw from working at

 

 

 

 

 

 

192

the Women's Center if I did not change my policies about volunteer
training and other aspects of professionalization. This was a potent
threat because Zelda could influence many supporters to withdraw mon—
etary pledges. Indeed this did happen in 1975, but by then the Center
had other methods of funding such as a gift shop and federal money.

In 1973 these alternatives did not exist.

At the same time as the crisis over professionalization occurred,
a crisis over radical ideology occurred. One resident, Jan Wayne,
moved out in the middle of March while Alex, the other resident, was
on vacation. Jan was a radical, and Alex had picked up her rhetoric.
Alex and_ Penelope formed a coalition attempting to shut down the
Women's Center. They came to the Board meeting with a prepared resolu-
tion stating that the Women's Center should be a place for radical
political action, not a crisis center. Wasting our energies on crisis
intervention diverted us from the greater task at hand, reVolution.
This was clearly a crisis between the women's movement and the crisis
intervention movement, stated in explicit terms. The radical coali-
tion joined with the anti-professional coalition to try to take over
policy-making.

In April there was a general meeting of the membership to elect
the Board of Trustees. Zelda packed the meeting with her supporters.
She gave a long speech about how the Center was being run by profession-
als; Penelope gave a long speech. Zelda was elected to the Board of
Trustees.

Zelda's pressence on the Board, however, could not change the
flow of events. Despite the proclivities of individual actors, struc-

ture had emerged as a consequence of events external to the inner

 

 

 

 

 

193

dynamics. The Women's Center was attempting to function as a crisis
center, and professionalization develops as a means of handling the
emotional pressures involved. People in crisis make emotional demands

on those who attempt to rescue them.

Analysis

One of the general themes of this study has been the strains in
a social movement organization between the rewards of community and
the needs for task specialization. Wilson (1973) has pointed out that
an increase in task specialization brings about diminishing returns
in an organization which was organized to obtain the rewards of com—
munity. The Women's Center was caught even more critically in this
double-bind because it was set up as a crisis center under the guise
of a community.

The public rhetoric from the beginnings of the Task Force had
emphasized the notion of kinswomen. The Center promised women a warm
place where they could feel at home with other women. The women coming
to the Center, whether as volunteer or guest, wanted acceptance and
the feeling of community. Part of the conflict experienced by the
women in the Center lay in the fact that nothing could satisfy their
unexpressed longings.

But the Women's Center had been set up as a crisis center, and
crisis intervention requires acute task specialization. Many of the
women seeking shelter in the Center were seriously disturbed; Lorelei
was not the only one, merely the most bizarre. The administration of
Anna State Mental Hospital turned the Center down as a halfway house,

but it became dg_facto just that. The first such guest was a woman

 

 

 

 

 

194

found wandering on the streets not knowing who she was; we discovered
she had just been released from the state hospital. Other women were
released with no money and no place to go and ended up at the Center.

Writing this, I once more get carried away by the Hieronymus
Bosch world at the bottom of society. Anybody who has run a shelter
house has the same story to tell. A capitalist society exists on top
of a substratum of acute misery for both men and women. These are
the people who can't compete, who have no coping skills. They drift
and float like flotsam and jetsam, and most offensive to middle-class
sensibility, they smell.

In order to run a shelter house one must develop an ideology of
some sort to protect one from psychologically falling apart. I have
discussed this (July, 1976) with the person who runs one of Lansing's

few shelter houses, the Abrahamic Community. He states that in order

 

to run a shelter house one needs a "spiritual base." The psychological
drains are enormous. First of all, one's precarious vision of a just
society is threatened; somehow one must deal with the "problem of
evil."

We in America are brought up with the idea that free enterprise
is good, that the invisible hand of Adam Smith works for the ultimate
good of all. In order to maintain this illusion, the poor in this
society are carefully segregated and kept out of sight. We are told
that they just won't try, that they are lazy. Nowadays the fashionable
term is cultural deprivation, the culture of poverty. The problem is
not inherent evil but the lack of learning.

All well and good, as long as one maintains one's spatial separ—

ation. The women who started the Center were for the most part unaware

 

 

 

195

that this substratum existed, before the Center opened. However intel-
lectually aware some of us may have been, we did not “know” in an exis-
tential sense that women lived like this, in such poverty and degradation.
We opened the Center with the ideology of sisterhood which stripped all
our defenses. Thesewomen were our sisters.

Night after night I came home from the Center feeling guilty that
I had a house and food, nice clothes and a car. In addition there exis-
ted the strain toward regression. Dealing with emotionally disturbed
persons strains one's own ego structure. Each of us has dependency feel-
ings in conflict with our strivings for mastery, and dealing with depen—
dent people activates these conflicts. Dealing with emotionally
disturbed persons activates a whole gamut of conflicts.

Several psychological defenses are possible for the individual.

One is to withdraw and repair as best one can the precarious vision of

 

free enterprise. Another defense is religious ideology. And still an-
other is professionalization. Professionalization provides an ideology
and a means of distancing oneself psychologically.

The professional literature of psychology already provides an
ideology, a social definition of reality, legitimations and a symbolic
universe. Professionalization means that a difference exists between
helper and client. No longer are we sisters. 1 am strong and have
coping skills while ,you are weak. If I am a professional, then your
anger with me is not real and can be neglected. I need not feel your
pain.

Professionalization also gives one a rationale for the “problem
of evil." The professional has a pleasant life because she is worthy.

She works hard and deserves to live in a nice house and wear nice

 

 

 

 

filL-LJ’. a." 7. '

196

clothes. Meanwhile she is helping others to learn coping skills so
that they, too, can live pleasant lives. Thus one can avoid altogether
confronting the possibility that the System needs to be changed.

This latter was the crux of the ideological conflict which drove
Jan Wayne away from the Center. She firmly believed that the System
was evil and must be changed, by violence if necessary. In the Center
she found women who accepted the System, perhaps as a necessary evil,
but who were at least willing to live with the System. These women
were busily trying to help other women learn to adapt to the System.

That the solution of the Women's Center was professionalization
is undoubtedly a consequence of the number of trained professionals
working in the Center and the lack of a counter-ideology. The possi-
bility of a radical political solution was submerged by sheer numbers.
Alex and Penelope were defined as having personality problems. No
possibility existed of a religious solution.

Volunteer Effectiveness Training had been set up in the begin-
ning of operations, and thus professionalization was inadvertantly set
up as a pre—chosen solution. Furthermore, many of us had been social-
ized into professionalization. When an emotional crisis occurred and
we regressed, our only defense was professionalism.

In retrospect, it seems possible that another solution could have
been found. Unfortunately, the reamifications of all these diverse
conflicts were hidden behind the ideology of sisterhood. Conflict was
denied as much as possible. Any protest on the part of a particular

woman was defined as a personality problem. The bitter power struggle

 

between Zelda Montgomery and me was defined by others as a personality

conflict. One of the problems that women face is the denial of anger.

   

 

 

 

 

 

197

They are carefully socialized never to feel angry, much less show it.
Attempts were made in the Volunteer Effectiveness Training to discuss
these feelings, but the women least capable of dealing with their feel-

ings avoided the meetings.

Conclusion

The events in the Women's Center form a pattern common to many
social movements. Wilson (1973) points out that forms of leadership
in a social movement change over time as the organization develops.
Such is the case with the Women's Center. As the pragmatic needs of
the Center changed, a power struggle ensued.

During the year prior to the opening of the Center, 1971-72, the
needs were for persons who could tap community resources. Over and
over again this capability was demonstrated by Zelda Montgomery. She
obtained the original monetary pledges, and she was responsible for
organizing the physical setting of the Center. And it was her mobil-
ization of community resources which brought about the Lorelei Crisis.

Setting up the Center as a crisis intervention center was pri-
marily Zeldas doing; the other members of the task force were more in~
terested in a reading room. Nevertheless, Zelda had little notion of
how to organize and run a crisis intervention center. Leadership
necessarily fell to others. But at this point a random variable enters.
Social actors are never as tidy and predictable as sociological studies
would have us believe. Zelda lived in some kind of fantasy world where
spontaneity prevailed. She explained this position over and over again
at the Center. In her approach, cause and effect were suspended.

A power struggle ensued to wrest control of the Center.

