Sex Roles in Social Movements: A CaseStudy of the Tenant Movement in

New York City

Ronald r awson and Stephen E. Barton

Many recent studies have documented the presence of sexism in Amer!can society, charted the oppressive impact of discrimination againstwomen, and traced its sources.l so ubiquitous is sexism, and so pervasivethe engines supporting it, that, ironically, its trace may be foúnd evenwithin movements for social justice. A literature is now developing thatdescriþs the part women have played in social movements-aná thesexism they encountered there. This is largely descriptive, focusing onthe ideological interchange'between party leadershþ and feminists.2

This paper is a product of the Tenant Movement Study, an interdisciplinary research

Project suPported by the Center firr Metropolitan Studies of the National Institure ofMenal Health and conducted through the Center for Policy Research. Focusing primarilyon New York city, the study includes a systematic analysis of the contemporary tenanrmovement as well as a historical examination of organized tenant activity since 18g0. Thefrndings ofthe study are planned ro appear in two volumes by Ronald Lawson and otherstentarively titled From"Tenant Rebellion" ¿o "støteui¿e Rent control": The Eulutinn of the Ten-ont Mouentent in Neu York State, 1904-1979 and Rent Slrikes and Tenønt Tahe-oaer.s: TenantActivitl and the urban Housing crüis in Natt Yorh city. The authors wish to thank Jennaweissman Joselit, Joseph spencer, Jody Dworetzky, and John Mcloughlin for their partsin collecting and providing historical data; Jo curran for her help in preparing the surveydata for analysis; and candace Kim Edel for editing. we found rhe comments of MyraMarx Ferree, wagner Thielens, carol Mueller, and Maren Lockwood carden especiallyhelpful as we struggled to conceptualize the issues. However, responsibility for the paperas it appears rests solely with the authors.

l. An excellent review of the literature is Carolyn Etheridge, .,The Dynamics ofchanging sex-Roles: An Integrated rheoretical Analysis" (paper presented at the meetingof the American sociological Association, lg74), and "Equality in the Family: comparativãAnalysis and rheoreticaÌ Model," IntenntionalJournql of womm's stu.dies | (lg7g): b0-63.

2. See, e.9., Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Wo¡nen's Rights Moaement in rheunited states (New York: Atheneum Publishers, l97l); Maren Lockwood carden, "TheNew Feminisr Movemenr in the u.s." (paper presented at the Eighth world congress ofSociology, 1975); Mari Jo Buhle, "Women and rhe Socialist party, l90l-lgl4,', Radicat

[Sigr: Joumal of WoM in Cultur¿ aad Sor¡?t 1990, vol.6, no.2]@ I 980 by The University of Ch kago. 0097--92+Ole VOOOZ-OOO tiOt.OO

230

Sig Winter 1980 231

Lacking still are analyses of the means by which the sexism of the largersociety reproduces itself within social movements whose aim has been toliberate people from societal oppression. This paper attempts to followRobert Michels, whose l9l5 study of the forces leading to oligarchy inthe German socialist movement pioneered the sociological analyses ofthe internal difficulties of progressive movements.s The vehicle foranalysis is an urban phenomenon, the tenant movement, the crusade forthe recognition of tenants' rights to security within well-maintainedhousing at reasonable rents in New York City since I904. Over time , thetenant movement has evolved a complex structure existing at threelevels: building organizations (BOs), neighborhood organizations (NOs),and city- or statewide federations, Women pioneered as rhe organizersof protest in their buildings and took the lead in helping to spread itfrom building to building. Men, however, were at the forefront when thehigher levels of the structure first emerged. They .have also usually beenthe leaders of organizations initiating new strategies at these higherlevels.a This pattern has occurred in spite of the presence of a clearmajority of women in almost all organizations at every structural level.Nevertheless, once new structures or strategies have emerged, womenhave assumed more leadership positions. That is, women, in the fore-front of organizing a grass-roots movement that has had a rather longhistory have been a major force in building and then keeping the move-ment going. This finding runs counter to the general view of women asapolitical, following their men's wishes, relying on their men heavily, oreven never involving themselves in activities rhat cannot be immediatelyconnected to family life.s

We do not mean to imply that the tenant movement has been led bycrass male chauvinists who "put down" women daily while working witir

America 4, no.2 (February 1970): 3&-55; Robert Schaffer, "Women and the C<¡mmunrstParty, USA," Soci.alist Reaieu 45 (May-June 1979): 73-ll8; Phillip Foner,Women,anÅ theAn¿ericanLa.borMovetr,entfromColoni,alTimes to the Eae of World,Wør I (NewYork: Free Press,1979); Sheila Rowbotham, Hiddcnfrotn Hisnry (London: Pluto Press, 1974), and Women,Resàstatue and Reaolulion (New York: Vintage Books, lg74).

3. Robert Michels, Political Parties: A Socioloþcal Stuþ of the Okgarchical Tend,encies ofModern Democracl (New York: Free Press, lg62).

4. We use the term "leader(s)" to refer to the spokesperson(s) and main decisionmaker(s) for a social movement organization. Often this is a single person bearing a formaltitle; sometimes the term refers best to a group of from two to four people. Our fieldworkindicates that the numbers deserving to be so designated rarely exceed four. By the "ac-tivists" or "active core" (terms we use interchangeably) we mean the group of people in anorganization who do most of the work-organizing, publicity, advising of tenants, erc. Thisgroup includes the leader(s) and extends beyond him/her (them) to include less prominenrparticipants. However, it is ofæn not coextensive with those holding official positions. Thesize of the active core is most frequently between three and six persons; in some cases itmay include as many as a dozen or more persons. The term "secondary leaders" is used torefer to those members of the active core who are not spokespeisons or main decisionmakers.

5. Jane S, Jaquette, Wom¿n in Polltics (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974).

232 La,uson and Barton Sex Roles in Social Moaements

them. Indeed, the reverse is generally the case: most of the men have agenuine concern for social justice, and the concept of sexism within themovement is quite foreign to them. When we have mentioned the sex-role patterns within the movement, they have often been surprised thatwe could frnd them remarkable. Many of the women activists wouldagree in this response. This paper is concerned, then, with a subtleprocess that has had a profound impact on leadership patterns and thedivision of labor within the movement.

