The role of gender in social movement engagement and field development

Prior studies have widely recognized the ability of social movement organizations (SMOs) to develop new institutional fields, assuming that they sustain their members’ engagement. In this research, I examine how efforts by female SMO members to facilitate fellow movement participants’ continuous engagement can ironically discourage such engagement. I introduce the concept of a gender offset, in which participants avoid further engagement in the movement to compensate for perceived deviation from gender expectations. Empirically, I study the case of the first national movement association for bird conservation in the US between 1889 and 1920. I test and find quantitative support for gender offset using an event count analysis of individual contributions, by article count, to the movement’s bimonthly magazine, which shared the movement’s issues and vision with the public. I find that the more women used new technology to disseminate the SMO’s views and took on leadership roles within the organization, the fewer contributions their fellow members made to the magazine. Visual cues linked to masculine qualities of women’s strategic action were especially likely to discourage contributions from fellow female participants, which I suggest is a response to the potential costs of being associated with a movement that allows such deviance from gender expectations. The results of this study advance our understanding of the role that gender plays in social movement engagement and field development.