 

 

l98

Interestingly enough, the end of the struggle found most of the an-
tagonists exhausted. The leadership of the Center was taken over by
others, but the structure of the organization had developed out of
the conflict. Very little is written in the literature concerning
the positive effects of conflict in bringing about changes in organ-
ization. In most studies of organization, conflict is treated as un-
desirable. Certainly conflict is painful. The structure of the organ-
ization, however, came about as each participant asserted herself and
claimed her rights in the Center.

The Women's Center provides a particularly elegant case of the
development of organizational behavior because the situation was rela-
tively unstructured in the beginning. Some of this was discussed in
Chapter Seven. The development of professionalization was not such a
clearcut matter, however, because many of us were trained and experienced
professionals. We reacted to external pressure in line with our prev-
ious training. Had we been different we might have seen or set out to
find new alternatives.

Much has been written in the recent literature on women as being
socialized into dependency. Little has been written on the difficul—
ties of organizing dependent people into a social protest movement.
Gandhi developed the notions of passive resistence to meet such a con-
tingency in India, but nothing to that effect has so far developed in
the women's movement in the United States or Western Europe. This has
profound consequences for the future of the women's movement. Women
who have managed to transcend the traditional dependent role of women,
whether through early socialization or later efforts, have organized

the older wing of the Movement. Their thrust is toward legal and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

l99

policy changes. Somehow forgotten at the bottom of the heap are the
women who sought sanctuary in the Women's Center. These women are
poverty stricken and helpless, lacking the most rudimentary skills
and resources. The extent of their dependency needs is infinite.

It must be remembered that despite all the conflicts the Center
remained functioning. The Center weathered this crisis and in the
summer of l974 it weathered the Lesbian crisis which seems to come
sooner or later to all feminist groups. (See Freeman, l975, for a
diSCUssion of this.) The women of Carbondale believe strongly that
the Women's Center is a good thing and worth the sacrifices of time

and effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER NINE
FROM SOCIAL MOVEMENT TO LEGITIMATE ORGANIZATION

The previous chapters have discussed the changes taking place
within the organization as it developed over time. This chapter will
focus on the relations of the Women's Center to the surrounding com-
munity. First I will discuss the theoretical notions of legitimacy.
Then I will trace the development of relationships of the Women's
Center with other organizations. Finally I will analyze this devel-

opment.

Legitimacy As Theoretical Notion

Wilson has noted time paradox that social movements often have
to seek support from the very institutions they seek to change. This
paradox raises serious questions for those who seek social change. As
the organization develops legitimacy in the eyes of the surrounding
community, it gives up certain demands for social change. As I put
it one day in my Journal, "Is this the revolution or a re-run of Hull
Hours?"

Thorne (l97l; l975) has documented this dilemma for two draft
resistance groups, the Boston Draft Resistance Group and the New
England Resistance. Thorne poses the matter as the strategy of obtain-
ing support. Both groups were opposing authority they characterized

as morally not legitimate; the Boston Draft Resistance Group chose to

 

 

 

 

20l

work primarily within the system, concentrating on draft counseling,
whereas the New England Resistance chose strategies of high risk
such as burning draft cards. According to Thorne, the former group
was attempting to gain support from wider sources in the community,
such as the working class. Hence that choice of strategy.

This raises another question, that of legitimate authority.
The movements of the sixties all characterized themselves as opposing
illegitimate authority, although this is a contradiction in terms if
one uses the Weberian definition of authority as legitimized power.
The moral dilemma becomes then the basis on which power is legiti-
mized; what constitutes authority. This dilemma was raised by the
United States government itself in the Nuremberg trials.

Bittner (l966) alludes to these issues by defining radical
thought as a demand for moral purity. Bittner points out that any
society contains cognitive and evaluative standards which are con-
tradictory and impossible to adhere to strictly in every situation.
The ordinary person lives with ambiguities in everyday life. Only
the scientist and the radical demand purity of thought and clarity
of meanings. Bittner's discussion is all very well, but his treat-
ment does ignore some of the practical realities which movements
address. Being drafted in wartime is a matter of life and death.
Women in the women's movement are concerned with pay for jobs, which
is a concern for long-range survival. Theoretical discussions of
social movements seem to be written by persons who have job tenure
and are not in imminent danger of being drafted.

Blumer (l966 [195l]) has categorized social movements as reform

or revolutionary, on the basis of tactics. Reform movements accept

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

202

the existing code of ethics, they are respectable and utilize existing
institutions. Inherent difficulties exist in this categorization,
however, when an attempt is made to classify existing movements. Free-
man (l975) discusses this question when she compares the two wings of
the women's movement. Freeman contends, although she has been chal-
lenged by reviewers, that although the older branch of the movement is
termed reform in regard to its tactics, the changes being advocated
and in part brought about by its policies are indeed revolutionary.

This brings us back to Oberschall's notions (1973) that protest
movements arise around conflicts over the distribution and allocation
of community resources. Oberschall's discussion forms a satisfactory
basis for the definition of legitimacy used inthis dissertation. A
legitimate organization is one which shares in the official allocation
of community resources. The Women's Center was allocated public funds
because other community agencies had found the Women's Center to be a
valuable resource and were willing to share funds with it.

Utilizing public funds, however, poses a moral dilemma for per-
sons wanting to bring about change in the structure. The Women's
Center has obtained a share of the resources, but the community's
mode of distribution of resources has remained the same. The moral
dilemma then becomes should the Center accept resources and thereby
the demands made by the system. Recent communication (l976) informs
me that this discussion still goes on over the question of federal
funding of the Women's Center. One faction in the Center opposes such
funding because of the constraints in that obtaining funding involves
categorizing some kinswomen as clients. This issue has been discussed

by Freeman (l975) and Carden (l974).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

203

Carden points out that the “zap actions” of the early days of

the movement have been replaced with service projects. She says,
"The total effect of such actions is comparable to that of the Lady
Bountiful of earlier centuries. Individual women's problems will be
alleviated for the time being, but no lasting change is produced”
(p. l94). Carden sees this as a result of the paradox of ”alternative
institutions" as a means of non-cooperation with the system, but, par—
adoxically, the effect of these service projects has been to fill gaps
in the system, thereby enabling it to function more efficiently.

Carden argues that service projects are a logical outcome of the
need for community around which at least the radical wing of the move-
ment is organized. Carden's argument is validated by the experience
of the Women's Center. The Center is organized around a sense of kin,
what Carden terms "solidary incentives.” In order to maintain commun-
ity, conflicts over ideology, and radical activity, were muted.

Another aspect of the situation is the expected role of women in
reform efforts in this society. Women have been neglected in both
history and sociology, thus preventing a comprehensive picture of how
the society funtions. (Good examples of this critique may be found
in Millman and Kanter, l975.) No society can run totally on a market-
place basis, and the efforts of women in making this society function
are for the most part invisible. I would argue that women's reform
organizations are an institutionalized part of American society, and

that in this sense the Women's Center was viewed from the beginning as

a legitimate organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

204

Narrative
From the beginning the Center was radical in the eyes of some
and legitimate in the eyes of others. The women who organized the
Center were respectable members of the community, and funding was pro-
vided by the most respectable. The whole enterprise seemed strange
to some but not threatening, rather a harmless idiosynCratic enterprise.
Legitimacy in Carbondale was always a moot point. Remembrance Crane was
County Chairman of the Democratic Party and a member of the Police Board
at the same time as she was doing illegal abortion counseling.
.Carbondale was split into two cultures (as outlined in Chapter
One): the traditional native population and the imported urban faculty

group. John Gardner has written of this split in The Wreckage gf_

 

Agathon_(l970), a roman §_clef about Carbondale in the mid-sixties,

 

 

among other things. In the novel, the faculty are the Spartans and
the natives the Helots, a group subordinate to the Spartans. In real
life, the urban faculty possessed power and prestige but were never
considered "legitimate" by the townsfolk.

This is relevant for the analysis of the Women's Center because
the Center was established by women of the urban faculty folk. Hence
it always possessed dubious legitimacy in the eyes of many inhabitants
of the town. I emphasize this point because I want to underline the
complexity of human affairs and avoid the fallacy of looking at society
as if it were an organization. Societies are made up of overlapping
circles of moral authority. This is the point made in the chapter on
ideology, and according to Berger and Luckmann (l966), it is only com~
peting sources of moral authority which allow one to discuss ideology.