Research Methods

The data for this paper were collecred using a combination of threemethods. Historical research on rhe period 1890-1972 drew on city andlocal press, city and state government archives, tenant organization rec-ords as available, and extensive oral history. Fieldwork covered the threemain federations extensively from 1973 io 1g78, the orher four in lessdetail, and twenty-five neighborhood and forty building organizationsduring 1973-75. There was considerable follow-up of these organiza-tions and extension of freldwork to others newly important after theinit ial period. surveys in 1975-76 broadened coverage to the readers andkey activists of 123 neighborhood organizations and leaders, members,and nonmembels within 108 organized buitdings rogetlìer with theirlandlords; the leaders of 120 other buildings were added later. Thissample represents almosr all the neighborhood groups acrive in rgTb-76whose central purpose was to organize tenants together with a sample ofthirty-six oEO-funded housing agencies, most of which mainly seivicedtenants rather than organizing them. The leaders of the buildings wereinterviewed twice, the second time one year after the first in oider tocheck the outcome of their actions and their organization survival rates.When most of the actions proved to be still in process, a new sample ofbuildings, each organized mbre than rwo years earlier, was diawn,twenty from the frles of each of six important organizations from verydifferent neighborhoods, and the leaders of all these were inrerviewed.

Historical Summary

The first episode of tenant acrivism in New york City occurred in1904. sharply increasing rents provoked isolated rent strikes on theLower East Side which women then spread from building to buildinguntil 2,000 families were parricipating. organization was initially in-formal, relying on networks among these Jewish people. However, whenrapid mobilization revealed the issue's potential, an umbrella organiza-tion, the first No, was formed by male members of the socialist party.This, however, collapsed before the strike culminated with gains totenants.

Sig Winter I9g0 2ij

. The next, larger', burst of activity in r g0z-g foilowed a similar path:the organizers were women, the wourd-be No readers sociarist men. Athird, mlgfr_longe., ulg larger wave of activity was initiated by "tenantleagues," Nos formed by sociarisr parry branéhes after 1917. It curmi-nated with the imposition of renr controls in 1920. Again rhe organizerswere mainly women, but the leaders of both the leägues and of theirrivals, "tenant associations" sponsored by the mainl"ine parties, weremales. However, during the I920s when the associatioås continuedalone, helping tenants use the compricated new raw, women becameprominenr as No leaders for the firsi time. The associations lapsed withthe renr law in 1929.

Numerous NOs reemerged in the wake of the depression, focusingg".th-: housing decay that accompanied high uu.ur,.y rates. Women,including some leaders,, predominated amoäg participants. But whenthe first federation was formed in 1936, all thJráade.rï.r. men. How-ever, with time, women moved into prominent positions. In rg42, whenwar removed the male leaders, a woman becamé president. Three broadfederations then emerged after world war II to lobby for the retenrionof wartime rent controls. Men red ail of them. Howeuer, when thesefederations were dismantred in the early 1950s folrowing túe passage ofstate rent controls and the onset of Mccarthyit" r.pr"rõiorr, movementleadership

_reverted to boroughwide organizations, ail of which hadwomen leaders. women arso dominated the new "save-our-Homes,,or-ganizations in neighborhoods threatened by urban renewal. when afederation, the Metropolitan council on Hôusing (Met council), wasformed in 1959 to lobby against urban renewal, a triumvirate of two menand one woman was chosen to lead it.

Meanwhile, housing cònditions had reappeared as a cenrrar issue inghetto areas. In the winter of 1963-64 a rent sirike spread outward fromHarlem' Though still known as the 'Jesse

Gray råt srrike,,, after theman who acted as spokesperson, it was

".t,ruíly run by ,*o l"o*"rr.

women also predominated on ^the citywide strike cooráinating com-

mittee. During the years that followeã, "Housing Specialists,, fundedunder the

_antipovefiy program appeared in gnËttJ "r."r.

Whu,.u..their_sex, they administrateã g.rr.iátty rrrradveiturous programs. TheMet council was also broadeniãg its inierests and consolidati"rrg its posi_tion as a citywide federation of tãnant organizations. Jane Benedict hadbeen appointed chairperson, repracing th"e original rr'í,r-uiru,.. she hasdominated it for ovei eighteen y.".r."

The C ontemporary Moaemmt

since 197 l, tenanr action in New york city has swelred consid-, ïîlY. Y]TT3tlt "tery

neighborhood now has at leãstone renanr organi-' zÀtron, and thousands of buildings have organized and conducted-rent

2t4 Lawson and Ba,rton Sex Roles in Social Moaements

strikes. The spectrum of socioeconomic status (SES) within the move-ment has also broadened considerably. The range of tenant strategieshas diversified and now includes an effective robbying presence in thestate legislature, tenant-initiated court cases, the direðt ixpenditure ofrent moneys on repairs, the management and moderate rehabil itation ofbuildings abandoned by their landlords, the gut rehabilitation of totallyabandoned buildings through "sweat equity" by would-be tenants, rhefostering of cooperarive ownership of their buildings by low-income ten-ants, and a number of different foims of rent strike. The structure ofthe movement has developed commensurately: there are now onestatewide, four citywid.:-"r9 two boroughwide federations. They repre-sent tenants with dissimilar housing problems and of differing socioãco-nomic- starus; they also stress somewhat distinct strategies.

