ABSTRACT
S orne social movement1 theorists and women's movement scholars are beginning to acknowledge that a social movement's success in securing fundamental social transformation may best be indicated
by the degree to which the movement's ideas become an integral part of a culture, influencing people's world views and their individual and collective actions. In general, however, this remains a minority view. Despite growing acknowledgment among scholars of the need to assess social movement success in terms ofboth policy change and more fundamental transformation, social movement theorists and scholars of the women's movement continue to assert that social movement success is indicated by the degree to which movement organizations become part of the policy process, working within that process to influence legislation and other social policy. Yet this is but one form of success; it is not the only-or even the most far-reaching-form. For students of the contemporary women's movement, then, the question remains: why do the women's movement studies fall short of representing and exploring feminist activism in all its complexity? Why, in particular, do they so often ignore the discursive activities aimed at effecting radical change in dominant ideologies?
