ABSTRACT
Three women and two men sat around a small conference room table on a cold November day. As students at a midwestern commuter university, some of them had discussed inequalities in their coursework. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over one-third of women have experiences of sexual violence and almost one in five have survived rape or attempted rape. At the same time, the gender revolution is fiercely resisted. Whitmer faced significant resistance and misogyny, including death threats and a kidnapping plot that resulted in the conviction of several men. When sociologists study social movements, they focus on movement activists and leaders rather than the spread of movement ideology, practices, and language throughout society and culture, leaving everyday experiences as a theoretical and empirical “black box.” The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