However, certain historical patterns have continued to hold. Themovement is still largely a movement of women in the sense that theymake up most of the participanrs. our rgTb-76 survey results show thatwomen considerably outnumber men among grassroots members: 63.4percent of Nos report that the majority of their members are women,only 3.2 percent that the majority are men. (The remainder indicateequaì numbers.) Among core activists, women outnumber men at alllevels. However, the situation is different when readers are separatedfrom other activists: the higher the structural level, the more l ikely areleaders to be male (see tables I and 2).

significant variations occur within this panern depending on the

Tabte I

sex of core Activists at Different t"ïi:ïr" Levels of the Movement, 1976-77

WomenSexes equalMen

Table 2

sex of Leaders at Difference.strucrural Levers of the Movement, 1976-77(%)

Building Neighborhood(N = 107) (N = n0)

Both sexes coleaders

54.222.423.4

Men

48.2r6.4J Ð . 5

Building(N = t08)

Federation( N = 7 )

50.923. r25.9

7 t . 414.314.3

Neighborhood(N = 123)

40.78.9

50.4

Federation( N = 7 )

28.6

7 r .4

Siglu Wi'nter 1980 235

SES of the tenants. In general, the higher the income of tenants beingorganized or served, the greater the likelihood that leaders are male. Wedivided organizations among three categories according to the averageincome of their membership or clientele: less than $8,000 per family( low income), $8,000-$12,500 (moderate income), and more than

$12,500 (middle income). Among BOs, although women are in themajority among both leaders and core activists at all income levels, theirpredominance decreases as income rises. At the neighborhood level,where there are more male leaders, a small female plurality amonglow-income groups is transformed into a clear male preponderanceamong the heads of middle-income groups (see tables 3 and 4).

While obtaining continous historical data concerning the leadershipof NOs and federations presented few serious obstacles, similar data forBOs were inevitably much more patchy. We do know that the f'ormationof BOs in large numbers among middle-income tenants is a recentphenomenon, and that these BOs are much more l ikely to be led by men.Since the press was consistent in reporting that women led action inbuildings during the early years of the movement, we would infer fromthese data that the proportion of male leaders in BOs has probably in-creased in recent years. Similarly, the formation of NOs in middle-

Table 3

Sex of Leaders of Building "n*,¿i:l,i:.,.;;3'"r

to the Average Income of

Vo)

236 Lawson a,nd Barton Sex Roles in Socia,l Moaements

income communities has no doubt srowed the overall trend toward lead_ership by women at this level of the movemenr srructure.

Part of the variation.in participation by sex among income groupsmay

¡efl^e9t the larger politicar rore which women play in the black com-munity.6 Blacks are strongry represented among ìo*-irr.o*. organiza-tions but far ournumbered among middle-in.ã-" orgunizations (seetable 5).7 However,, the historical crata make it unlikely tñat this accounrsfor all the variation b::*::"_1l.ome groups, since most of the groups westudied in the pre-world war II þeriod were predominan"try white.Moreover, while the proportion of women leadårs among black row-income organizations is greater than for other raciar group; the leader-ship patternr..u.9.tg organizations of alr races are congruent with thegeneral SES distributions we have described. For.*"-pË, sixteen out ofninereen whire NOs have male leaders in the middle_income caregory,but only two of four in the low-income category

. . Despite these generar patterns, some of ih" .nort prominent readers

within the tenant movement are women. Fo, example, Jane Benedict,slong rule over the Met council and her numerous appearances on terevi-sion and radio as the outspoken champio., of t.rrunt rights have madeher the best-known tenant reader in Nèw york city toaãy. The generalpatterns musr also be modified by anotrrer facror that.rri, acrosi them:men tend to hold the leadership positions when new paths are beingpicnee.red, especially wrren thesè rlquire the deveropmerrt of coopera-tive relationships with formal organizations such as iegislatures, uarrks,courts, and government bureaucracies. such cooperatle rerationships,frequer-rtly achieved as the resurt of confl ictuar strategies, -u/î. .nu.u.-ter ized as "conf l ic tual cooperat ion." However, once the new re-

TabLe 5

Rat:e of Neighborhood "1fXïi:ïilili.i;;3irr.

the Average rncome of

Tabl¿ 4

Sex of Leaders of Neighborhood Organizations according to the Average L,.orr,. ofMembership, 1976-77

(7o)

l,ow(N = 23)

65.21 3 . 09 1 1

Average Income

Men

Moderate(N = 22)

54.52 7 . 3' | R 9

l,owW = 7 3 )

Midd le(N : 36)

5 2 . 81 9 . 42 7 . 8

47.9t 1 . 04 l . l

Average Income

Moderate(N = 15)

26.71 3 , 360.0

Midd le(N : 23)

17.44 .3

78.3

Whi reBlackHispan i cM ixed

6' curt Laml¡, por¿ti¿ar power in poor Neighborhoods (New york: schenkman pubrishingCo. , 1976) .

7. We identified an organization as a particular race if two_thirds or more of itsmembers were of that race; other organizations were identified as mixed race. Almost all ofthe latter had strong black components.

l,ow(N = 70)

Ð , I

2 7 . l31 .4J 5 . I

Average Income

Moderate(N = l 5 )

46.720.0

o . /

26.7

Middle(N = 23)

82.64 .30

r 3 .0

Signs winter 1980 232

Iationships, structures, and/or strategies have been accepted, womenhave been likely to replace male leaders who drop out., For example, in the mid-1970s a number of Nos be¡çan clevelopingnew tactics to save or reclaim builcl ings from abandon.rì.nt, moderatãrehabil itation, swear-equity rehabil itation, the forming of low-incomecooperatives. These groups deal with very poor tenantJ, the very rangewhere. the majority of Nos are women leà; but sixteen of the'tweniyorganizations now using these strategies are led by men. Another.exam-ple is organizarions founded during rhe 1970s in fourteen middìe-income groups based in la_rge housing developmenrs, that is, builcrings orgrorFs of bu-ildings with from 3,000 to 60,000 renanrs in one placeì"ithone landlord. These had never been .rganized unti l recently, but thethreat of for-ced condominiu- .onu.rrion or massive rent increasesmobilized them. Twelve of the fourteen are led by men.

The exceptions show that women can and do lead organizations thatrequire skil ls in dealing with bureaucracies; however, t"hey have been

. unlikely to do so init ially. on the other hand, women are in ihe majorityamong the leaders of

.Nos folìowing the more traditional stratãgies:those. foste¡i-ng rent strikes (thirteen *o*e.r, eleven men), opposing-de_molit ion of buildings fo¡ re-development and instituti""ãt .*p".,sion-the successors to those who fought urban renewal in the 1950s ånd 1960s(six women, 'o men), and mai' ly or sorely servicing individual tenanrs(twenty-one women, fourteen men).

