Rethinking the Political Participation Paradigm: The Case of Women and Gun Control

Author: Goss, Kristin A.
Publication: Women & Politics
Topics: Gender Legislation and Policy Public Health Public Opinion Social Science
Keywords: GUN control Million Mom March activism protest
Bibliographic information +

The author examines the Million Mom March, a protest march for stricter gun control laws held in 2000, that aimed to recruit American women into gun control activism and to demonstrate the enormous support for gun control to elected officials. The author argues that the lessons of this natural experiment are twofold. First, reframing political issues to resonate with individuals’ social roles and responsibilities legitimizes participation of new groups of people (e.g. women and framing gun control as a child-protection issue). Second, the more individuals internalize these frames, the more actively they participate over time.