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  1. title: The Tyranny of Stuctureless
  2. url: http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm
  3. hash_url: 62bfe3b136345600177d627af004fc9d
  4. <p>The
  5. earliest version of this article was given as a talk at a conference
  6. called by the Southern Female Rights Union, held in Beulah, Mississippi
  7. in May 1970. It was written up for <u>Notes from the Third Year</u> (1971),
  8. but the editors did not use it. It was then submitted to several movement
  9. publications, but only one asked permission to publish it; others did
  10. so without permission. The first official place of publication was
  11. in Vol. 2, No. 1 of <u>The Second Wave</u> (1972). This early version
  12. in movement publications was authored by Joreen. Different versions
  13. were published in the <u>Berkeley Journal of Sociology</u>, Vol. 17,
  14. 1972-73, pp. 151-165, and <u>Ms.</u> magazine, July 1973, pp. 76-78,
  15. 86-89, authored by Jo Freeman. This piece spread all over the world.
  16. Numerous people have edited, reprinted, cut, and translated "Tyranny" for
  17. magazines, books and web sites, usually without the permission or knowledge
  18. of the author. The version below is a blend of the three cited here. <br/>
  19. <br/>
  20. <br/>
  21. </p>
  22. <p>During
  23. the years in which the women's liberation movement has been taking shape,
  24. a great emphasis has been placed on what are called leaderless, structureless
  25. groups as the main -- if not sole -- organizational form of the movement.
  26. The source of this idea was a natural reaction against the over-structured
  27. society in which most of us found ourselves, and the inevitable control
  28. this gave others over our lives, and the continual elitism of the Left
  29. and similar groups among those who were supposedly fighting this overstructuredness.<br/>
  30. The
  31. idea of "structurelessness," however, has moved from a healthy
  32. counter to those tendencies to becoming a goddess in its own right. The
  33. idea is as little examined as the term is much used, but it has become
  34. an intrinsic and unquestioned part of women's liberation ideology. For
  35. the early development of the movement this did not much matter. It early
  36. defined its main goal, and its main method, as consciousness-raising,
  37. and the "structureless" rap group was an excellent means to
  38. this end. The looseness and informality of it encouraged participation
  39. in discussion, and its often supportive atmosphere elicited personal insight.
  40. If nothing more concrete than personal insight ever resulted from these
  41. groups, that did not much matter, because their purpose did not really
  42. extend beyond this.<br/>
  43. </p>
  44. </td>
  45. <td> </td>
  46. </tr>
  47. <tr>
  48. <td><a href="#Top"><img src="../images/totop.gif" alt="" border="0"/></a></td>
  49. <td>
  50. <p> The
  51. basic problems didn't appear until individual rap groups exhausted
  52. the virtues of consciousness-raising and decided they wanted to do
  53. something more specific. At this point they usually foundered because
  54. most groups were unwilling to change their structure when they changed
  55. their tasks. Women had thoroughly accepted the idea of "structurelessness" without
  56. realizing the limitations of its uses. People would try to use the "structureless" group
  57. and the informal conference for purposes for which they were unsuitable
  58. out of a blind belief that no other means could possibly be anything
  59. but oppressive.<br/>
  60. If
  61. the movement is to grow beyond these elementary stages of development,
  62. it will have to disabuse itself of some of its prejudices about organization
  63. and structure. There is nothing inherently bad about either of these.
