Diane asked, “are women’s organizations deviant, either now or when they first originated?” My response is that they might be now but they were not when they originated.
I was thinking about this when I wrote Feminism is About Choice Not Obligation. It is all about developmental progression and the maturing of an organization.
Bra-burning, picketing, striking, yelling, screaming is developmentally appropriate in the infancy of a movement, but as that movement grows and becomes more sophisticated, such youthful activism seeded in an organization with a multi-million-dollar endowment and a PAC might be inappropriate to the mission of the more mature movement.
So, yes, extreme behavior in a mature movement and its sophisticated organizations is deviant.
That said, no, most women’s organizations are not deviant.
Most women’s organizations are mature, political, effective, powerful, and influential.
