Bending with the Wind: Strategic Change and Adaptation by Women's and Racial Minority Organizations

This article provides an integrated analysis of social movement organizational change and survival based on the activities of national women's and racial minority organizations during 1955‐‐85. Results demonstrate that core transitions in social change strategies are influenced in contradictory ways by the social movement environment. Older and more formalized movement organizations are more flexible, but the kinds of changes undertaken are not necessarily conservative. The benefits of transformation are limited, however, and organizational change increases the risk of failure with little evidence of a declining effect over time. In the long run, this shapes the organizational system in ways that potentially improve its legitimacy but may also limit the development of an infrastructure for future mobilization.