Nevertheless, with the passage of time the new strategies have beenincorporared more frequently in the repertoires of Nos Ëa by women,as the pattern that has been isolated wourd predict. The leadeís of Nosthat encourage striking tenants who are being stonewalled by landlordsto spend their rent monies directly on fuer ãnd/or repairså decisionthat is often tantamount ro-accepting de facto ,.rponribil i ty for manag-ing the building-are evenly divided berween men and women. severalwomen leaders a¡,e successfully managing city-owned buildings undercommunity management contracts betwien their Nos and the citv(among the twenty NOs with such contracts, frve managemen, progru-,are headed by women). And because most Nos ha-ve a m4oiity ofwomen. among their activist cores, sweat-equity rehabilitatio¡¡8-¿ 5¡¡2¡-egy which would seem to demand traditionally male skills-ofren findswomen working in building construction along with men on an equalbasis.

This pattern' where mares occupy readership positions whire newdirections are evolving and femare, ã.. -or. rifely to rake ovei oncethese become establisheg,^uy also be i l lustrated structurally. The majorstructural innovation of the lg70s has been the .-..g.r.á of multiþle

8' under this strategy.tenants gain equity in a previously abandoned buirdingthrough

.volunteering their labor ("sweat") in iti retrabiiitation. duch a building is thencooperatively owned and manaqed.

238 Lawson ønd Barton Sex Roles in SociøI Moaen¿ents

federations. These reflect the mobilization of new constituencies amongtenants with different problems and the consequent need to introducenew strategies. The original leaders of six of thi seven federations weremales, or in one case a mare majority within a triumvirate. The oneexce.ption, city-wide save-our-Homes, a coalit ion of Nos fighting de-molit ion because of institutional expansion, was really forinded formutual support rather than with specihc bureaucrati. turg.t, in view. Alrfour cases of leadership succession at this level where a chänge of sex wasinvolved have been from male to femare; two especially ñotable onesoccurred early in 1979, As a resuk of these chan$es, twâ and one-halfof the three most important federations, and thrãe and one-half of allseven federations, are now led by women.

Analysis

Most tenant leaders are so embuecr with goodwill and idearism, andthe prejudices associated with sexism so foreign to their consciousness,that it is_tempting to explain the movement's-participation patrerns interms of inrernal processes, where femare personariiy variåbles alrowmales to come to dominate leadership.o*p"ìit iorr. However, the actualroles of the female organizers and thé strenþth they display in them leadus to rejecr this. A combination of the impact oi structúral variables,infringing on the movement from without, ând sex-role socialization is amore parsimonious explanation, which we now wish to explore in moredetail by addressing rhree quesrions.

l' why are wornen predominant among orgønizers, other acti,e þartùi-þønts,,and rank-and-f,le members, so that thelenant rnoaenent has been numri-cally largely a movement of women?

An awareness of the division between home and community on theone hand.and workplace on the other is vital to an understanding of theparticipation parterns we found. The home is regarded as prima-rily thesphere of the womán ¡ather than of the man. Coñseqrr.rt ly, when a rentincrease or a deterioration in.services impinges on thã home, it is usuallythe woman's task to dear with it since ìt l ies within her sphere. Thispattern holds true more frequently in working-class than in middle-classhouseholds because of the greater separariot äf th. .otes typilaiþ foundthere'e Building organizarion mobil i iation is commonry bâsed on a ner-work of social t ies within a building which women, whether employedoutside the home or not, are much more l ikely to form. The homemakeractivit ies of women in their, building and neighborhood-Joing the

þundr1, neighboring, warching over-children, ihopping iorãod*all

toster the creation of common ties; men, on the other ttãnd, often rack

9' Mirra Komarovsky, Brue'coilar Marriage (New york: Random House, r964),

Sig Winter I9g0 2jg

them'10 In addition, building organizations, l ike prAs, provide an ac-ceptable avenue for social action, since activit ies outside the home areseen as threatening by a significanr minority of working-cìass hus-bands.rr These factors surely help considerably to expìain i,hy *o-.r,participate in Bos to a far greater extent rhan men urrd *t y their par-ticipation relative to men is more extensive among those of lower sES.They also account for the fact that employmenr outside the home croesnot affect the participation of women àdversely. Indeed, while gz per-c9n1o_f employed women inorganized buildings report membershiþ inthe BO, this is so for only 80 pãrcent of unemlloyËd.

As tables I and 2 clemonstrated, women are also more l ikely to act asorganizers and leaders at this local lever. (These rwo roles fiequentlyc<¡incide within BOs.) Several fä(ìtors ¿ue relevanr here.The init iafive fì>raction gften grows out of networks within buildings, where +vomen,s riesare.typically much more dense than th<¡se of mËn, Again, because oftheir familiarity with. their neighborhoods women

".." *.r.. likely to

know of , and to make c<>ntaci wi th a No when h 'us ing problemsarise-and the person who makes that first contact oft ., bä.o-es theleader of a Bo' The offices of Nos are typicalry crowded wirh women,even

-at night. Moreover, even though reädership roles are more de-manding than the roles of the rank ãnd fire, .-ploy-.r,r srarus is n<¡rsignifrcant in determining who fiì ls them: the leader/follower ratioamong employed women is a lmost ident ica l wi th that among un_employed within BOs.