  64. They can be and often are misused, but to reject them out of hand because
  65. they are misused is to deny ourselves the necessary tools to further
  66. development. We need to understand why "structurelessness" does
  67. not work.</p>
  68. <p>FORMAL
  69. AND INFORMAL STRUCTURES</p>
  70. <p>Contrary
  71. to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a structureless
  72. group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for
  73. any length of time for any purpose will inevitably structure itself in
  74. some fashion. The structure may be flexible; it may vary over time; it
  75. may evenly or unevenly distribute tasks, power and resources over the
  76. members of the group. But it will be formed regardless of the abilities,
  77. personalities, or intentions of the people involved. The very fact that
  78. we are individuals, with different talents, predispositions, and backgrounds
  79. makes this inevitable. Only if we refused to relate or interact on any
  80. basis whatsoever could we approximate structurelessness -- and that is
  81. not the nature of a human group.<br/>
  82. This
  83. means that to strive for a structureless group is as useful, and as deceptive,
  84. as to aim at an "objective" news story, "value-free"
  85. social science, or a "free" economy. A "laissez faire"
  86. group is about as realistic as a "laissez faire" society; the
  87. idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned
  88. hegemony over others. This hegemony can be so easily established because
  89. the idea of "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation
  90. of informal structures, only formal ones. Similarly "laissez faire"
  91. philosophy did not prevent the economically powerful from establishing
  92. control over wages, prices, and distribution of goods; it only prevented
  93. the government from doing so. Thus structurelessness becomes a way of
  94. masking power, and within the women's movement is usually most strongly
  95. advocated by those who are the most powerful (whether they are conscious
  96. of their power or not). As long as the structure of the group is informal,
  97. the rules of how decisions are made are known only to a few and awareness
  98. of power is limited to those who know the rules. Those who do not know
  99. the rules and are not chosen for initiation must remain in confusion,
  100. or suffer from paranoid delusions that something is happening of which
  101. they are not quite aware.<br/>
  102. </p>
  103. </td>
  104. <td> </td>
  105. </tr>
  106. <tr>
  107. <td><a href="#Top"><img src="../images/totop.gif" alt="" border="0"/></a></td>
  108. <td>
  109. <p> For
  110. everyone to have the opportunity to be involved in a given group and
  111. to participate in its activities the structure must be explicit, not
  112. implicit. The rules of decision-making must be open and available to
  113. everyone, and this can happen only if they are formalized. This is
  114. not to say that formalization of a structure of a group will destroy
  115. the informal structure. It usually doesn't. But it does hinder the
  116. informal structure from having predominant control and make available
  117. some means of attacking it if the people involved are not at least
  118. responsible to the needs of the group at large. "Structurelessness" is
  119. organizationally impossible. We cannot decide whether to have a structured
  120. or structureless group, only whether or not to have a formally structured
  121. one. Therefore the word will not be used any longer except to refer
  122. to the idea it represents. Unstructured will refer to those groups
  123. which have not been deliberately structured in a particular manner.
  124. Structured will refer to those which have. A Structured group always
  125. has formal structure, and may also have an informal, or covert, structure.
  126. It is this informal structure, particularly in Unstructured groups,
  127. which forms the basis for elites.</p>
  128. <p>THE
  129. NATURE OF ELITISM</p>
  130. <p>"Elitist"
  131. is probably the most abused word in the women's liberation movement. It
  132. is used as frequently, and for the same reasons, as "pinko"
  133. was used in the fifties. It is rarely used correctly. Within the movement
  134. it commonly refers to individuals, though the personal characteristics
  135. and activities of those to whom it is directed may differ widely: An individual,
  136. as an individual can never be an elitist, because the only proper application
  137. of the term "elite" is to groups. Any individual, regardless
  138. of how well-known that person may be, can never be an elite.<br/>
  139. Correctly,
  140. an elite refers to a small group of people who have power over a larger
  141. group of which they are part, usually without direct responsibility to
  142. that larger group, and often without their knowledge or consent. A person
  143. becomes an elitist by being part of, or advocating the rule by, such a
  144. small group, whether or not that individual is well known or not known
  145. at all. Notoriety is not a definition of an elitist. The most insidious
  146. elites are usually run by people not known to the larger public at all.
  147. Intelligent elitists are usually smart enough not to allow themselves
  148. to become well known; when they become known, they are watched, and the
  149. mask over their power is no longer firmly lodged.<br/>
  150. Elites
  151. are not conspiracies. Very seldom does a small group of people get together
  152. and deliberately try to take over a larger group for its own ends. Elites
  153. are nothing more, and nothing less, than groups of friends who also happen
  154. to participate in the same political activities. They would probably maintain
  155. their friendship whether or not they were involved in political activities;
  156. they would probably be involved in political activities whether or not
  157. they maintained their friendships. It is the coincidence of these two
  158. phenomena which creates elites in any group and makes them so difficult
  159. to break.<br/>
  160. These
  161. friendship groups function as networks of communication outside any regular
  162. channels for such communication that may have been set up by a group.
