Baby Boomers and Cultural Change in the U.S.

Social movement scholars long have argued that culture is important to movement dynamics and outcomes because cultural spaces and activities nurture political consciousness and action. However, this work often ignores how such spaces and activities contribute to organizational efforts to affect societal norms and stereotypes. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of mass media coverage from 1998 to 2008 and 55 in-depth interviews with members of the Red Hat Society, an organization designed to change how older women are regarded in American society, we find that explicitly non-political, social groups can mobilize large numbers of people and affect broad change. Specifically, we find that social groups simultaneously alter the self-perceptions of members, bystanders who come in contact with group members and the market, which creates products and services to capture consumer dollars. We conclude by discussing the importance of considering the market as a potentially positive force in cultural change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]