The Women's Center was viewed by many local inhabitants as part

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

205

of the hippy freak culture. Women working in the Center most fre—
quently wore jeans and did participate to some degree in the counter
culture. Native women who came to the Center reported how frightened
they were to come to such an exotic place.

From the beginning the Women's Center was regarded by some out-
side persons as a legitimate agent concerned with legal reform. On
November 30, l972, Fern Woods and I were invited to an official Univer-
sity luncheon as representatives of the Women's Center. Southern
Illinois University had ea luncheon for each speaker at the Convoca-
tion Series, and representatives of various organizations considered
to be interested in the topic of the speechxwere invited as guests.
The topic in this case was the question of legalizing abortion. The
speaker was a man who ran an abortion clinic in New York, which in
l972 waSlegal.t The Women's Center was considered to be a legitimate
organization concerned with reform of abortion legislation.

This is another example of a point I have been making about the
institutionalization of reform and social change inthe United States
society. The legal structure of the United States is considered to
be in a state of flux, and it is considered legitimate to engage in
bringing about legislative change. I would argue that sociological
literature most often misses the essence of the political process in
this society. C. Wright Mills pointed out long ago that sociological
theory was based on European traditions of thought which did not re-
flect the American experience. Americans operate much more on the
basis of raw power, usually financial power, than on institutionalized
authority.

The aura of legitimacy surrounding the Women's Center seems to

 

 

 

 

 

 

206

have been an inheritance from the Women's Political Caucus. The
Women's Political Caucus is a legitimate organization working through
the major political parties, organized by duly elected women in Con—
gress. The role of the Women's Center vis a vis the Women's Political
Caucus provided another source of tension at meetings of the Board of
Trustees, "the problem that was never solved” according to Iris
Anthony (March 1975). In the summer of l973 the Illinois State Legis-
lature voted on ratification of the E.R.A. and a great deal of polit-
ical activity of other kinds was going on with organized women's
groups. Three main streams of thought were voiced by women attending
Board meetings, all three sometimes voiced by the same woman, indica-
ting the conflicts within members themselves. One position voiced
was that the Women's Center was an organization fbr social change and
should take a firm position on legislation. A more radical position
was voiced that stands on legislation were reformist, at best. And
over against both groups were those who feared to take a stand lest
funding be jeopardized. Some members wanted to become a non-profit
organization so that contributions to the Center could be deducted
from federal income tax, and a non-profit organization cannot engage
in political activity.

Carmen developed the rationale which was used to justify what-
ever strategy was chosen. According to this rationale, we were a
group of women seeking to bring about radical social change but camo-
flaging our activity with a conventional demeanor. We presented our-
selves to outsiders as essentially conservative women who wanted to
help others, not some of those ”women's lib bra-burners." Among our-

selves we fantasized revolution. My observations lead me to the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

207

conclusion that this kind of rationale leads to severe psychic stress
and eventually results in the person giving up radical notions alto—
gether or becoming more radical in action. The organization either
becomes more conservative or falls apart.

During November and DeCember, l972, our concern was to keep

 

going. Few guests had yet arrived at the Center. Many people were
depressed and wondered if indeed_the Center could serve a useful func-
tion. In January, l973, activities at the Center increased with the

beginning of a new term, as activities always did in Carbondale, a

 

university town. In Carbondale, even the laundry closed during the
university break.

The existence of the Center seemed assured. Members began to
make contact with the external web of Social Welfare Agencies. Janu-
ary and February, l973, were crucial in various respects, and as reit-
erated previously various activities were touched off by the Lorelei
crisis. One aspect was our discovery that social welfare services in
the county formed a web of relationships. This we discovered as we
traced Lorelei's past history in her pathway to the Women's Center.

Simultaneously, as it happened, with Lorelei's appearance on the

 

scene, three therapists from Anna State Hospital came to the Women's

Center to inVestigate the possibility of using the Women's Center as

 

a halfway house. They decided against using the Center as an official
halfway house because too many activities were going on and not enough
supervision existed. Subsequently, however, the Women's Center was

used often by women recently discharged from the state hospital, about
fifteen miles away. The women were put on the bus in Anna and arrived

in Carbondale penniless with nowhere to go. Police, taxicab drivers,

 

 

 

 

 

208

and citizens brought them to the Center. The Center served as an
adjunct guest house as well, for out of town relatives coming to visit
patients in the hospital.

On February 2, l973, I inadvertantly set up a pattern of cooper-
ation which has persisted over time, that of guests spending their days
at Care House. Care House was established by the Jackson County Men-
tal Health Department to give day care facilities to former mental
patients. Persons recently discharged from the state hospital come
every day to Care House where various activities go on. Calisthentics
are performed; craft classes are held. I contacted Care House out of
desparation at having Lorelei underfoot all day in the Center. It be-
came a regular pattern for women to spend nights at the Center and days
at Care House. Indeed, this cooperation created a new problem, that
of women remaining for long periods of time at the Center.

On February 8, 1973, Carmen and I went to Children's and Family
Service, a state agency equivalent to the Department of Social Services
in Michigan, to establish initial contact. On March 5 I gave a presen-
tation to their staff meeting on what the Women's Center is and what
services it has to offer. Note the shift in emphasis. Until this
time our public appearances had been requests for money and other mater—
ial goods or for members. Now we were seeking clients and offering
services. This shift was not the consequence of any rational decision
as to strategy. It came about as an attempt to delimit and define our
organizational role in the community. Other agencies were utilizing
our resources in ways we felt dysfunctional to the organization, and
we were forced to make decisions.

As part of this effort to find our role in the community, I

 

 

 

 

209

attended a meeting on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism as an official represen-
tative of my agency. This was the first time we had called ourselves

an agency. After my initial contact, Jane Wainwright regularly attended
meetings as our representative. On February 2l I attended by invitation
a Police Workshop on Family Crisis Intervention.

On February 27 Per Asquith and I attended a state sponsored Confer-
ence for Agencies to Use Volunteers. This was our final entry into the
network of agencies and one which ultimately resulted in funding for the
Center because we met members of the 708 Board. Under a revenue sharing
plan the federal government gives monies back to the local units of gov-
ernment, dispersed at the decision of the 708 Board. This was also the
meeting which gave Per Asquith and me the ideas for structuring the or-
ganization. 0

Another network with which we became involved and from which we
received service was the emergency counseling team from the Department
of Counseling and Testing of Southern Illinois University. Members of
the psychology department and the counseling service of S.I.U. had seen
the need for mobile counseling service. They recruited graduate stu—
dents in counseling and clinical psychology to form teams for emergency
counseling for which the students received credit. The Women's Center
often contacted them for handling belligerant males who, as husbands,
fathers or lovers, often appeared at our doorstep. An example of this
was the father who kidnapped his children. As the father was putting the
children into his car, our cool volunteer Agnes Wells went running out
to the driveway waving the children's coats, shouting, ”Wait. Wait.
They can't go without their coats.“ Having once stopped him, she per—

suaded him to come into the living room and have a cup of coffee while

 

 

 

 

 

2l0

she called the counseling service. A team of counselors came over and
somehow convinced him to go away.

Another controversial matter was our contact with the police.
Volunteers called the police when a violent male broke down the front
door and threatened his wife with a tire iron. This became a subject
for discussion among members. More radical women believed that the
police should never be called. This was never resolved but led to
many discussions in Volunteer Effectiveness Training about when to call
the police. This was the only subject about which discussion took on
a political stance. The discussion about the police centered on radi-

cal politics from a feminist point of view.

Analysis

The history of the Women's Center demonstrates in clear perspec-
tive the strategies available for an organization attempting to find
support from its surrounding community. The strategies to be pursued
were argued from the inception of the Task Force in l97l, and are still
being argued, according to my informants in Carbondale._ Blumer's cate-
gories are more usefully applied to strategies rather than to labeling
the organizations. Strategies can be oriented toward working within
the system or overthrowing the system.

It follows, then, that an emergent social movement organizaiton
has two choices, that Of working within the system to obtain a share of
the resources available (my definition of legitimacy) or of attempting
to change the system of resource distribution. The Women's Center chose

to work within the system, and this analysis will trace the step by step

development of that choice, a choice more by default than by conscious

 

 

 

In“...

 

 

 

 

 

 

2ll

decision.