  163. If no channels are set up, they function as the only networks of communication.
  164. Because people are friends, because they usually share the same values
  165. and orientations, because they talk to each other socially and consult
  166. with each other when common decisions have to be made, the people involved
  167. in these networks have more power in the group than those who don't. And
  168. it is a rare group that does not establish some informal networks of communication
  169. through the friends that are made in it.<br/>
  170. Some
  171. groups, depending on their size, may have more than one such informal
  172. communications network. Networks may even overlap. When only one such
  173. network exists, it is the elite of an otherwise Unstructured group, whether
  174. the participants in it want to be elitists or not. If it is the only such
  175. network in a Structured group it may or may not be an elite depending
  176. on its composition and the nature of the formal Structure. If there are
  177. two or more such networks of friends, they may compete for power within
  178. the group, thus forming factions, or one may deliberately opt out of the
  179. competition, leaving the other as the elite. In a Structured group, two
  180. or more such friendship networks usually compete with each other for formal
  181. power. This is often the healthiest situation, as the other members are
  182. in a position to arbitrate between the two competitors for power and thus
  183. to make demands on those to whom they give their temporary allegiance.<br/>
  184. The
  185. inevitably elitist and exclusive nature of informal communication networks
  186. of friends is neither a new phenomenon characteristic of the women's movement
  187. nor a phenomenon new to women. Such informal relationships have excluded
  188. women for centuries from participating in integrated groups of which they
  189. were a part. In any profession or organization these networks have created
  190. the "locker room" mentality and the "old school" ties
  191. which have effectively prevented women as a group (as well as some men
  192. individually) from having equal access to the sources of power or social
  193. reward. Much of the energy of past women's movements has been directed
  194. to having the structures of decision-making and the selection processes
  195. formalized so that the exclusion of women could be confronted directly.
  196. As we well know, these efforts have not prevented the informal male-only
  197. networks from discriminating against women, but they have made it more
  198. difficult.<br/>
  199. Because
  200. elites are informal does not mean they are invisible. At any small group
  201. meeting anyone with a sharp eye and an acute ear can tell who is influencing
  202. whom. The members of a friendship group will relate more to each other
  203. than to other people. They listen more attentively, and interrupt less;
  204. they repeat each other's points and give in amiably; they tend to ignore
  205. or grapple with the "outs" whose approval is not necessary for
  206. making a decision. But it is necessary for the "outs" to stay
  207. on good terms with the "ins." Of course the lines are not as
  208. sharp as I have drawn them. They are nuances of interaction, not prewritten
  209. scripts. But they are discernible, and they do have their effect. Once
  210. one knows with whom it is important to check before a decision is made,
  211. and whose approval is the stamp of acceptance, one knows who is running
  212. things.<br/>
  213. Since
  214. movement groups have made no concrete decisions about who shall exercise
  215. power within them, many different criteria are used around the country.
  216. Most criteria are along the lines of traditional female characteristics.
  217. For instance, in the early days of the movement, marriage was usually
  218. a prerequisite for participation in the informal elite. As women have
  219. been traditionally taught, married women relate primarily to each other,
  220. and look upon single women as too threatening to have as close friends.
  221. In many cities, this criterion was further refined to include only those
  222. women married to New Left men. This standard had more than tradition behind
  223. it, however, because New Left men often had access to resources needed
  224. by the movement -- such as mailing lists, printing presses, contacts,
  225. and information -- and women were used to getting what they needed through
  226. men rather than independently. As the movement has charged through time,
  227. marriage has become a less universal criterion for effective participation,
  228. but all informal elites establish standards by which only women who possess
  229. certain material or personal characteristics may join. They frequently
  230. include: middle-class background (despite all the rhetoric about relating
  231. to the working class); being married; not being married but living with
  232. someone; being or pretending to be a lesbian; being between the ages of
  233. twenty and thirty; being college educated or at least having some college
  234. background; being "hip"; not being too "hip"; holding
  235. a certain political line or identification as a "radical"; having
  236. children or at least liking them; not having children; having certain
  237. "feminine" personality characteristics such as being "nice";
  238. dressing right (whether in the traditional style or the antitraditional
  239. style); etc. There are also some characteristics which will almost always
  240. tag one as a "deviant" who should not be related to. They include:
  241. being too old; working full time, particularly if one is actively committed
  242. to a "career"; not being "nice"; and being avowedly
  243. single (i.e., neither actively heterosexual nor homosexual).<br/>
  244. Other
  245. criteria could be included, but they all have common themes. The characteristics
  246. prerequisite for participating in the informal elites of the movement,
  247. and thus for exercising power, concern one's background, personality,
  248. or allocation of time. They do not include one's competence, dedication
  249. to feminism, talents, or potential contribution to the movement. The former
  250. are the criteria one usually uses in determining one's friends. The latter
  251. are what any movement or organization has to use if it is going to be
  252. politically effective.<br/>
  253. The
  254. criteria of participation may differ from group to group, but the means
  255. of becoming a member of the informal elite if one meets those criteria
  256. art pretty much the same. The only main difference depends on whether
  257. one is in a group from the beginning, or joins it after it has begun.
