The Psychology of a Social Justice Movement: Social Justice Feminism as a Case Study

This article undertakes a case study of social justice feminism through four criteria that influence the psyches of social movement participants: grievance, ideology, efficacy, and social embeddedness. The grievance lay with the Second Industrial Revolution. Social justice feminists used an “entering wedge” strategy to promote and pass women’s labor legislation to eventually secure state protection of all workers in the United States. The ideology of social justice feminism came from a combination of socialist-influenced thought and the promotion of social justice. The most important element of social justice feminism lay in its efficacy, involving social embeddedness.