The Fight for Property Rights: How Changes in Movement Actors and History Brought about the Changes in Frames in a Single Movement

This article seeks to demonstrate how, in the movement for property rights for women in India, changes in the composition of the movement—audience, supporters, and counter actors—at various time periods in a movement's history influence the change in selection of frames. The arguments for gender equality would have been made too early for a society that had practically no rights for women (early phases), when men played the dominant role. Thus the frame of “emancipation through reform” provided the perfect phrase to attract other men in the struggle. The frame of “gender equality” represents a maturing of women's rights in India. With the inclusion of men in the final phases, again the struggle changed the frame, to “rights for women and gender equality for India's development.”