  258. If involved from the beginning it is important to have as many of one's
  259. personal friends as possible also join. If no one knows anyone else very
  260. well, then one must deliberately form friendships with a select number
  261. and establish the informal interaction patterns crucial to the creation
  262. of an informal structure. Once the informal patterns are formed they act
  263. to maintain themselves, and one of the most successful tactics of maintenance
  264. is to continuously recruit new people who "fit in." One joins
  265. such an elite much the same way one pledges a sorority. If perceived as
  266. a potential addition, one is "rushed" by the members of the
  267. informal structure and eventually either dropped or initiated. If the
  268. sorority is not politically aware enough to actively engage in this process
  269. itself it can be started by the outsider pretty much the same way one
  270. joins any private club. Find a sponsor, i.e., pick some member of the
  271. elite who appears to be well respected within it, and actively cultivate
  272. that person's friendship. Eventually, she will most likely bring you into
  273. the inner circle.<br/>
  274. </p>
  275. </td>
  276. <td> </td>
  277. </tr>
  278. <tr>
  279. <td><a href="#Top"><img src="../images/totop.gif" alt="" border="0"/></a></td>
  280. <td>
  281. <p> All
  282. of these procedures take time. So if one works full time or has a similar
  283. major commitment, it is usually impossible to join simply because there
  284. are not enough hours left to go to all the meetings and cultivate the
  285. personal relationship necessary to have a voice in the decision-making.
  286. That is why formal structures of decision making are a boon to the
  287. overworked person. Having an established process for decision-making
  288. ensures that everyone can participate in it to some extent.<br/>
  289. Although
  290. this dissection of the process of elite formation within small groups
  291. has been critical in perspective, it is not made in the belief that
  292. these informal structures are inevitably bad -- merely inevitable.
  293. All groups create informal structures as a result of interaction patterns
  294. among the members of the group. Such informal structures can do very
  295. useful things But only Unstructured groups are totally governed by
  296. them. When informal elites are combined with a myth of "structurelessness," there
  297. can be no attempt to put limits on the use of power. It becomes capricious.<br/>
  298. This
  299. has two potentially negative consequences of which we should be aware.
  300. The first is that the informal structure of decision-making will be
  301. much like a sorority -- one in which people listen to others because
  302. they like them and not because they say significant things. As long
  303. as the movement does not do significant things this does not much matter.
  304. But if its development is not to be arrested at this preliminary stage,
  305. it will have to alter this trend. The second is that informal structures
  306. have no obligation to be responsible to the group at large. Their power
  307. was not given to them; it cannot be taken away. Their influence is
  308. not based on what they do for the group; therefore they cannot be directly
  309. influenced by the group. This does not necessarily make informal structures
  310. irresponsible. Those who are concerned with maintaining their influence
  311. will usually try to be responsible. The group simply cannot compel
  312. such responsibility; it is dependent on the interests of the elite.</p>
  313. <p>
  314. THE "STAR" SYSTEM</p>
  315. <p>The
  316. idea of "structurelessness" has created the "star"
  317. system. We live in a society which expects political groups to make decisions
  318. and to select people to articulate those decisions to the public at large.
  319. The press and the public do not know how to listen seriously to individual
  320. women as women; they want to know how the group feels. Only three techniques
  321. have ever been developed for establishing mass group opinion: the vote
  322. or referendum, the public opinion survey questionnaire, and the selection
  323. of group spokespeople at an appropriate meeting. The women's liberation
  324. movement has used none of these to communicate with the public. Neither
  325. the movement as a whole nor most of the multitudinous groups within it
  326. have established a means of explaining their position on various issues.
  327. But the public is conditioned to look for spokespeople.<br/>
  328. While
  329. it has consciously not chosen spokespeople, the movement has thrown up
  330. many women who have caught the public eye for varying reasons. These women
  331. represent no particular group or established opinion; they know this and
  332. usually say so. But because there are no official spokespeople nor any
  333. decision-making body that the press can query when it wants to know the
  334. movement's position on a subject, these women are perceived as the spokespeople.
