Interest Groups and Pressure Groups.

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Many moons ago, taking Sociology 'A' Level, I learny about the different definitions of these two groups.
I hope it might be useful to consider where the main gender-stressing advocacy groups lie in relation to these two catagories.

This is roughly what I understood the definitions to be:

Interest Group:

Formally organized
Interest-oriented
May or may not influence the policies of the government
Softer in outlook
More or less protective:

Pressure Group:

Strictly structured
Pressure-focused
Must influence the policies of the government
Harsher in attitude
Protective and Promotive. www.quora.com/How-are-pressure-groups-and-interest-groups-different

The "Protective and Promotive' bit I understood to mean that interest groups were tending to look to the welfare of their people, whereas pressure groups were keen on promoting issues in ways that included increasing the numbers in their cohort, or example, by converting members of the public to their religion.

....

"I learny"?
Yep, I learny spelling, too!

Interest groups tend to be communities with a shared interest (can't think of another word off the top of my head), and if they do any kind of activism its to protect the interests (gaah) of their community.

Pressure groups advocate for change on a single issue. They may have a shared goal, but different values on other issues. They might not advocate for or consider the rights of other groups.

The thread about abolition of the GRA mentions GRA 'interest groups''.

It seems to me more reasonable to call them pressure groups. Schools, MPS, etc. need to say "we take advice from the following pressure groups...". It would be more honest, and cause parents and others to raise more questions about who's being allowed to exercise influence.

They'll never be that honest, its bad optics to say you gave in to pressure, especially when your job involves safeguarding.

Today's Mail on Sunday article on Kathleen Stock refers to Stonewall as a "campaign group", which is better than "charity", but I would prefer it if gender-realists called them and similar organisations 'pressure groups'.
After all, they do pressurise people!

Before gaining charitable status in 2004, Stonewall was known as 'The Stonewall Lobby Group Ltd'.

I've just spotted that Prof. Stock mentions "influential trans pressure groups such as Stonewall". Nice one!