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We assess whether media professionals construct stories in ways that enhance or diminish women's legitimacy as agents of change. Our analysis of 269 broadcast news stories sampled between 1970 and 2012 examines depictions of activists in five social movements—Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Immigrant Rights, Occupy Wall Street, and Tea Party—at the intersection of gender, age, and race. We find that broadcast news coverage diminishes the legitimacy of women and older activists and activists of color by underrepresenting them, presenting opponents' claims at higher rates, and reinforcing dominant cultural narratives about political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore how political generation affects the ways in which diverse individuals come together and change their social and personal identities. Drawing on 52 in-depth interviews with members of the Red Hat Society, we show that women draw on their political generation, and the gains of the women’s movement specifically, to oppose cultural constructions of aging. The Red Hat Society provides a “free space” for women to foster a collective identity that both visibly challenges aging norms and provides its members new standards for self-approval. We conclude by highlighting the importance of focusing on political generation to understand collective action over the life course and call for more scholarship on the function of political generation in social change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]