  335. Thus, whether they want to or not, whether the movement likes it or not,
  336. women of public note are put in the role of spokespeople by default.<br/>
  337. This
  338. is one main source of the ire that is often felt toward the women who
  339. are labeled "stars." Because they were not selected by the women
  340. in the movement to represent the movement's views, they are resented when
  341. the press presumes that they speak for the movement. But as long as the
  342. movement does not select its own spokeswomen, such women will be placed
  343. in that role by the press and the public, regardless of their own desires.<br/>
  344. This
  345. has several negative consequences for both the movement and the women
  346. labeled "stars." First, because the movement didn't put them
  347. in the role of spokesperson, the movement cannot remove them. The press
  348. put them there and only the press can choose not to listen. The press
  349. will continue to look to "stars" as spokeswomen as long as it
  350. has no official alternatives to go to for authoritative statements from
  351. the movement. The movement has no control in the selection of its representatives
  352. to the public as long as it believes that it should have no representatives
  353. at all. Second, women put in this position often find themselves viciously
  354. attacked by their sisters. This achieves nothing for the movement and
  355. is painfully destructive to the individuals involved. Such attacks only
  356. result in either the woman leaving the movement entirely-often bitterly
  357. alienated -- or in her ceasing to feel responsible to her "sisters."
  358. She may maintain some loyalty to the movement, vaguely defined, but she
  359. is no longer susceptible to pressures from other women in it. One cannot
  360. feel responsible to people who have been the source of such pain without
  361. being a masochist, and these women are usually too strong to bow to that
  362. kind of personal pressure. Thus the backlash to the "star" system
  363. in effect encourages the very kind of individualistic nonresponsibility
  364. that the movement condemns. By purging a sister as a "star,"
  365. the movement loses whatever control it may have had over the person who
  366. then becomes free to commit all of the individualistic sins of which she
  367. has been accused.</p>
  368. <p>POLITICAL
  369. IMPOTENCE</p>
  370. <p>Unstructured
  371. groups may be very effective in getting women to talk about their lives;
  372. they aren't very good for getting things done. It is when people get tired
  373. of "just talking" and want to do something more that the groups
  374. flounder, unless they change the nature of their operation. Occasionally,
  375. the developed informal structure of the group coincides with an available
  376. need that the group can fill in such a way as to give the appearance that
  377. an Unstructured group "works." That is, the group has fortuitously
  378. developed precisely the kind of structure best suited for engaging in
  379. a particular project. <br/>
  380. While working in this kind of group is a very heady experience, it is also rare
  381. and very hard to replicate. There are almost inevitably four conditions
  382. found in such a group;<br/>
  383. </p>
  384. <p>
  385. 1)<i>
  386. It is task oriented</i>. Its function is very narrow and very specific,
  387. like putting on a conference or putting out a newspaper. It is the task
  388. that basically structures the group. The task determines what needs to
  389. be done and when it needs to be done. It provides a guide by which people
  390. can judge their actions and make plans for future activity.<br/>
  391. 2)
  392. <i>It is relatively small and homogeneous</i>. Homogeneity is necessary
  393. to insure that participants have a "common language" for interaction.
  394. People from widely different backgrounds may provide richness to a consciousness-raising
  395. group where each can learn from the others' experience, but too great
  396. a diversity among members of a task-oriented group means only that they
  397. continually misunderstand each other. Such diverse people interpret words
  398. and actions differently. They have different expectations about each other's
  399. behavior and judge the results according to different criteria. If everyone
  400. knows everyone else well enough to understand the nuances, these can be
  401. accommodated. Usually, they only lead to confusion and endless hours spent
  402. straightening out conflicts no one ever thought would arise.<br/>
  403. 3)
  404. <i>There is a high degree of communication</i>. Information must be passed
  405. on to everyone, opinions checked, work divided up, and participation assured
  406. in the relevant decisions. This is only possible if the group is small
  407. and people practically live together for the most crucial phases of the
  408. task. Needless to say, the number of interactions necessary to involve
  409. everybody increases geometrically with the number of participants. This
  410. inevitably limits group participants to about five, or excludes some from
  411. some of the decisions. Successful groups can be as large as 10 or 15,
  412. but only when they are in fact composed of several smaller subgroups which
  413. perform specific parts of the task, and whose members overlap with each
  414. other so that knowledge of what the different subgroups are doing can
  415. be passed around easily.<br/>
  416. 4)
  417. <i>There is a low degree of skill specialization</i>. Not everyone has
  418. to be able to do everything, but everything must be able to be done by
  419. more than one person. Thus no one is indispensable. To a certain extent,
  420. people become interchangeable parts.<br/>
  421. </p>
  422. <p>
  423. While
  424. these conditions can occur serendipitously in small groups, this is not
  425. possible in large ones. Consequently, because the larger movement in most
  426. cities is as unstructured as individual rap groups, it is not too much
  427. more effective than the separate groups at specific tasks. The informal
  428. structure is rarely together enough or in touch enough with the people
  429. to be able to operate effectively. So the movement generates much motion
  430. and few results. Unfortunately, the consequences of all this motion are