It is my analysis that the Women's Center chose to work within
the system as a result of organizational role expectations within the
community. A vacuum existed within the community which the Center be-
gan to fill. This result was not inevitable; the Women's Center could
have resisted community expectations. My analysis again is that the
Women's Center did not resist these external pressures because it did
not have well developed goals and ideology. The implications of this
analysis would be that only those movements with strongly developed be-
lief systems willsurvive in their original forms as radical movements
seeking social change.

A. Lack of Legitimizing Belief System

In an earlier chapter I quoted Banks and Banks (l964) on the neces—
sity of developing an ideology, or in my terminology a legitimizing be-
lief system, to withstand the sacrifices necessary to maintain a social
movement over time. In addition, a systematic set of legitimations may
be necessary to retain the original purpose of the movement. The orig-
inal purpose of the Women's Center was ambiguous, and the Center did not
have a well developed systemized belief system which would have enabled
it to retain a radical stance. As the Center began to operate an emer-
gency shelter to fulfill the expectations of community agencies, the
internal pressures from that operation produced structure and profession-
alism in the Center. Again, this development was not inevitable but was
the consequence of a stronger and more institutionalized ideology
possessed by those advocating professionalism than by the forces opposed
to professionalism. The development of professionalism pushed the Cen-

ter further into the mainstream because professionals are almost by

 

 

 

lll-L.

 

 

“-s ..

 

 

2l2

definition in the mainstream of society.
B. Need to obtain resources.

As Iris Anthony, one of the participants, commented in an inter-
view, the theme of the original Task Force was compromise. The issue
of political activism was raised but never settled. AThe choice to
become politically active would have raised new alternatives of strat-
egy, to work within the system or to oppose the system, but the choice
not to take a stand on political issues because it would jeopardize

the tax-exempt status of the Center was a firm decision to work within

 

the system. The choice not to take political action thus was clearly
related to the attempt to obtain resources. (The Center eventually

obtained the status of a non-profit corporation so that contributions
by individuals could be deducted from their income tax, an important

pitch when asking for contributions.) The issue was never considered

 

settled, however, because political activity always remained a possi-
bility in the minds of many women, and some were in acute conflict
over the matter.

C. Lack of organizational and political experience.

Another aspect of the original Task Force was that many of the
members had had no previous organizational experience, no political
experience, no knowledge of manipulating power. In the summer of 1974
Carmen Stone talked with me about her previous naivite in regard to
power. From the beginning of the Task Force, Penelope, who had worked
in the radical movement in Berkley, had feared a power takeover within
the organization. In 197l Carmen had found this discussion of power
totally incomprehensible. During the time I worked in the Center I

had been constantly in a rage with Carmen's state of incomprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

2l3

A year later, however, enough events had transpired to enable Carmen
to understand the nature of power in an organization.

This comes back to the notion of goals, ideology and strategy.
The original members of the Task Force could not make clear-cut
choices of strategy because they did not understand the relationship
between strategies and goals and furthermore did not have any instruc-
ting ideology. Penelope possessed knowledge and experience, but she
had difficulty communicating this knowledge to others, in part because

the others had not had enough experience to enable them to receive the

 

message.
D. Lack of political analysis.

According to Iris Anthony, a member of the Task Force, the idea
of a shelter house was primarily the idea of Zelda Montgomery. The
others Went along with this idea because they wanted to obtain re—
sources from the community. This was a fateful decision for the Women's
Center because the vacuum existing in the community structure needed

to be filled by just such a shelter. A profit-oriented society needs

 

a depository for the misfits.
None of the women in the original Task Force possessed a system

of beliefs relating a shelter house to a system of social control.

 

 

Such a belief system holds that the welfare system exists in order to
maintain a marginal labor force without which the capitalist system
cannot exist. The capitalist system has fluctuating needs for a labor
force, and in order to meet these needs for labor, people must be main-
tained on a subsistence level during the times of slack employment, but

at a level so poor that they will be motivated to re-enter the labor

force when they are needed.

   

 

 

 

2l4

Social welfare agencies are then set up to maintain such a
bottom under existence, and a shelter house would be part of such a
system, allowing the welfare system to function more effectively.
Social welfare becomes a system of social control in that its rules
and regulations prevent anyone from ever getting out of a marginal
position. In order to obtain welfare one must remain at the subsis-
tence level, e.g. women on A.D.C. are often not allowed to return to
school, the rationale being that the welfare system won't support
such luxuries.

A further notion added by neo-Marxis feminist theorists is that
such a system as A.D.C. enables women to reproduce and rear new re-
cruits for the marginal labor force. At least until now, women have
been necessary for purposes of reproduction. In former generations,
women reproduced while working at sweated labor, but humanitarian sen-
timents have become suCh that this is no longer acceptable to the gen-
eral public, presumably because society as a whole has more resources
available to allow humanitarian sentiments to prevail.

Another function of the welfare system is to frighten respec-
table women. If the only alternative to staying in a bad marriage is
going on A.D.C., many women will opt for the bad marriage. Such
studies as exist of battered wives show that women will endure severe
beatings rather than leave their battering husbands and go on welfare.

The possession of just such a belief system was the reason why
women from the Women's Liberation Front did not support the Women's
Center. Possession of such a belief system, however, would inhibit
setting up a shelter house, and according to Iris Anothony, the orig-

inal pledges were obtained on the basis of running a shelter house.

 

 

 

 

 

2l5

Thus we have the original Task Force. Women with a radical be-
lief system refused to join, on the grounds that the Center constituted
a violation of their belief system. (Women from the Women's Liberation
Front were part of the chain of communication, and their refusal to
join was an active decision. Women from the radical commune dropped by
to chat sometimes or attend meetings, leaving copies of the newspaper,
Mountain Mgving Day, They were using the Center for possible recruit-
ment. Incidentally, these women were not Lesbians; the Lesbian crisis
occurred in 1974.)

Carmen had a radical feminist stance but she did not have a poli-
tical analysis, that is, she possessed an image of women being libera-
ted, but she never connected this to the economic and political structure.
This highlights one difficulty_in organizing a women's movement. One
aspect of the oppression of women is their exclusion, for the most part,
from political analysis; for the conventional woman, politics is a
man's world. The few individual women who do master political analysis
then become aberrent women not acceptable to the movement.

E. Lack of an out—group to hate.

In order to obtain resources from the community, the Task Force
developed a system of legitimizing beliefs for public presentation.

The pitch was that the Women‘s Center would be a place where women could
help women. The public service aspect was constantly put forth and re-
iterated, and other public ideologies that were developed were oriented
toward the development of women. The thrust of these ideologies was
toward helping women, not focusing on anger with the system or hostility
toward men. All of us in the Center carefully censored any hostile

allusion to men lest we be accused of man-hating.

 

 

 

 

2l6

I have argued that the development of structure and professional—
ism pushed the Center toward operating within the system. I will now
argue that the conflicts pushing toward structure came about in part
as a consequence of the denial of anger in all directions. We didn't
hate men; we didn't hate the system; we loved our sisters. In conse-
quence we quarreled bitterly over being able to sit at the kitchen
table or washing coffee cups.

One theory long current in social psychology is that one way to
maintain group cohesiveness is to deflect hostility toward an out—
group. The women in the Women's Center were never allowed to hate an
out-group so consequently they had to find other ways of developing
group cohesiveness. Women in the radical commune, on the other hand,
maintained cohesiveness by hating men and the system. They demonstra-
ted their beliefs with guerilla theater and zap actions, but we were
allowed no such outlets.

Hostility was rife in the Women's Center but constantly denied.
Instead it broke out in fights over trivial issues. I have pointed
out in earlier chapters how structure and professionalism were devel-
oped to deflect hostility from task leaders. Thus structure and pro-
fessionalism develop as a consequence of the thrust toward legitimacy
and in turn themselves become thrusts toward legitimacy.

F. Community Expectations of Reform Orientation.

One of the community expectations of the Center was that it
would engage in reform activities rather than any radical undertaking.
This expectation was one of the inheritances from the League of Women
Voters and the Women's Political Caucus. This kind of expectation

operates in subtle ways almost invisible to the naked eye. The system

 

 

 

 

 

217

offers rewards to those engaged in mild reform, and none of us were
alienated enough from the system to reject these rewards in the form
of invitations to be the official representative of the Women's Center
at luncheons and on talk shows.

