Making sense of a gendered context: The Arts and Crafts movement in Victorian England

Opportunity structure is often regarded as the primary movement context, emphasizing how
changes within it drive mobilization and enable movement organizations to strategically
create cultural resonance. However, existing scholarship tends to overlook that the
opportunity structure is situated within a broader hegemonic context, in which movement
organizations are also embedded. Focusing on the British Arts and Crafts movement from
1888 to 1931, which was part of the early Socialist movement against industrialization and
was embedded in Victorian ideals of gender, I examine how the Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Society (ACES), the ‘public face’ of the movement, made sense of its participants’ work
within this nested context. A content analysis of artwork described by the ACES reveals that
individual participants’ innovation against industrialization was legitimized within the
hegemonic context, including the sexual division of labor and the neutralization of perceived
gender deviation in artwork. Consequently, the movement spurred by progressive agendas
was molded to fit conservative gender ideals. These insights deepen our understanding of the
nested nature of movement contexts and highlight gender as the hegemonic context,
influencing both the movement itself and the art world