Political Discourse, Interaction Rituals, and Older Women: Resistance Movement Unfolding

• In Event: 067 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Discourses of Womanhood across the Life Course

Abstract

This paper describes an evolving social movement of opposition to attempts to “take down” the highly popular social insurance program of Social Security, which is applauded as the nation’s most successful anti-poverty program and part of the American social contract that is vital to the economic and health security of older women. Conflict and critical theory, critical feminist and race theories, and the political economy of aging guide the study. The primarily case examined is Social Security and the movements of resistance to the “take-down” of this program. Multi-methods: participant observation, in-person interviews, archival and policy analyses, social media searches and tracking of congressional and presidential discourse, proposals and actions from 2005-2015. Individual, Organizational, and Multi-Coalitional level analyses attend to political discourse and interaction rituals, offering new dimensions of Feminist Social Movement research.

Author

• Carroll L. Estes, Univ. of California-San Francisco