We were constantly inhibiting our more radical behavior in order
not to alienate anybody. We dressed in skirts with hose and heels to
appear before the City Council; we dressed up to appear on TV panel
shows. This seems trivial, but is has been pointed out earlier that
one way in which groups remain separated is by clothing and appearance.

In attempting to blend into the system, not to appear too conspicuous,

 

we lost our sense of standing out against the system.
G. Maintenance of the Status Quo.
Part of this expectation by the community that we would not en-

gage in anything but liberal reform was that we would not disturb the

 

existing class structure, and this we did not do by default. Some of
it came about because of differences in personal appearance. The class
differences were highly visible at the Center, differences in dress,
grooming, speech, modesty, personal hygiene, and interaction ritual.
(The native population also has a regional accent.)

Appearance is the outward symbol of a wide range of value differ-
ences. Middle class women wearing blue jeans alienate working class
women who do not tend to accept the tenets of women's liberation. They
believe that they should be supported by men in a traditional manner,
that the traditional family should be reinforced, and they never saw
their own plight as part of a larger public issue.

The one contact we had with black women was when the Welfare

Rights Organization (all black in Carbondale) held a joint meeting

 

 

 

 

 

218

with the crash consciousness raising group. The black women were
horrified at the concept of abortion, for religious reasons. Further-
more, they saw no reason why white women complain. White women can
get married and get taken care of; so what's the problem?

No attempt was made to minimize these class differences, in
large part, according to my analysis, as a result of no political an-
alysis. Even with political analysis, socialist feminist groups have
had difficulty recruiting working class women into their groups. Work-
ing class women were served as clients, but were for the most part not
recruited as volunteers for the Center.

Our professional behavior in the Center reinforced the depen—
dency syndrome of lower class women so that we felt the need of even
stronger psychological defenses. The defenses we built were structural
differentiation, i.e. volunteers and guests, and professional distance.
These defenses in their turn reinforced our desire to work within the
system.

H. Benevolence as maintenance of the class structure.

It has been pointed out earlier, but it needs to be mentioned
here, that benevolence is one aspect of maintaining the class struc—
ture. In a capitalist society some redistribution of goods and ser—
vices must be done by a non-profit organization. In England and
America this is part of the role of an upper middle class woman after
a certain age, and her status is enhanced if she can afford babysit-
ting in order to start at an earlier age, e.g. the Junior League.

Being able to engage in voluntary associations and redistribute goods

is a form of conspicuous consumption as is voluntary poverty. The

poor have no alternative to poverty.

 

 

 

 

 

219

The women who worked in the Women's Center were validating and
legitimizing their upper middle class status; working in the Center
was radical chic. At the same time they could expiate their guilt
feelings for being middle class. And yet that is not all of the story.
The Women's Center was more than just a voluntary association, because
the lives of the women working there were changed. Women did find re-
demption. It should be pointed out, however, that although the lives
of individual women changed they remained oriented to working within

the system.

 

I. Recruitment into the status quo.

Once an organization has developed a structure and a system of

beliefs, recruitment becomes the process whereby the status quo of the

e 44..

organization is maintained. The role of the Volunteer was made to . i
Aappear impressively demanding. Volunteers were required to fill out
complicated intake forms on each new guest and engage in other paper-
work. Hence only women already oriented to professionalism were re-

cruited as Volunteers.

 

Given that they were already oriented toward professionalism,
the new recruits were not interested in reversing the strategies of
working within the system. Because recruitment processes are done
through friendship chains, the new recruits recruited women like them—

' selves. For example, as my replacement as Volunteer Coordinator I
found a sociology graduate student who had been my teaching assistant.

The professional orientation of the Center reinforced the aspir-
ations of the women already involved to become more professional. It
all becomes a circular reinforcing spiral with more and more profes-

sionalism and hence legitimacy within the system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

220

Summary

This chapter has traced the development of the Women's Center
from social movement organization to legitimacy within the system.

My definition of legitimacy has been the ability to obtain a share of
public resources. The Task Force which originated the Center made
the critical decision to work within the system because they were
trying to obtain resources from the system.

Trying to work within the system brought other changes in that
the development of a radical belief system was inhibited in order to
obtain resources and radical physical appearance was inhibited. This
precluded the development of a political analysis which would have
provided some instruction in protesting the system rather than accept-
ing it.

A vacuum in the community existed which the Center began to fill,
that of a shelter house. As the Center became more successful, the
pressures of running a shelter house brought about structure and pro-
fessionalism. Structure and professionalism in turn produced more
structure and professionalism. The Women's Center had become a legiti-

mate social welfare agency.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TEN
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

This has been a study of the changes in ideology and structure
which occurred as a social movement organization attempted to find
legitmacy in its community. John Wilson (l973) has pointed out a par-
adox basic to the lives of social movement organizations: organiz-
ing collective effort to change the world demands acceptance of that
world as a constraint upon one's own behavior. This paradox has pro-
vided the focus for the study of a particular social movement organi-
zation-ethe Women's Center in Carbondale, Illinois. The changes in
structure and ideology in the Women's Center came about as a result
of the strategies adopted to obtain resources from the community,
that is, the efforts to obtain resources put constraints on behavior.

As a consequence of the pressures from the strategies chosen, the

 

Women's Center compromised its original efforts toward social change
and became a legitimate social welfare organization. The following
Paragraphs contain more specific conClusions.

One finding which has emerged from this study is that in order
for a social movement organization to maintain itself as an organiza-
tion for change, in other words to surmount the paradox of adaptation,
the organization must have a strong belief system setting forth the
goals of the organization along with a firm stragegy for obtaining
those goals. The Women's Center lacked such strong beliefs and goals,
and as a result, compromised its efforts toward social change.

221

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

222

One reason that the Women's Center lacked a central belief sys-
tem was that the women who comprised the original task force to set
up the Center represented two social movements, the women's movement
and the crisis intervention movement. The strategies and beliefs of
these two movements are quite different: the women's movement empha-
sizes the need for social change as well as personal change, whereas
the crisis intervention movement is concerned with internal changes
in the person. These underlying issues surfaced in a conflict over
whether or not the Center was to commit itself to political action,
but this issue has not been resolved.

The theme of the Women's Center from the organization of the
Task Force until the present has been compromise in order to keep the
Center in extistence. In this manner the struggle to obtain resources
has resulted in the denial of conflicting aims among members. As a
consequence, a clear cut belief system was never set forth; the goals
of the Women's Center were never specified beyond the goal of exis-
tence. Because the goals were never stated in a clearcut fashion,
strategies were never related to these goals but were the consequence
of external and internal pressures. The pragmatism also increased the
inner conflicts of many members who wished for radical social change.

A clear, specific example of the paradox in action was the devel-
opment of professionalism as an adaptation to the circumstances
created by the strategies adopted to obtain resources. In order to
obtain funding, the Women's Center was set up as a crisis interven-
tion shelter house so that women in trouble came to stay with us. The
pressures of coping with emotionally disturbed women produced increased
structural changes, spatial separation and an increase in professional-

ization of the volunteers.

_%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

223

A great conflict broke out in the Center over the increase in
professionalism, because some factions in the Center perceived this
as a compromise with the system that the Center intended to change.
These latter factions believed in spontaneity, equality, warmth, and
closeness, traits they saw as conflicting with the attitudes and be-
havior that the term "professionalism" denotes. The conflict was
defined by others as a personality clash between two of the women,
and this was also the manner in which another ideological clash was
disposed of. Two women presented a political analysis of the func-
tioningtyfa service organization to maintain the hierarchical author-
ity structure of society. They proposed that the Women's Center be
shut down as a shelter, but their proposal went unheard and they
were defined as having personality problems.

Another factor contributing to the adaptation of the Center to
the existing society was the lack of organizational and political
experience on the part of the members, as well as the lack of a polit-
ical analysis. This again relates to the lack of development of a
systematized belief system. The Women's Center grew out of a relative-
ly undeveloped social movement and recruited members who had no
previous organizational experience. 'The shared beliefs holding the
members together had to do with often vaguely articulated dissatis-
factions with the present system. They had very few formal beliefs
which related their personal dissatisfaction to the larger structure
of society.

