Follow the link to have a look, it's open access! lnkd.in/gxiti_Fn

Why? Because supplanting subgroups challenge who gets to define the movement. Our findings reveal that symbolic threat and competition over prototypicality are drivers of internal conflict—suggesting that not all in-group tensions are about goals or values, but about who gets to define the movement.

Across three experiments, these groups were seen as more threatening than internal allies, and sometimes even more competitive than ideological opponents by members of dominant subgroups.

Specifically, we investigated how dominant subgroup members react to “supplanting” subgroups—ideologically distinct newcomers gaining public recognition.

🤝 Importantly, many participants also emphasized collaboration and solidarity, showing that shared goals can coexist with internal disagreement.

We argue that these forms of perceived threat can help explain internal tensions—not just in feminism, but in social movements more broadly.

More established groups, like universal feminists, may perceive newer voices, such as intersectional feminists, as a threat to their long-held position. Conversely, newer subgroups may feel that established ones receive disproportionate recognition and seek greater visibility within the movement.

Second, and interestingly, our results suggest that different subgroups within the feminist movement can compete over recognition and visibility to be perceived as the "true feminist".

Our findings suggest two potential sources of conflict.

First, as expected, feminists can disagree to a point of no return on what feminism is and what its aims should be. We link that to the perception of symbolic threat, often used in social psychology to study intergroup conflicts.

In this study, we explore how tensions emerge within the feminist movement. We conducted 18 interviews with French-speaking Belgian feminists to uncover how they perceive internal debates, rivalries and cooperation.

Hi ! I would like to be added as well :) Thanks !