_ Relatively few tenants active in their own Bos are drawn into efforts

to help other buildings, but those doing so are much more apt to bewomen than men. Indeed, this is the -uþr means of recruiting wome'to the ranks of No activists, a'd it is ihe reason for their numericalpredominance there: 85 percent of femare activists in Nos had beenrecruited via BOs, compared with 56 percent of males. Men are moreIikely than women to choose to becomË active in Nos withour ever hav_ing belonged to a Bo (see below), but this source of male recruirmentdoes not com_pensate fo¡ thg.predominance of women among thosedrawn into neighborhood activiim from the grass roots. women begin towork with other buildings because of their in"volvement in .,. ignuorhoodfriendsh-ip networks anã because they are already invorved i,i fr,.i, o*.,BOs and have found. tha.t they are good ut orgu'i.irrg and enjoy it; in afew instances it is also important

-that they are nor working. onry 9

percent of No activisrs do not have paid ..nþroy*..,t, but g5 fr.r..r,t of

these are women. These make up íg p"r."rrt of women activists, com-

I0. selma.f anres, "A woman's prace," in The power of women and the subuersitm ,f theconrmunie, ed. Mariarosa Daila costa ancl Serma Jame s (Bristor: Failin¡; wail press, lgz4),pp. 57-79.Il' Lilfian Rubin, worrd.s of pain: Life in rhe worhing crass Famiþ (New y.rk: BasicBooks, 1976), pp. t7L84, 201-2,

240 Lawson and Barton S ex Roles in Sociøl Moae¡nents

qar.ed with 2 percent of men. That is, onry as activism takes them out oftheir own buildings f¡s fre employmeru sarus of women begin to playa determini'g p"it. The invorvË-Jniãr rhese women in a ño in tur'reinforces and extends their neighborhood networks, and their experi-ences^help to.strengthen, or perhäps create, an ideorojicul .o*-it-.nt.We would also_ argue that fËmale socialization ï; ,i;;;ro.rsonal

orientation, empathy, sensitivity, nurturance, [ancl] supportiveness,,often developr á greut.., i't..pérso'al- re.,ritivity that is important toorganizing, especialty where péo^ple are fearfut ;"J;l;iliilr,, u, ,"r,_ants facing probrems often aie.t2' In contrast, mares receive systematictraining against sensitivity and trusr and for "úr;r;i;.;;rr^åia .o.np"ri_tion'13 Mascurine sociarization and behavio.. ,l i* p.or.;; b. disablingfor grass-roots organizing, particulu.t/ i.r domains where women are anecessary constituency' Mccormack has suggested that the apparentrygreater conservatism of femare voters m"y bãä.re t" tt. uggr.rsive mas_

:".1i": style of working-crass poriticianr-'i rurul. ""-råîr,å""-zers havefailed,in a*empß to organizà women office workers foi sim'ar rea-sons,rs our fires contain severar instances where -.r, huue-fought fordominance in tenant organizations and driven out the losers. on theother hand, male sociariiation- pr€pares men to handre confrontationswith often hostile forces outsidË thå org"nization such as randrords andcourts.

Finally, in the tenant movement both organizers and rank and firehave tended ro be womer: M:n organizers nãve both ".ã".i.à

womenand attempted to exclude ttr.rn "rro* organizations. In the tenantmovement women were not ignored, for women were organizing other

Tliil^ lll'ls a common uìderstanding, a langurg", fi;;t ;ould ap_peal ro a common curture (e,g., the effect o1poor Ë""ii"g-.ãíii,ior,, o'their children)' Moreover' women could spend time with the womenorganizers without being suspected of haviÅg u ,.*,r"r ,.i"riä"ìnip

""awithout husbands fearin-g thát their *iuà *"." being seduced.r6

u.t *lnzwhy haae a düproportionøte number of the teaders;rþ þ;r;;;;, been hetd

wcrmen," inwoman in sexist sociee, ed. Vivian c".ri.r. and Barbara r. ùoii.,'iN.* vorL,Basic Books, l97l), pp. 147-59. h- ' rYruran (r

l3' Ruth Hart ley, "sex-Rore pressures and the sociarization of the Mare chi ld,, , inMen and Mascurinit't, ed. Ioseph pleck and ¡"Jir,y.. (Englewood criffs, NJ.: prenrice_Hall , Inc., t97+), pp. 7-í2.l4' Thelma Mccormack, "Toward a Nonsexist perspective on social and politicalchange," in Another voice: Feminisr r-tpntirÃ'oï'iTiøt t¡¡, and. sociat scienee, ed. MarciaMillnran and Rosabeth Moss Kanrer 1ñew yorkr Ãn.ho."sook, ,-f;;g;";.';î.-I5 ' s tephenBar ton , "unders tand ings" r , r . " r , . i r .o :soc ia lMovemei r ts inHeadquar_

ters City" (unpublished manuscripr, tgZõ, avai lable from author), p. 67.16' The presence bf strange men, whether as organizers ãr as sociologicar re-searchers' is often regarded withiuspicion 1I-yn rr. ùRuna, ,,The ,Thereness,of women:A Selecrive Review of Urban Sociology," ir,'liitt*un-ind Kanter, pp. 144-20).

Signs Winter 1980 241

Men have tended to hold the positions of leadership within thetenant movement because of a societal structure in which institutionsfavor men and discriminate against women. Sponsoring organizationshave often placed men directly in advantaged positions in the move-ment, and men have also gained access to relevant skills and networks asa result of external experience in organizations that have been closed to,or more restrictive toward, women. Meanwhile, women have been ex-posed to discriminatory policies that have imposed costs on their at-tempts to lead or have removed them from leadership competitionaltogether.

Sponsorship was especially important during the first years of themovement. The earliest NOs were sponsored by polit ical parties whichtook the initiative in placing personnel directly in movement positions.Because of the sexist structures of the sponsoring organizations thesepersonnel were almost always men, the very few exceptions beingSocialists during the l9l7-20 period. The sponsored NO participantshad several advantages: not only were the NOs actually formed aroundthem, making them the incumbent leaders, but they also had readyaccess to outside resources, such as skills, networks, and money. Therewere also prospects of personal rewards in the sponsoring organizations.

Ties to sponsoring organizations continued to be important in lateryears: to the American Labor party in the years immediately before andafter World War II; to the two main parties, especially the Democrats, atvarious times since that war; and to various churches, particularly theCatholic church, since the mid-l960s.