Given that the Women's Center had no firm set of systematized
beliefs concerning goals and strategies, the Center gradually came

to resemble a type of institution well established in American

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

224

society: a women's service organization. My analysis is that this

society is enabled to function by virtue of the existence of social

movement organizations oriented toward reform of the system. In

sometimes ironic ways, reform movements often function to maintain

balance in society. For example, as patterns of recruitment into

the organization crystallized, it became apparent that the Center was

a microcosim of the existing social class structure. Middle class

educated women were recruited to staff the Center, and working class

women were recruited as clients. The more structure and professional-

ism developed, the more middle class skills were necessary for a

person to function as a staff member.
Thus the Center succumbed to the paradox of adaptation, and in

order to survive as an organization, it increasingly relinquished

attempts to change the world. The belief system gradually crystallized

around the beliefs of the crisis intervention movement.

The Guiding Hypotheses
The initial guiding hypotheses are related to the paradox of

adaptation; these will be examined as a means of summary and conclusion.

Guiding Hypothesis One:

In order fOr a social movement organization to arise, net-
works of communication, support, and political power must be
in existence. The length of time that the social movement
organization survives is related to the complexity of the
pre-existing networks in a positive direction, that is, con-
tinued existence depends upon a complex support system.

This hypothesis was examined in Chapters Three and Four. Chapter

Three traced the development of the women's movement in Carbondale and

 

 

Ilium;-

 

 

 

 

 

225

Chapter Four traced the pre-existing networks necessary for the organ-
ization of the Women's Center. This hypothesis is an extension of
three propositions put forth and examined by Freeman (l975); she con-
tends that a necessary pre-requisite for the formation of a social
movement is a pre-existing network of communication which is co-opt-
able by the movement. If such a network does not exist, then one
must be organized. I have extended Freeman's propositions; while

she looks at the presence and cooptability of networks I have sugges-
ted that their complexity and resourcefulness also affect the success
and survival of the movement.

To assess this hypothesis, I initially examined the case of a
Women's Center in East Lansing which remained in existence only three
years, and during that time had not obtained as many resources as the
Women's Center in Carbondale. This East Lansing Center had never
tapped into a rich, pre—existing-network of communications, and this
lessened its chance of survival. In contrast, the longevity of the
Carbondale Women's Center may be traced to the extensive and resource-
ful networks on which it was founded. One of the applied findings
of this study is that a group seeking to build an organization needs
to tap a network of support.

Two networks existed in the Women's Center, oneia network pro—
viding the day-to-day staffing of the Center, and the other network
providing financial and other material, as well as political support.
The former network was derived from the women's movement in Carbondale
whereas the latter evolved from the Women's Political Caucus, although

it must be remembered that the two networks intertwined to some ex-

tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

226

The staffing network of the Carbondale Women's Center grew out of
the consciousness raising movement in Carbondale, and new staffing
members of the Center were continually recruited from consciousness
raising groups. No pre-existing network existed on which to build
the consciousness raising mbvement; it was organized by a woman who
moved to Carbondale, having been a member of a consciousness raising
group in another city.

The support network grew out of the Women's Political Caucus.
The organizing task force of the Center initially contacted many
possible sources of support with no success. Pledges were obtained
only when the mailing list from the Women's Political Caucus Workshop
was utilized. This list tapped various pre-existing organizations,
forming a web of networks in the community. The most important net—
work was the League of Women Voters; although the League as an organ-
ization did not support the Center and some members actually opposed
it, there was an active network within the League which supported the
Center.

Freeman notes that a pre-existing network of communication must
be co—optable. In Carbondale the co—optable women turned out to be
those involved in the university community, rather than native inhab-
itants of the city. The women who staffed the Center were wives of
graduate stodents, and the women who contributed financial support
and material resources, as well as political support, were faculty
wives.

In tracing the channels of communication which served to diffuse
the women's movement, it has been observed that some women serve as

links between organizations, allowing the various organizations to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

227

form a network. Such persons I have called systemic linkage persons,
who are often enabled to develop power within a movement because they
control an important resource, information, and because they have

access to persons to form coalitions.

Guiding Hypothesis Two:

The structure of a social movement organization changes in
response to the needs of an organization to obtain resources
and create new members.

This hypothesis was not invalidated as a partial truth, but the
process of structure building turned out, on analysis, to be more com—
plicated than the hypothesis implies. In order to obtain funding,
the Women's Center responded to suggestions to set itself up as a
crisis shelter. The exigencies of running a crisis shelter, then,
brought about pressures for social structure.

The pressures for social structure came about in several ways.
Internally the need to control resources and task specialization
created pressure for structure; external pressures were the necessity
for obtaining support and developing relations to other organizations.

Written rules and procedures came about as a consequence of con-
flict between task specialists and as a result of change in personnel.
A crisis sitUation heightened the intensity of all the pressures.

The first step in structure was legal incorporation which came
about when the group began to accumulate money. Legal incorporation,
by definition, gave authority to Board Members, which in turn transla—
ted into power. Other resources which developed over time were infor-

mation and special skills. Persons controlling these resources devel-

OPed power in the organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

228

Relationships with other organizations produced constraints in
many ways. Legal incorporation implies a relationship with the state.
Members of the Board were legally liable for what occurred in the
Center, a point which began to have meaning when suicide and homicide
attempts occurred on the premises. Being liable for whatever happened,
Board Members began to take control.

Other organizations imposed responsibilities.on the Center, such
as a Judge essentially awarding temporary custody of a baby to the
Center. Attempts to control this imposition brought about specialized
roles, e.g. crisis supervisor, for persons who were authorized to
speak for the Center and act in its behalf.

As categories of members developed such as volunteers, guests,
and residents, conflict occurred over task allocation and performance;
for example there was conflict when volunteers left coffee cups for
residents to wash. Arbitration of these differences brought about
formalized procedures which were written down as rules, e.g.'VHl vol-
unteers must wash any dishes they use.”

Turnover in personnel brought about written rules and procedures.
The volunteer on duty changed every two hours, so written reports were
necessary to transmit information. New volunteers were constantly re~
cruited, and orientation procedures devised. New Board Members were
elected, and job descriptions for Board Members and Coordinators were
worked out.

The Women's Center was a crisis center where emergencies occurred
daily. Emergency procedures had to be routinized in order for persons
to cope over time. The first few emergency guests produced a height-

ened sense of exhileration, a new sense of participating in life.

 

 

 

\
”Ina

 

 

 

 

 

229

Individuals soon burn out, however, and in order to maintain the Cen-
ter, persons had to be trained in crisis intervention skills, and
authority to control a situation had to be given to these persons.

And finally, funding by outside agencies meant that accounting
procedures had to be adopted. The category of client became firmly
differentiated because they had to be counted. In the beginning,
guests were often volunteers, and the two categories of guest and vol-

unteer tended to blend into each other. And clients are not kinswomen.

Guiding Hypothesis Three:
The ideology of the social movement organization will change
over time as the organization seeks to obtain resources and
recruit new members.
This hypothesis needs to be completely rewritten. What this
study has shown is that previous literature has not been sufficiently
concerned with the range of beliefs and levels of consciousness involved
in social movement. In this study ideology has been examined at four
levels: individual identity, definition of the situation, legitimations,
and a sacred canopy or transcendent order of meaning, often but not
always supernatural.
Most of the sociological literature on social movements defines
a movement as a group of people organized around a formal belief sys-
tem (e.g. Smelser, l963), whereas persons writing on the movements of
the 60's (e.g. Kenniston, l968; Freeman, l975) have emphasized the
absence of ideology in those particular movements. In addressing my-
self to these contradictions, I have looked at ideology from the four
levels described in the above paragraph.

Mannheim (l936) emphasizes that every concept contains the

 

 

 

HIM

 

 

 

 

230

crystallization of a group meaning; hence every group develops a
common "definition of the situation." As most frequently used, how-
ever, ideology refers not to this common group definition but to
what Mannheim refers to as "a philosophical credo, a world-view with
well established methods of thought and prescribed conclusions”

(p. 36).

This study has attempted to synthesize various writings on so-
cial movements by relating the development of ideology to the stages
of a social movement. In the first phase of a social movement, per-
sons become aware of dissatisfaction, although the situation creat-
ing such dissatisfaction may have existed for some time. In modern
U.S. society an awareness on the part of many persons may be widely
shared through the mass media, causing a new movement to diffuse
rapidly. Given an awareness of dissatisfaction, we look around for
others with whom we can work toward a new definition of the situa-
tion. It is at this point that social movement organizations arise.

