‘We are in Complete Agreement’: The Diversity Issue, Disagreement and Change in the European Women's Lobby

Abstract

This article analyses how leading members of a social movement organization talk about a controversial topic and looks at how the leaders relate to internal disagreement. By using the issue of women's diversity as point of departure, the article shows how European Women's Lobby (EWL) leaders engage in boundary making vis-à-vis multidimensional equality claims. The interviewed leaders identify women's issues as a majority issue and contrast them with minority issues and women's diversity. It is suggested that the arguments applied by the EWL leaders are similar to those historically articulated when issues such as women's emancipation were marginalized within the traditional class-based labour movement. The presence of diverging opinions among the leaders with regard to how this controversial issue should be framed is subsequently used as an empirical illustration of the dynamism in movement claims. The conclusion of the article suggests that multidimensional equality claims are controversial and disputed within the organization, but that differences in opinion among the leaders coexist and form part of a continuously on-going framing process.