Becoming full citizens: The US women's jury rights campaigns, the pace of reform, and strategic adaptation

Few studies of social movement political success investigate the strategic and tactical approaches used to achieve positive political outcomes. This work investigates a rarely studied mobilization of U. S. women in the first half of the 20th century to explore how movement organizations bring about legal change. Archival data for 15 states are examined to investigate how women won the right to sit on juries. The authors argue that jury movement activists engaged in strategic adaptation were more likely to win a change in jury laws rapidly. Those not engaged in such strategic action won their reforms more slowly. The authors suggest that when social movement actors tailor their actions to respond to exigencies in the environment they are more likely to expedite political success.