This study deals in part with the natural history of a social
movement organization. I have traced the beginnings of the movement
in Carbondale from 1968 when we had only the glimmerings of what such
a movement was. In our first study group, the Mary Woolstonecraft
Society, we read the sacred writings left over from earlier days as
well as the first publication of the new movement, Friedan's The_
FeminineMystigue (l962). The Feminine Mystique provided us with a
new way of looking at ourselves.

The movement took off in Carbondale, however, only after the

media blitz of January-March, l970. By then a whole rash of books

 

 

 

 

 

 

231

and articles on the feminist movement had appeared, but the gist of
them all was a new definition of the situation and a new identity.
According to the model of communication theory used in this study,
women received this information at a cognitive level and then turned
to face-to-face interaction to internalize it.

It is the argument of this study that women's centers form
places of significant conversation where women can draw apart from

others and validate and extend each other's experience of a new iden-

tity. This relates to the notionthat ideology exists at four levels:

individual identity, definition of the situation, legitimations and

a transcendent order of meaning. In the early stages of a social
movement the belief systems are relatively informal and consist of
statements about identity and perhaps the definition of the situation.
In order to develop more formalized legitimations and a transcendent
order of meaning, as well as to sustain their conversion experience,
members of a nascent social movement must meet together apart from
non-members and engage in significant conversation. Such a place is

a women's center, a place where men are not allowed, where any woman
is welcome. A women's center contains the sacred writings of the
movement; one of the purposes of any women's center is to provide a
library. The center may even hold formal meetings where a philosophi-
cal credo is expounded, and ritual meals may take place.

As I analyse the situation, the Women's Center in Carbondale
functioned both as a women's center and a crisis intervention center,
without any of us being too cognizant of these mixed purposes. The
crisis intervention movement stresses professionalism (with understand-

ing and empathy) in contrast to the women's movement, which stresses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

232

sisterhood which is warm and particularistic. Thus one of the hap-
penings in the Women's Center was a clash of a formalized belief sys-
tem and a less coherent set of beliefs, with professionalism winning
out in part because it was more formalized and legitimized in the
larger society.

Public funding further reinforced the belief system of profesj
sionalism because cost accounting procedures needed to be developed.
Clients had to be differentiated and counted in order to justify
funding, a process that began very early in the history of the Cen-
ter. Funding was also obtained on the premise that one category of
people was helping another more deprived category, a premise which
reinforced a hierarchical structure.

Thus, rather than changing, formal beliefs developed from a
disparate set of vague, half-formulated beliefs. The women who or—
ganized the original Task Force had only the beginnings of a shared
definition of the situation. They believed that women should have
a new place in society, and in developing the Women's Center they
found a way of exploring that new place. Many of us developed new
identities through working in the Center as we developed new skills
and recognized ourselves as new beings.

In addition, we developed legitimations for presentation to
various audiences from whom we needed funding or new recruits. The
images we presented to these audiences in turn produced constraints
on our behavior, which in the long run undoubtedly inhibited our
strategies from becoming more radical.

To an outside observer the ideology of the Center would resemble

the reports of the six blind men concerning the elephant. To the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

233

community at large we presented the image of women helping women in
the service tradition of women's organizations; among ourselves we
maintained the myth of revolutionary activity, that in some magical
way we were undermining society. This revolutionary aspect was
watered down for potential recruits to staff the Center; in relations
with social welfare agencies, we presented an image of professional
expertise.

The conclusion reached by this study is that groups develop a
common "definition of the situation" whether or not they are organ-
ized around a common belief system, and that over time they develop
a formalized set of legitimations and symbolic universe. Social
scientists studying social movements, however, should be aware that
the ideology presented to outside observers may not be the private

belief systems of the members.

Guiding Hypothesis Four:

Conflict within a social movement organization develops
around the need for task specialization in contrast with

the needs for community.

This hypothesis was developed originally from reading Wilson
(l973) who discusses the rewards of community feeling that the indi-
vidual gets from a social movement organization. These are not the
rewards that the women concerned in the Women's Center mention as
important. Iris Anthony reported specifically that she did not re—
ceive feelings of comradeship from her participation in the original
Task Force or as Board Member of the Center. The rewards were task
performance and appreciation for her work.

This is another area where little empirical data exists,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

234

although there is a great deal of theorizing, some of it from crowd
theory. I have marched in demonstrations, e.g. civil rights marches
and peace marches, which have given me a sense of transcendence.
Walking a picket line with a hostile crowd gathering has given me

an exhilerating feeling<rf "communityJ'of being “with my people."

This was never true at any time during my work at the Women's Center.
For me, this was a task.

It may be that a "sense of community" means something different
for women than it does for men who write theories of social movements.
The Women's Center was a household, and a household is where women
perform tasks. A household is where women stay home all day and work,
not a place of retreat to which they come home after a hard day in the
competitive marketplace. When women do work outside the home, recent
surveys show that most of them come home and do more tasks.

This needs to be explored further in research undertakings. The
perception of men and women of a social movement needs to be explored,
as well as their respective roles in the movement. In any political
protest movement women are not necessarily protesting the same things
as men. Generally speaking, the development of formal rhetoric has
been part of the male role in organizations, while women have made the
coffee and typed. Men more often have been movement myth makers.

The central conflict over professionalism and the development
of structure took place because in the Women's Center hostility was
undeflected and unsuppressed. Those of us wanting structure and de-
velopment of a professional attitude wanted to put distance between
ourselves and those whom we were helping. The strain of a shelter

house was incredible because many of our guests were highly disturbed

 

 

 

 

 

 

235

people; the space was crowded, and guests came and went.

It would seem that conflict arises so frequently in social move-
ment organizations because institutionalized structures do not exist
for deflecting hostility. In more conventional organizations, spatial
arrangements and patterns of deference have been established which
serve to diminish and submerge conflict. Thus it would appear that
one factor in the longevity of a social movement would be the ability

to establish arrangements for coping with conflict.

Guiding Hypothesis Five:
Role specialization within the social movement organization
takes place in response to the organization's struggle to
obtain resources and support from the existing structure.
Freeman (l973) has pointed out that unstructured groups may be

very effective as consciousness-raising groups, but that when they

 

 

undertake tasks they flounder around. An alternative to floundering
is to develop formal structure as the Women's Center did. The first
necessity is task coordination, and task leaders, and eventually
specialists with institutionalized roles may develop.

Role specialization develOps in response to both internal and
external pressures related to the struggle tocontrolresources as
well as to obtain them. In the Women's Center, legal incorporation
brought about the specialized roles of members of the Board of Trus-
tees, a legal requirement for incorporation. Incorporation came about
as a response to a felt need for fiscal control. At first the role
was defined as controlling resources but eventually Board Members
came to be defined as specialists in obtaining monetary resources as

well. As structure emerged, the role of members of the Board was

 

 

 

 

 

236

seen as dealing with the external world, leaving internal affairs
to others.

Task specialization within the Center began very early with the
role of volunteer. Specialization in turn demanded coordination. As
new categories of members developed, such as residents and guests,
more coordination was needed.

Role specialization also develops in an effort to routinize
tasks so that information can be transmitted to changing personnel.
Volunteer shifts changed every two hours; the felt necessity to main-
tain continuity brought about written procedures delineating the du—
ties of a volunteer. Changeover in personnel also necessitates writ-
ten job descriptions if continuity is to be maintained.

Another pressure increasing role specialization was the struggle
to obtain power within the Center. Information becomes a resource, and
restricting access to information gives power to those permitted
access. Under the rationale of confidentiality, access to intake
reports on guests was restricted to volunteers. Hence volunteers be-
came a differentiated category with more power.

Clients became further differentiated as a consequence of funding
by outside agencies when accounting procedures had to be adopted. This
is a definite point at which the struggle to obtain resources clearly
produces role specialization.

It seems clear, however, that this hypothesis like several
others places too much emphasis upon outside agencies. The hypotheses
are too simplistically stated. The conclusion reached by this study
would be that the need to obtain resources causes certain internal

pressures which bring about structure. The strategies developed by

 

 

 

 

 

 

237

the movement for obtaining resources have consequences for the inter-
nal structure of the organization. In retrospect this seems obvious,
yet none of the members were aware of the consequences at the begin-

ning.