Beginning in the 1930s, this force favoring males began to be inter-twined with, and often replaced by, a second factor: previous access torelevant skills and networks. The early Socialist-backed NOs sought tomake a political impact through the use of mass rent strikes and otherconfrontation strategies. l,ater NOs tended to become more Janus-like,separating to some extent their goals of influencing politicians andbureaucracies from those of organizing buildings, bargaining with land-lords, and servicing tenants. While organizers pursued the latter goals,the leaders found that they needed bureaucratic and manipulative skillsin order to deal with the former, a facet that received increasing empha-sis as some NOs began to manage buildings and administer variousgovernment programs in the 1970s. For their part, federations havealmost always been formed with legislative and/or administrative targetsin view and with bureaucratic strategies in mind. For example, the NewYork State Tenants and Neighborhoods Coalition was formed with theexpress purpose of establishing an "e,cpert lobbying presence" withAlbany legislators.

Such organizations are very different from the home-centered BO's.Their leaders need access to influential networks and skills with which toapproach experts and authorities. While social-emotional roles are im-

242 Lawson and Barton Sex Roles in Social Movements

portant for mobilization of people, bureaucratic roles are often the keyto s.trategic impact, and males have usuaily been berter prepared to firlsuch.roles. Experience in other institutions within the society has pro-vided many men but onry a few women with personar rrillr-u"ä/or accessto relevant infrastructures. several ofthe euily f.d.r"tion readers, ail of

*:n,,:*ir:1 ¡xce.ption, men, had previously held adm inisrrative posts.

öy rhe 1970s the strategies used by the movement had broadened- con_

Ì:*::?,1Il., ojloo:l'gn-and viriety of skilled pr.ro.,rJìmong itsleaclers expanded rapidly. Men with formal skills sìill far outnumberedskilled women; among key No activists 3g percent of the mares hadentered with relevant skills they had learned outside the movemenlr"Tpul.q with l6 percenr of the femares. Among tne keyãctiuists in themultiple federations- of the past decade the comþarabre statistics are 77percenr of men and 54 percent of women.-rerhaps tn. *ãtt strikingexample is that of Robert schur, who in 1975 móved from a posr asadministrator within the city Housing and Deverop*.* eJ-inisrrarionto become direcror of the Assoeiation"of Neighbornooa H;;;i"g Devel-opers. There he provided Nos with technicai r.""*r"ag. uúãìri ,t. u.ryprograms he-had previousry administered, doing

"r".fi "¡ih; .regotiaí-ing on their behalf himself.

' o

. P^rf::rional expertise and bureaucraric manipulation are broadrytransferable to other organizations and movements. on the other hand,the rnore movement-specific skilrs (famiriarity with *"pt; ìn a neigtr-

P"1ïO;,lTîll-g. oj greanizational procädures) of'the secondaryt^eao.els, the maJorlty of whom are women, are less heralded and trans_ferable. Thus for men the motivation for pursuit of readershif positionswithin the tenant movement is often u, u ,tap toward future ca.ee. goars,frequently in politics. paul Ross, a federatioi reader from tg+g to 1952,

fatel rallol mayor. Jesse Gray, who began organizing renanrs in Harlemin the 1950s, ran for *u.rui offices Ëfo.eieirrg Ët..æaio rh. r,"r.asse-mbly as the "Harlem Rent strike Iæader" nine" ars after the event.Today one state senator and two assemblymen continue to cultivate theNos ryhich were rheir originar poriticar ui.r, while severar other renantleaders clearly aspire to rimituiadvancemenr. All are *.;. B;."nrrasr,Marie Runyon, a recent single_term assemblywo*..r, *u, deî.ated fo.reelection when the predoriinantly mare teáae.srrip oiinã cor,r*uiuTenants Union turned against hér because she refused to act as añgurehead.Career goals are therefore much more porcnt in motivating menthan women-: 34 percent of men entering Nos as vorunteer activists are

l?Æ?:Tir_.d compared.with.3 percent Jf *o-..,. Many of rhese enrerr\(JS ln therr communities without ever having been invorved with Bos(19 percent of men, 2 percent of women); buî about half oithese menare- active prior to becoming involved wiih the NO in local Democraticclubs' of rwenry-one key fi[ures acrive ar the ourset

"fl;h. prä.rrt-a"y

Srþn Winter t9g0 24i

federations, only four, all women, seem not to have been motivated atleast in part by career goals. of the other seventeen, who included onlytwo women, three were hoping for legislative or administrative careerswhich they in fact did nor secure, arihough all three were furrheredtoward different administrative careers as a result of their involvement.Ten secured paid posts for themselves within the movement, for there-mlinjng four these positions were nexr sreps in already existingsalaried careers within the movement.

More than hal f o f thecore membersof Nos (56 percentat lastcountand rising) are now salaried. This is a recent development, dating back alittle more rhan ten years ro the frrst oEo-funded ,;Housing

spe-cialists"u:d

T".tl l"o.*irg only in the last three or four years with tËe éxpansionof rehabilitation and management srraregies supported by government

{un{s. Although mosr of these positiorrr puy faiii poorly,

"ia much of

the funding is in soft money, it ii neverthét.ir u.gí""ing to be possible tothink in Lerrns of a career within the tenant movement. women havebeen more successful in securing these positions than might have beenexpected: the proportion of paid women activists matche"s that of menactivists almost exactly. However, the women's paid positions tend not robe at the highest level. For example, only one oithe iour salaried federa-tion leader positions is held by a woman, and she, a new incumbent, isthe first woman to hold such a position. on the other hand, women holdfour of the six voluntary fedeiation leader positions.

Meanwhile, discrimination against women has compounded theadvantages held by male leaders. I iwas mosr overt in 1904, when BerrhaLiebson, th_e most prominent of the strike organizers, was vetoed astreasurer of the new No on grounds that a woman was not qualified tohold such

1 Ro_st. Recently it has been more subrle. For example, courtbureaucracies have on occasion refused to deal with organilers, whotend to be female, demanding instead lawyers, -or. fr.ä.rentry male.while the various rehabilitation and commúnity *u'ug.*Ër,r programswere.being developed, usually as a direct t.t,rÍt of *o"u.*.nt'pressure,members of the city housing bureaucracy were roath to deal with move-ment personnel, whom they considered to be "unprofessional." Theystressed the need for "professional packaging." This attitude meantsuppoft for male middle-class leadersãt the exlense of female and lesseducated male leaders.. similarry, Nos have t.o,.rbr. gaining approvar forwould-be "74" adminisrrarors of buildings when ;" prdi.;ionals areavailable.

