Structuring women’s interest representation in Europe: between Europeanisation, regionalisation and de-Europeanisation in the UK

This article brings a multi-level perspective to women’s interest representation in Europe by exploring how processes of Europeanisation, de-Europeanisation and regionalisation interact to shape multi-level structures in civil society. Taking the case of the UK’s membership of the European Women’s Lobby and adopting a longitudinal perspective (1989–2022), the article analyses new empirical data from interviews, a witness seminar and archival texts. It reveals how processes of Europeanisation secured the establishment of a decentralised model of women’s interest representation, supporting the differentiated Europeanisation of feminist organisations across sub-state territories. The European Union’s structuring role was subsequently displaced by domestic regionalisation processes, which consolidated this regionalised model. More recent de-Europeanisation agendas pursued by the UK government (including but not limited to Brexit) have left the regionalised model of women’s interest organisations intact. However, they have constrained the realisation of sub-state regions’ divergent Europeanisation preferences and flattened the potentially differentiated de-Europeanisation.