Guiding Hypothesis Six:

Cohesion in a social movement organization may develop
around shared tasks rather than around a shared system of
beliefs.

This study has demonstrated that the Women's Center was not
organized around a shared system of formalized beliefs such as a creed
but rather on the basis of a rather vague shared definition of the
situation. Although such a shared definition of the situation pro—
vided some cohesion, other sources of cohesion were necessary.

One important focus of cohesion for the Women's Center became
shared tasks. One task we all shared was maintenance of the house-
hold, for example management of a difficult coal furnace. Running
the furnace symbolized our shared definition of the situation in
that making machinery run is typically seen as a man's role. We
proudly proved that we were capable of technological skills, such as
distinguishing clinkers from coals.

As gueSts began to come to the Center, we developed skills
around the process of obtaining welfare benefits for destitute women.
Entering the welfare system entails knowledge. We learned who was
eligible for what benefits, and where to go for emergency and more
permanent aid, and for food stamps. We learned where a woman could
obtain resources such as legal aid and medical and dental care.

We derived an identity from our contacts with outside agencies.

 

 

 

 

 

238

As the Women's Center became a community asset, each of us had a role
as agent of the Women's Center. The Center had representatives on
various community task forces.

Conflict in the Center also focused on tasks. Hostility was
seldom openly expressed over belief systems but was directed at task
performance. Members complained -that other people did not wash their
coffee cups or clean the bathroom. Understanding that squabbling
over task performance may mask more important conflicts is an impor-
tant matter for movement organizations. Inability to solve problems
of division of household labor may result because the group is focus-
ing their problem solving on the wrong problems.

The notion that cohesion develops around shared tasks is an
important understanding for the development of social movement organ—
izations. In attempting to build such an organization, it is impor-
tant to develop tasks for the group members to perform. Social move-
ments are notorious for sectarian splits. One factor in such splits
may be the lack of task orientation with a corresponding focus on
belief systems.

The above conclusions raise yet another paradox present in
social movement organizations. In order to change the world, an or-
ganization must have a strong belief system setting forth the goals
of the organization, and at the same time the emphasis on a belief
system produces sectarian splits. Thus it would seem that a social
movement organization capable of producing social change is an inher-
ently unstable organization, like a volatile chemical. The conclu—
sion to this would be that one could anticipate that an organization

which brings about change is likely either to collapse or to become

 

 

 

 

 

 

239

inert as far as change is concerned.

Guiding Hypothesis Seven:

. As the ideology of a social movement develops as part of
the strategy to obtain resources, different aspects of the
ideology will be emphasized in communication with various
audiences.

The ideology of a social movement develops for several reasons,
for purposes of internal cohesion as well as for stragegy. A social
movement develops around a shared definition of the situation, but
this definition of the situation must be legitimized in the eyes of
members as well as in the eyes of others. The existence of the W0-
men's Center had to be legitimized to outsiders in order to obtain
funds. It was explained to the women who originally pledged money as
a service organization of women helping other women in a traditional
female way.

' We legitimized the Cneter to ourselves on the grounds that it
would bring about social change. The expression of this belief was
suppressed in all public appearances, and my analysis would suggest
that the lack of radical behavior inhibited any further development
of radical beliefs. To social welfare agencies and funding agencies
we presented ourselves as a professional social welfare agency. Try-
ing to work within the system and to obtain resources brought other
changes, inhibiting the development of a radical belief system, pre-
cluded the development of a political analysis which would have pro—
vided some instruction in protesting the system rather than accepting
it.

A vaccuum in the community existed which the Center began to

 

 

 

 

.) 9"" —

 

240

fill, that of a shelter house. As the Center became more successful,
the pressUres of running a shelter house brought about structure and
professionalism. Structure and professionalism in turn produced more
structure and professionalism. The Women's Center had become a legit-

imate social welfare agency.

Practical Applications

This study was written because I wanted to analyze my experiences
in such a way that others could profit from them. My first suggestion
to a group wanting to start a Women's Center would be to define the
group goals carefully and in operational terms. What exactly does the
group want to accomplish?

A central purpose of most women's centers is to provide a place
for significant conversation, where information can be disseminated.
This is an important reason for existence in a struggling social move-
ment, but in my opinion a group concerned with social change should
take political action rather than start a women's center. This action
can be within or outside the system; that is another strategy decision.

A group undertaking a shelter house should understand the polit-
ical implications of what the shelter house means. Alternative insti- p/”
tutions become the means of making the existing system work more smoothly.
This presents a moral dilemma for the organizer: assuaging the suffer-

ings of an individual over against helping the system. The moral dilemma

 

should be confronted, however.
A group setting up a shelter house should make decisions concern—
ing how to balance goals like equality and efficiency. A shelter house

will run more efficiently with a professionalized staff, but the clients

 

 

 

 

 

 

241

are not being helped to grow out of their dependency syndrome.

The question of hostility among participants needs to be con-
fronted from the beginning. A possible solution would be to hold
group sessions at periodic intervals as has been done at Synnanon
(see Yblonsky, 1967) and communities of ex-convicts like X—Kalay and
Delancey Street in San Francisco.

Whatever organization the group undertakes, its longevity will
depend upon tapping into pre-existing networksof material and polit—
ical support. Furthermore the initiating group needs to understand
that support networks will put constraints on the operation of the

organization.

Applications to Theory

This has been a case study for the purpose of developing theory.
At this point what interests me most are the belief systems of a social
movement and the rewards that members derive from a social movement.

Studies have been made of commitment to a belief system on the
presupposition that a rigid belief system exists. VI am now deeply in-
terested in exploring the dimensions of the belief systems of a social
movement.
I My pattern model now looks like this: The original members of
a social movement gather together to develop a new consensual valida-
tion of their definition of the situation. In order for this group
to come together, a pre-existing network of communication must exist
which is co-optable by the movement. The communication network will
be co—optable insofar as the new ideas of the movement are compatible

with the preexisting idea system of the members of the network, a

 

 

 

 

 

242

compatibility which empirical research has shown may be difficult for
the outside observer to predict.

In coming together the members will have no clear goals, only a
vague sense of a shared definition of the situation. After a period
of time, a formal set of legitimations and a sacred canopy will be de-
veloped, at which point cult groups will begin to split off. Cult or
sect groups are always an advanced stage of a social movement and
should be studied within the larger context of the social movement.

It is at the level of a cult or sect group that the rigid belief
system may develop. Often these groups have a charismatic leader in
the Weberian sense, so that devotion to the leader is the cohesive
force of the movement. Kanter (l972) found that nineteenth century
Utopian communities which endured over time were often headed by a

patriarchal figure.

fgture Research_

This study has been merely exploratory in setting up any gener-
alizations. One area which needs exploration is the relationship of
social movements to the existing power structure. In what ways does
the existing structure support and sustain the social movement, and
in what ways does the movement come from a source of counter—vailing
power?

Another study would be the role of women's movement organizations
in becoming service oriented organizations helping to maintain the
structure. A whole new re—writing of sociology would analyze the
efforts of women in maintaining the existing social structure.

A further area of exploration would be the meaning of a social

 

 

 

 

243

movement organization for women as different from men. Most of the
literature on social movements has been written by men, for men, and

about men, e.g. Gurr's book (1970) is called Why Men Rebel. The image

 

of women seems to be that they are home cooking dinner, although in
actuality women have participated in all revolutions (see Rowbotham,
l974).

Another research concern is predictability, although I would
contend that this has been rather deliberately ignored. For some
years now, having observed the social movements of the 60's. I have
been puzzled at the surprise of administrators and others when a riot
breaks out. The fissure has been present all along. Presumably this
blindness comes about because recognition of stresses and strains in
a system would threaten the precarious vision of the administrator.
Given that the role of the administrator is so lethal, it might be-
hoove him to consider human needs, his own and others.

In closing, I want to add a few words about a sociology of
human needs. Perhaps because I am a woman who has changed messy
diapers and managed a household, I think that sociology for too long
has neglected the facts of life. Humans have an organic body with
needs and a psychological entity which has spiritual needs,.for want
of a better term. Most sociological theory is written on the basis
of cognition, as if all humans were merely brains floating in amniotic
fluid. I want this study to be one small step in the direction of a

sociology of humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

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x... _

 

 

 

 

 

 

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