The effect of political generation on identity and social change: Age cohort consequences

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore how political generation affects the ways in which diverse individuals come together and change their social and personal identities. Drawing on 52 in-depth interviews with members of the Red Hat Society, we show that women draw on their political generation, and the gains of the women’s movement specifically, to oppose cultural constructions of aging. The Red Hat Society provides a “free space” for women to foster a collective identity that both visibly challenges aging norms and provides its members new standards for self-approval. We conclude by highlighting the importance of focusing on political generation to understand collective action over the life course and call for more scholarship on the function of political generation in social change.

KEYWORDS:

• Age identity
• generational change
• social movement participation

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to several graduate and undergraduate students who aided in the data collection, including Laura Cantwell, Sarrah Conn, Dericka Hudson, Jessica Kemper, Manacy Pai, and Audris Solomon. Additionally, we thank Jill Quadagno, Jo Reger, Nancy Whittier, and Judy Taylor for their feedback. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2009 American Sociological Association Meeting in San Francisco.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Department of Sociology, the College of Social Science, and the Committee of Faculty Research Support at Florida State University. Some of the data for this project was collected as a collaborative effort with Anne Barrett.

Notes

1. Free spaces are “… the environments in which people are able to learn a new self-respect, a deeper and more assertive group identity, public skills, and values of cooperation and civic virtue. Put simply, free spaces are settings between private lives and large scale institutions where ordinary citizens can act with dignity independence and vision” (Evan & Boyte, 1992, p. 17).

2. Whittier’s work (1997) is an exception in this regard. She uses qualitative data on the Columbus, Ohio, feminist movement to outline how different cohorts of activists define themselves relative to “older” cohorts in the same movement.

3. To be clear, we are not arguing that women must challenge aging stereotypes in order to be culturally or politically effective. The Raging Grannies, for example, effect change by embracing stereotypes and using them to challenge everything from homelessness to environmental degradation (Roy, 2004, 2007; Sawchuk, 2009). Our point is that age-based organizations can also effect individual and collective change by offering new standards of self-approval that women adopt and spread through broader culture.

4. The Red Hat Society does allow women under 50 to join the organization as “pink hats,” who wear pink hats and lavender clothing until their 50th birthday.

5. This number only includes registered members. Registered RHS members must pay a nominal membership fee, which was $20.00 for supporting members and $39.00 for chapter leaders, who are called “Queens,” at the time of this study. The organization’s Web site currently reports that the society has more than 40,000 chapters around the world (www.redhatsociety.com).

6. This text was available on the organization’s Web site from 2005 to 2009, the years in which this research was conducted. The text on the Web site has since been changed.

7. Accessed November 1, 2012, at www.redhatsociety.com/aboutus/Legacy.html

8. Red Hat members who switched chapters most often cited inconvenient meeting times as the cause.

9. The process of constructing identity boundaries did create tension between middle-aged Pink Hatters and Red Hatters. Many Red Hatters subjected their younger members to the same treatment that they fought against. For example, Red Hatters often ignored or spoke over Pink Hat members. In fact, the authors were ignored at several Red Hat events until they had established their identities as researchers rather than Pink Hat members. In the most extreme instance, the lead researcher, who was invited to attend the monthly meeting of the chapter leaders, was completely ignored until she was able to identify herself as a professor. One of the members exclaimed, “Oh! I thought you were a Pink Hat trying to horn in on our meeting.” In short, while the Red Hat permits women under 50 to join, very young pink hats (e.g., girls under 18) are the most welcome.

10. These changes were not always regarded as universally positive. For example, politically conservative women expressed concern over the “breakdown” of the nuclear family and the consequences for children. Likewise, some women were uncomfortable with other women taking on leadership positions in their church.

11. Garner (1999) notes that storytelling is critical to the empowerment of older women. Likewise, social movement scholars discuss the importance of narratives to mobilization and social and political change (Isaac, 2012; Meyer & Rohlinger, 2012; Polletta, 1998).

12. Identity politics refers to “the belief that identity itself—its elaboration, expression, or affirmation—is and should be a fundamental focus of political work” (Kauffman, 1990, p. 67). Identity politics politicized areas of life that were previously not considered political, such as sexuality, lifestyle, and culture. For a review of identity politics, see Bernstein (2005).

13. This argument is consistent with those made by feminist scholars noting that the female body is an important site for social resistance (for examples, see Bordo, 2003; Pitts, 1998).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Department of Sociology, the College of Social Science, and the Committee of Faculty Research Support at Florida State University. Some of the data for this project was collected as a collaborative effort with Anne Barrett.