The factors covered in the analysis so far also explain why men are

especially likely to be at the helm when new structures or strategies areevolving. when needed skills are not part of the movement's experience,skilled personnel musr be mobilized externalry. Males have fåquerrtlyu¡ed the advantages of. broader experience ro assume readership in áchanging situation by taking the initiative ro found new Nos. For exam-

244 Lawson and Barton Sex Roles in Social Moucments

ple, the three Nos most prominent in pioneering rehabil itation andmanagement strategies in neighborhoods undergoir-rg abandonment inthe ea r l y 1970s were l ed by wh i te , we l l - ed -uca iec l ma les whosebureaucratic skil ls and access to relevant networks enablecl them to rna-' ipulate the city's ho_using l>ureaucracy to creare whole nelv city pro-grams. one of them, Henry Lanier , t r ren jo ined the Housing and Dér,er-opmenr Administrarion as a commissionei, where his task *i, to developancl,administer the new program. women have also created new Nos i¡lresponse to rhreats, especially the thr-eat of demolit ion of their housing.But thr.ughout most of the movement's history they have not been in aposi t io ' to respond ro 'career opportuni t ies. úhi re ' the Nos they havecreatecl have also been stategically innovative, for example, the use ofs(luatter take,vers t<> c:<lmbat urban renewal and instituti<lnal expansi<;n,they have 'e l ied mo'e on mobi l izat ion of people than bureaucrar ic sk i l ls ..

I l I r appropr iate at th is poinr ro.o. r i ide i the ordest ex is t ing federa-

t i<¡n, Met counci l . Not onry is i t recr by a woman, Jane Benedìcr , but am^jority of its acrivists and of the leaders of its branãh ancl affi l iated Nosare \^ 'omen. Throughout i ts twenty-year h is tory i t has refused to com-pr .mise i ts p,s i t io ' on te-nants ' r ighrs. Indeed, ' i t has st rengthened i t byacl.cling. t ' i ts slogan of "decent, inlegrated housing

", ,"rr, i tenants carì

aflbrcl" ¿r call f<rr the replacement of privar. o*rr.rihip with ,,housing inthe pt rb l ic domain." Because of i ts iñ t ractabi l i ty , a p ioc l . rc t of the , ,o ldIæfi" ideology <>f irs leadership, it has rarery been iaken seriousry as apolit ical f '<rrce. Mer council uses lobbying trips to the stare capital as atool ro eclucare its members.concerning ttt. rrì it i ty of expectinj changesto be given when they musl be forced ùy direct action. rt àho erãphasizesthe-necessity of're¡rants ¡elying on the strength provided by organizationand-unity rather than depending on the e*pe.ìise of rawyers ind otherpr<>fessio'als. Indeed, though a federation, ou.. the rasí eight years ithas 'e.iected the usuar porit ical rore of federations arrd fias insteadp'u'ecl most of irs resources into organizing rent strikes in buildings.T1:,: ' by r"e.jecting professionars and refusirig to enrer rhe establishedpolit ical ¿ìr'ena, Met council has avoided the mãin avenues of male dom_inat ion rv i th in the tenant movement,

In brief , some of the factors Michels found conducive to oligarchy,theg'eare. knowledge and skil ls of readership and the u"r,. i i ' l . ..rt ofleaders in. preserving and furthering their iareers, also help maintainrnale preclominance in- tenant readerihip. The firmry origarchic reader-ship of'Met council is, however, ironic .uid..r.. that womãn's leadershipis n<¡ t inherent ly democrat ic .

3 ' unde¡ uthat circumstances haue uoìnen reþraæd men in teadnshþ posi-l ions?

The turnove'among readers of the tenant movement has been quitesubstantial. For example, of eight federation leadership positions, threeof which have been herd occasiónalry by more rhan or,. 'plrror-at a time,

Signs Winter 1980 245

fì¡ur are currently helcl by long-term incnnrbents. However, a total offìrtrrteen le¿rclets have co¡ne and gone during the l ife span of the federa-tiolls, eleve¡l in the past lìve year-s. Tut'rroveì'among federation activistsl.¡¿rs been e\¡erì uì()t 'e l 'apicl: the avelage tel-m of a rnemberof Met Coun-<: i l 's exectr t ive b<¡ard is < ln ly t rvo years. ' I -he NO leaders a lso turn over at ast¡bstantial late, t lì()ì. lgh less <¡uickly than f 'ecleutio¡r leaders. Why donì()vement leacle|s leave with such freqtrerìcy? Sdnle of'the leaders maybc clescritrecl as having vaulted up successfrrl ly fronr their movementbases to polit ical <¡l ' aclrrrinistrative careers, while others were similarlysucc:essf ul rvit l 'r in the ln<¡verrrent. These trv() groups togetlìel.comprise l5perccnt <¡f 'f 'ederatir¡n ancl NO leacler turnovel-. For them the hope thatPal-ticipation in the ¡novenìellt rvoul(l f 'urther their careers was fulf i l led.Alrnr¡s'. all <lf ' thern ¿u'e nìe¡1. Othel'clcparting le¿rders are less upwardlyr'¡ lol>ile. More tharr a tlr i l 'cl, l ì8 percent, "burn <>ut," fìnding rheir parrici-I)ation insufficiently lewarcling. Some fìncl the personal c<¡sts of tenantactivism unmatcherl by the rervaLcls ancl reti l 'e to private l ives. Sorne haverr,iÍhclralvn t-¡efore repression: <¡ne fèder.ati<>n leacler, Alfi-ed K. Stern,flecl abr<>ad cluring the Mc(larthy periocl. ()rganizati<>nal vicissitudcscause another 30 percenr. to leave: those ¡raying their salar.ies l.ulr our of'ft¡n<ìs o¡'f ire them, they are voted out of <¡ffìce, there are splits in <>rgani-z¿rtions. Smaller numbers have been removed by outside forces such asthe call to military service or the 1920 split in the socialist party. Somehave been moved on by sponsoring organizations. Others, l ike the recentopposers of demolit ion, have left because the shorr-term goals theysought were settled or rendered nìoot. Some positions are vacated be-cause of retirement, i l lness, or death.