  431. not as innocuous as the results' and their victim is the movement itself.<br/>
  432. Some
  433. groups have formed themselves into local action projects if they do not
  434. involve many people and work on a small scale. But this form restricts
  435. movement activity to the local level; it cannot be done on the regional
  436. or national. Also, to function well the groups must usually pare themselves
  437. down to that informal group of friends who were running things in the
  438. first place. This excludes many women from participating. As long as the
  439. only way women can participate in the movement is through membership in
  440. a small group, the nongregarious are at a distinct disadvantage. As long
  441. as friendship groups are the main means of organizational activity, elitism
  442. becomes institutionalized.<br/>
  443. For
  444. those groups which cannot find a local project to which to devote themselves,
  445. the mere act of staying together becomes the reason for their staying
  446. together. When a group has no specific task (and consciousness raising
  447. is a task), the people in it turn their energies to controlling others
  448. in the group. This is not done so much out of a malicious desire to manipulate
  449. others (though sometimes it is) as out of a lack of anything better to
  450. do with their talents. Able people with time on their hands and a need
  451. to justify their coming together put their efforts into personal control,
  452. and spend their time criticizing the personalities of the other members
  453. in the group. Infighting and personal power games rule the day. When a
  454. group is involved in a task, people learn to get along with others as
  455. they are and to subsume personal dislikes for the sake of the larger goal.
  456. There are limits placed on the compulsion to remold every person in our
  457. image of what they should be.<br/>
  458. </p>
  459. </td>
  460. <td> </td>
  461. </tr>
  462. <tr>
  463. <td><a href="#Top"><img src="../images/totop.gif" alt="" border="0"/></a></td>
  464. <td>
  465. <p> The
  466. end of consciousness-raising leaves people with no place to go, and
  467. the lack of structure leaves them with no way of getting there. The
  468. women the movement either turn in on themselves and their sisters or
  469. seek other alternatives of action. There are few that are available.
  470. Some women just "do their own thing." This can lead to a
  471. great deal of individual creativity, much of which is useful for the
  472. movement, but it is not a viable alternative for most women and certainly
  473. does not foster a spirit of cooperative group effort. Other women drift
  474. out of the movement entirely because they don't want to develop an
  475. individual project and they have found no way of discovering, joining,
  476. or starting group projects that interest them.<br/>
  477. Many
  478. turn to other political organizations to give them the kind of structured,
  479. effective activity that they have not been able to find in the women's
  480. movement. Those political organizations which see women's liberation
  481. as only one of many issues to which women should devote their time
  482. thus find the movement a vast recruiting ground for new members. There
  483. is no need for such organizations to "infiltrate" (though
  484. this is not precluded). The desire for meaningful political activity
  485. generated in women by their becoming part of the women's liberation
  486. movement is sufficient to make them eager to join other organizations
  487. when the movement itself provides no outlets for their new ideas and
  488. energies. Those women who join other political organizations while
  489. remaining within the women's liberation movement, or who join women's
  490. liberation while remaining in other political organizations, in turn
  491. become the framework for new informal structures. These friendship
  492. networks are based upon their common nonfeminist politics rather than
  493. the characteristics discussed earlier, but operate in much the same
  494. way. Because these women share common values, ideas, and political
  495. orientations, they too become informal, unplanned, unselected, unresponsible
  496. elites -- whether they intend to be so or not.<br/>
  497. These
  498. new informal elites are often perceived as threats by the old informal
  499. elites previously developed within different movement groups. This
  500. is a correct perception. Such politically oriented networks are rarely
  501. willing to be merely "sororities" as many of the old ones
  502. were, and want to proselytize their political as well as their feminist
  503. ideas. This is only natural, but its implications for women's liberation
  504. have never been adequately discussed. The old elites are rarely willing
  505. to bring such differences of opinion out into the open because it would
  506. involve exposing the nature of the informal structure of the group.<br/>
  507. Many
  508. of these informal elites have been hiding under the banner of "anti-elitism" and "structurelessness." To
  509. effectively counter the competition from another informal structure,
  510. they would have to become "public," and this possibility
  511. is fraught with many dangerous implications. Thus, to maintain its
  512. own power, it is easier to rationalize the exclusion of the members
  513. of the other informal structure by such means as "red-baiting," "reformist-baiting," "lesbian-baiting," or "straight-baiting." The
  514. only other alternative is to formally structure the group in such a
  515. way that the original power structure is institutionalized. This is
  516. not always possible. If the informal elites have been well structured
  517. and have exercised a fair amount of power in the past, such a task
  518. is feasible. These groups have a history of being somewhat politically
  519. effective in the past, as the tightness of the informal structure has
  520. proven an adequate substitute for a formal structure. Becoming Structured
  521. does not alter their operation much, though the institutionalization
  522. of the power structure does open it to formal challenge. It is those
  523. groups which are in greatest need of structure that are often least
