This is an award under the Research Planning Grant program for women scientists and engineers. It is a project to study the changing shape of voluntary association activism in America in recent decades. The researcher will examine Internal Revenue Service data on voluntary associations in order to select a representative sample of such associations and identify their founders. Also supported would be work to develop an interview schedule and pilot interviews with selected founders of voluntary associations in order to learn their what their strategies were in launching their organizations and how they saw the environment for activism at that time. This award will initiate research which should provide important new perspectives on the social climate and political dynamics of post-World War II America. In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, this award will materially assist a promising young researcher to prepare for a larger project, thereby contributing to the stengthening of the national base of women scientists and engineers.