'I 'he turnover arnong nlen is greater than among women: 80 per-

cent of the male activists in presently existing federations compared with50 percent of the females; 56 percent of the men NO leaders but only 44percent of the womerì, This disparity is explained in part by the careerorientation of ¡nuch of the male participation; consequently, men tendto come and go while women, who are mor.e solely committed to themovement, often serve f 'or long periods. Jane Benedict's tenure ar Metcouncil is only one of several examples among women. No male re¿rderequals this lecord, In the pasr male leaders have been especially I ikely todrop orrt of the tenant movement during waning periodì when rewardsof'the kinds that had init ially atrracred rhem seernecl less l ikely ro accrue.This frnding is congruent with, thotrgh rhe obverse of, the experiences ofotlìer movements that have been enlargecl and institutionalizecl to the¡roint where they offer highly rewarding careers. There, men have often.stayed in leadership fur long periods in spite of predominanrry fèmalernemberships. For exarnple, a l l the presidents of the Internat ionalLadies Garment workers union and the Amalgamated clothing work-els Union have been men.

When leadership turnover has occurred within the tenant move-

246 Lauson and Barton Sex Roles in Social Mouements

ment, women have been more likely to succeed to the positions vacatedthan they were to have held the positions in the frrst place. since menhave been especially likely to vacate positions during periods of move-ment decline, when these posts appeared less l ikely to provide avenues topolitical influence or to personal career advancement, men were notknocking on the doors wanting to come in and take over. Women, incontrast, were much less l ikely to exit ar these times: they did not havesponsoring organizations to pull them out; their skil ls, which they hadoften ìearned within the movement, were frequently movement-specific;and they felt a high degree of commitmenr ro rhe movement itself and totheir fellow workers. Moreover, they were in the majority among theactivists. Because they had worked so closely with the previous leãder,they often knew most about his work. I-eadership, therefore, passednaturally to some of the women found so commonly among the second-ary- ranks where they had, on the job so to speak, developed a fluencywith the strategies in use.

^ Thr: pattern parallels closely the racial transition among the leaders

of the frrst three NOs to use tenant management and rãhabil itationstrategies in neighborhoods undergoing abandonment. As indicatedabove, these organizations were founded and led by well-educated whitemales from outside the neighbo¡hoods who recruited indigenous blacksor Hispanics to subordinate positions. The latter might never have hadthe expectations of success to found, nor the skil ls to iun, such organiza-tions successfully. However, by the time that the fou.der, *ouid o.r,taking advantage of career opportunities opening to rhem, such sub-ordinates had developed sufficient skills and acces-s to networks to takeover.

The result of this male-to-female succession pattern was that womengradually moved up through the ranks in the mòvement structure, tak-ing over the leadership positions from men. At the outset-in 1904,1907, and again in l9l7-20-they were organizers whose prominencewas usurped by the men who formed the first Nos; by the lg20s thevwere leading Nos themselves; in 1942 a woman headed a federation forthe first t ime; by the end of the 1970s they were as prominent ar thefederation level as the male volunteers, through sti l l somewhat behind inthe salaried, more technical, posts.

This whole process has accelerated since the growth of the modernwomen's movement, which has made it easier for women to enter male-dominated positions. career motivatio' has been rising just at a timewlen paid posi t ions wi th in the movemenr have beeä"opening up.Moreover, some of the women leaders are now bringing skilrs to themovement: of the thirteen women federation leaders anã key activistsseven' includirig a lawyer, two social workers, a labor organizei, and twoadmin istrators with considerable porit ical experience,

-have externally

gained skil ls. Moreover, the same seven, unlikì all but one of the other

Signs Winter 1980 247

six, entered the movement through NOs rather than BOs. And nine ofthe thirteen hold salaried positions within rhe movemenr.

These are as yet a rather special group of women within rhe move-ment: such skil ls are rat'er among activists in NOs. As noted çarlier-,women are nìore l ike ly to leacl NOs using t r .adi t ion¿r l s t raregies.Nevertheless, these seven sk i l led women, t l re appoinrmenr of fourwomen as leaders of the three key federations, the fact that women al'ecompeting more evenly with men in the job marker within rhe move-ment, and the fäct that a few of them have even gone out of the move-ment to promising careers outside are all evidence of considerablechange.

These processes are also making their impact elsewhere, such asamong communi ty development groups at the nat ional level . Oneexample is National People's Action, led by Gale Cincotra from Chicago.Both the New York State Tenants 'and Neighborhoods'Coal i t ion andthe Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers are in close con-tact with her group, taking part in its annual conference and demonstra-tion in Washington each year.

Conclusion

We believe our analysis serves to show the importance <lf bothsocial-emotional and functional roles for mobil ization of people andstrategic impact. The "social relations of reproduction," centéring on thehome and neighborhood and rheir accompanying role training, help laythe groundwork for successfil mobilizatircn at the g.ur, .ooË. On theother hand, the "social relations of production," pivoting around careersand the workplace, provide the skills necessary for dealing wirh govern-ment and bureaucracies. we have argued that these roles haue,ln gen-eral, been divided according to gender, so rhat women have tended to bethe organizers ånd followeis uñd *.r-, the leaders of the tenanr move-ment. Nevertheless, as we have demonstrated, over time, and especiallyrecently, women have successfully learned the necessary skil ls and bro-ken through the structural barriers to become leaders in their own right.one can only hope that men in turn wil l come to recognize the disabiingfeatures of their own socialization and the distorted vãlues incorporateãinto the structures of most large, formal organizations and wil l come tovalue and, ult imately, to use the skil ls which *o-en have brought ro bearin organizing tenanrs at the grass-roots fävel.

U rban S tudi¿s D eþartmentØ*ens College (City Uniuersity of Neu york) (Lawson)

Department of Urbøn and Region<tl planningUniaersity of Cølifurnia,, Berhele2 (Barron)