Gougon, Danielle. Explaining inaction: feminist organizational responses to new reproductive technologies. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3GX4BW2
DescriptionUnderstanding what motivates groups to act has been central to the study of interest groups. Scholars have also detailed the means by which groups act on the issues they have decided to pursue. However, explanations of why groups fail to act remain rare. Not much attention has been given to explaining why groups fail or choose not to pursue particular courses of action when it would seem reasonable to do so or why groups view some issues as appropriate for action while other, similar issues fall by the wayside.
This study examines feminist organizations' failure to respond to the next generation of challenges to the contemporary feminist movement: new reproductive technologies. I ask, "How can we understand the lack of feminist organizations' activity on new reproductive technologies given the centrality of these issues to the contemporary feminist movement and the impact that they have had on women and society as a whole?" Using interview data from seven prominent feminist organizations, this study explores how organizations decide what issues make it onto their agendas and the influence that issue salience, political opportunity, policy entrepreneurship, and resource mobilization have on an organization's agenda-setting practices. This study also provides greater insight into the significant impact that feminist reproductive discourse of rights and choice has on defining, even constraining, feminist organizations' agendas and politics.