  524. capable of creating it. Their informal structures have not been too
  525. well formed and adherence to the ideology of "structurelessness" makes
  526. them reluctant to change tactics. The more Unstructured a group is,
  527. the more lacking it is in informal structures, and the more it adheres
  528. to an ideology of "structurelessness," the more vulnerable
  529. it is to being taken over by a group of political comrades.<br/>
  530. Since
  531. the movement at large is just as Unstructured as most of its constituent
  532. groups, it is similarly susceptible to indirect influence. But the
  533. phenomenon manifests itself differently. On a local level most groups
  534. can operate autonomously; but the only groups that can organize a national
  535. activity are nationally organized groups. Thus, it is often the Structured
  536. feminist organizations that provide national direction for feminist
  537. activities, and this direction is determined by the priorities of those
  538. organizations. Such groups as NOW, WEAL, and some leftist women's caucuses
  539. are simply the only organizations capable of mounting a national campaign.
  540. The multitude of Unstructured women's liberation groups can choose
  541. to support or not support the national campaigns, but are incapable
  542. of mounting their own. Thus their members become the troops under the
  543. leadership of the Structured organizations. The avowedly Unstructured
  544. groups have no way of drawing upon the movement's vast resources to
  545. support its priorities. It doesn't even have a way of deciding what
  546. they are.<br/>
  547. The
  548. more unstructured a movement it, the less control it has over the directions
  549. in which it develops and the political actions in which it engages.
  550. This does not mean that its ideas do not spread. Given a certain amount
  551. of interest by the media and the appropriateness of social conditions,
  552. the ideas will still be diffused widely. But diffusion of ideas does
  553. not mean they are implemented; it only means they are talked about.
  554. Insofar as they can be applied individually they may be acted on; insofar
  555. as they require coordinated political power to be implemented, they
  556. will not be.<br/>
  557. As
  558. long as the women's liberation movement stays dedicated to a form of
  559. organization which stresses small, inactive discussion groups among
  560. friends, the worst problems of Unstructuredness will not be felt. But
  561. this style of organization has its limits; it is politically inefficacious,
  562. exclusive, and discriminatory against those women who are not or cannot
  563. be tied into the friendship networks. Those who do not fit into what
  564. already exists because of class, race, occupation, education, parental
  565. or marital status, personality, etc., will inevitably be discouraged
  566. from trying to participate. Those who do fit in will develop vested
  567. interests in maintaining things as they are.<br/>
  568. The
  569. informal groups' vested interests will be sustained by the informal
  570. structures which exist, and the movement will have no way of determining
  571. who shall exercise power within it. If the movement continues deliberately
  572. to not select who shall exercise power, it does not thereby abolish
  573. power. All it does is abdicate the right to demand that those who do
  574. exercise power and influence be responsible for it. If the movement
  575. continues to keep power as diffuse as possible because it knows it
  576. cannot demand responsibility from those who have it, it does prevent
  577. any group or person from totally dominating. But it simultaneously
  578. insures that the movement is as ineffective as possible. Some middle
  579. ground between domination and ineffectiveness can and must be found.<br/>
  580. These
  581. problems are coming to a head at this time because the nature of the
  582. movement is necessarily changing. Consciousness-raising as the main
  583. function of the women's liberation movement is becoming obsolete. Due
  584. to the intense press publicity of the last two years and the numerous
  585. overground books and articles now being circulated, women's liberation
  586. has become a household word. Its issues are discussed and informal
  587. rap groups are formed by people who have no explicit connection with
  588. any movement group. The movement must go on to other tasks. It now
  589. needs to establish its priorities, articulate its goals, and pursue
  590. its objectives in a coordinated fashion. To do this it must get organized
  591. -- locally, regionally, and nationally.</p>
  592. <p>PRINCIPLES
  593. OF DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURING</p>
  594. <p>Once
  595. the movement no longer clings tenaciously to the ideology of "structurelessness,"
  596. it is free to develop those forms of organization best suited to its healthy
  597. functioning. This does not mean that we should go to the other extreme
  598. and blindly imitate the traditional forms of organization. But neither
  599. should we blindly reject them all. Some of the traditional techniques
  600. will prove useful, albeit not perfect; some will give us insights into
  601. what we should and should not do to obtain certain ends with minimal costs
  602. to the individuals in the movement. Mostly, we will have to experiment
  603. with different kinds of structuring and develop a variety of techniques
  604. to use for different situations. The Lot System is one such idea which
  605. has emerged from the movement. It is not applicable to all situations,
  606. but is useful in some. Other ideas for structuring are needed. But before
  607. we can proceed to experiment intelligently, we must accept the idea that
  608. there is nothing inherently bad about structure itself -- only its excess
  609. use.<br/>
  610. </p>
  611. <p> While
  612. engaging in this trial-and-error process, there are some principles
  613. we can keep in mind that are essential to democratic structuring
  614. and are also politically effective:<br />
  615. </p>
  616. <p>
  617. 1)
  618. <u>Delegation</u> of specific authority to specific individuals
  619. for specific tasks by democratic procedures. Letting people assume
  620. jobs or tasks only by default means they are not dependably done.
