social reform movements
Collective justice efforts
Social reform movements are organized efforts to change society's laws, institutions, or practices for the better.
They address perceived injustices—civil rights, labor conditions, women's suffrage, temperance.
The term typically implies gradual change through advocacy and legislation rather than revolution: The social reform movements of the Progressive Era reshaped American labor law.
Such movements may operate locally or sweep across nations.
- suffragismAdvocacy for voting rights
- women's suffrageVoting rights for females
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- abolitionismMovement to end oppression
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
march · freedom march · egalitarianism · public health campaigns · equality · anti-discrimination laws · caste system · anti-apartheid activism · petition · conservation efforts · gender roles · anti-bullying programs · struggle · hunger strike · sign · rally · picket line · slogan
social reform movementsnoblesse oblige
High rank requires benevolence
social reform movementsconservatism
Preference for existing institutions
traditionalism · hereditary privilege · ancien régime · counter-revolution
social reform movementsrevolutionary movements
Organized efforts to transform society
social, reform, movements, society, societal, socialize, socialization, socialism, socialist