Out of the Parlors and into the Streets: The Changing Tactical Repertoire of the U.S. Women's Suffrage Movements

In this article, McCammon examines the forces behind major changes in social movement communication strategies. The current trend is to suggest that these changes in strategy are a function of organisational readiness and political opportunities, but her study of the women's suffrage movement's decision to begin using parades in the early 20th century points to other reasons behind tactical shifts. The evidence suggests several other features: the diversity of organisations within movements, the level of decentralisation within organisations, the existence of conflict between members, engagement in fundraising activities, and experiences with significant political defeats. She concludes that these are all likely to precipitate change.

Movements' collective identities are in many ways defined by their choice of tactics and strategies. The characteristics of a movement are essential determinants of the likelihood of change within an organisation, but some factors are much stronger influences than others. In exploring these relationships, McCammon examines the development and role of the suffrage parade as a means of claiming public space and making political statements. Parades constituted a form of mass communication during this time period and were not yet widely known as a social movement tactic in America. It is her goal to understand what causes movements to adopt such public approaches.

The dominant "separate-sphere" ideology of the time excluded women from most forms of political activity and the parade represented a relatively dramatic change from the efforts of the previous generations of suffragettes. For most of the 19th century, the movement mainly consisted of meetings and associations between relatively small groups of like-minded women and discrete public lobbying of politicians. After some successes at the state level in the 1890s (suffrage was granted in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho during this period) the movement stalled. This led to an increasing frequency in open-air meetings and soapbox speeches in the very early 1900s. These were soon followed by a far more radical development with the mass parade, the first of which was held in California in 1908. These parades attracted the attention of the press and allowed women to present their issues in a public forum while maintaining dignity and demonstrating considerable resolve.

To answer the question of why this shift occurred the author has a complex and detailed model for testing the influence of specific movement characteristics, political and social features and diffusion processes.

Movement Characteristics - There are many potential movement characteristics that can cause shifts to occur in strategy. One of the first factors is the diversity of organisations within a movement. This can include the existence of multiple chapters, splinter groups, or other entirely independent organisations that may share a common goal but disagree with approaches and strategy. Such diversity will contribute to more innovation and will allow members to select the organisation that will allow them to best express their opinions. This will contribute to greater discussion and debate and lead to the development and usage of a wider range of tactics. A second but related measure is the degree to which the organisational structure of the movement is decentralised. Organisations with hierarchical, bureaucratic decision-making are less flexible and less likely to adopt new approaches. Furthermore, movements with "overt conflict" among their members are also more likely to turn to new strategies, and may become especially radicalised as a result of desires for various members to differentiate themselves.

Other important features that contribute to shifts in movement tactics are likely to include resource availability and readiness in key areas. The staging of parades was, for example, dependent on funds for large advertising and notification drives as well as for material for signs, banners, hats and other protest supplies. Larger movements are obviously more likely to be able to provide such material than smaller organisations, and those that are engaged in fundraising are also more likely to secure such resources.

Political and Social Circumstances - McCammon believes that it is political defeats rather than political success that spur movements to experiment with new tactics and approaches. This is in contrast to much of the literature that she discusses, which suggests that successful groups will feel that they have more room to move when they are gaining ground. Rather, McCammon thinks that new tactics are likely to be adopted when movement members become frustrated and find that their current repertoire is ineffective in achieving their goals and advancing their position. McCammon also tests several theories that suggest that the development of new tactics was responsive to current political shapes and currents - for example, other observers have suggested that evenly balanced legislatures (between Democrats and Republicans), or the presence of strong third parties would be likely to encourage tactic shifts. The presence of women professionals and those with higher educations is also considered to be a possible driver change.

Diffusion Processes - McCammon also examines the role of diffusion processes as a driver behind the first use of the parade. She sought to examine whether or not the presence of parade activity in a neighbouring state was more likely to spill across the border and inspire local suffragists. Diffusion may have occurred in other ways, and she has attempted to gauge the impact of the presence of British suffragettes, many of whom were touring the United States during this period and who had been using the parade back home for some time. Furthermore, the influence of the national suffragette movement is likely to be a powerful force for the diffusion of parades. The Washington parades were some of the largest and received a great deal of attention because of their political centrality. National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) leaders began to call for nation-wide parades on May Day in 1914, which added strong impetus to the movement and use of the tactic.

The methods and data selection for this study are extensively detailed by McCammon in her article, and it is unfortunate that space limitations prevent them from being properly presented in this summary. The dependent variable measured the incidence of the first suffrage parade in a state and was based on an examination of 44 states, 2 having been excluded for lack of data and another 4 because full voting rights were established within them before 1905 (the beginning of the period of study). There are 19 independent variables tested, each falling into one of the three categories previously noted. Two separate regression models were used initially, followed by a third test using only those variables that were found to be significant. The data was drawn from over 650 secondary documents on state suffrage movements as well as a host of material from both state and national archives and the archives of the NAWSA.

The results of McCammon's study provide wide support for her theories of tactic change on the part of the suffrage movements and contradict the theories and conclusions of several other researchers. Her statement of findings is as follows:



"The results reveal two things. The first is that movements that are organisationally heterogeneous, that have state associations that are organisationally decentralised or that experience conflict among members are more likely to develop a new strategic approach. A movement that is simply organisationally ready, however, is not necessarily prompted to change its techniques of action. Second, political defeats rather than political opportunities are more likely to cause a tactical shift."



In addition to finding strong support for the impact of organisational diversity, decentralisation, and conflict among suffragettes as precursors to tactical change, the results revealed that the presence of fundraising activities was also a significant determinant of parade activity. Of the diffusion measures, only the influence of NAWSA demonstrated any significant impact on the likelihood of protests occurring. Furthermore, she notes that many parades were not precipitated by significant open-air speeches or soapbox demonstrations suggesting that the decision to move to such public tactics came quite spontaneously and was not part of a gradual shift in strategy. Nor were any of the political opportunity measures significant (e.g. political competition, or third-party presence).

McCammon believes that the outcome of this study has value for both historical and contemporary analysis of social movements. She suggests that her model may be developed to a point where it may have a predictive ability to determine when and possibly to which tactics social movements may turn - not only to parades but to other more extreme versions of protest as well. Thus more research is needed to determine whether this model - focusing on movement diversity, decentralisation, and divisiveness - applies to other movements as well and can be used to better understand and predict movement change.