  621. If people are selected to do a task, preferably after expressing
  622. an interest or willingness to do it, they have made a commitment
  623. which cannot so easily be ignored.<br />
  624. 2)
  625. Requiring all those to whom authority has been delegated to be
  626. <u>responsible</u> to those who selected them. This is how the
  627. group has control over people in positions of authority. Individuals
  628. may exercise power, but it is the group that has ultimate say
  629. over how the power is exercised.<br />
  630. 3)
  631. <u>Distribution</u> of authority among as many people as is reasonably
  632. possible. This prevents monopoly of power and requires those in
  633. positions of authority to consult with many others in the process
  634. of exercising it. It also gives many people the opportunity to
  635. have responsibility for specific tasks and thereby to learn different
  636. skills.<br />
  637. 4)
  638. <u>Rotation</u> of tasks among individuals. Responsibilities which
  639. are held too long by one person, formally or informally, come
  640. to be seen as that person's &quot;property&quot; and are not easily
  641. relinquished or controlled by the group. Conversely, if tasks
  642. are rotated too frequently the individual does not have time to
  643. learn her job well and acquire the sense of satisfaction of doing
  644. a good job.<br />
  645. 5)
  646. <u>Allocation</u> of tasks along rational criteria. Selecting
  647. someone for a position because they are liked by the group or
  648. giving them hard work because they are disliked serves neither
  649. the group nor the person in the long run. Ability, interest, and
  650. responsibility have got to be the major concerns in such selection.
  651. People should be given an opportunity to learn skills they do
  652. not have, but this is best done through some sort of &quot;apprenticeship&quot;
  653. program rather than the &quot;sink or swim&quot; method. Having
  654. a responsibility one can't handle well is demoralizing. Conversely,
  655. being blacklisted from doing what one can do well does not encourage
  656. one to develop one's skills. Women have been punished for being
  657. competent throughout most of human history; the movement does
  658. not need to repeat this process.<br />
  659. 6)
  660. <u>Diffusion of information</u> to everyone as frequently as possible.
  661. Information is power. Access to information enhances one's power.
  662. When an informal network spreads new ideas and information among
  663. themselves outside the group, they are already engaged in the
  664. process of forming an opinion -- without the group participating.
  665. The more one knows about how things work and what is happening,
  666. the more politically effective one can be.<br />
  667. 7)
  668. <u>Equal access to resources</u> needed by the group. This is
  669. not always perfectly possible, but should be striven for. A member
  670. who maintains a monopoly over a needed resource (like a printing
  671. press owned by a husband, or a darkroom) can unduly influence
  672. the use of that resource. Skills and information are also resources.
  673. Members' skills can be equitably available only when members are
  674. willing to teach what they know to others.<br />
  675. </p>
  676. <p>
  677. When
  678. these principles are applied, they insure that whatever structures
  679. are developed by different movement groups will be controlled
  680. by and responsible to the group. The group of people in positions
  681. of authority will be diffuse, flexible, open, and temporary. They
  682. will not be in such an easy position to institutionalize their
  683. power because ultimate decisions will be made by the group at
  684. large. The group will have the power to determine who shall exercise
  685. authority within it.</p>