This article examines how ethnic minorities negotiate ethnicity-based boundaries and deal with stigmatisation. This is exemplified by the case of the Russian-speaking women in Estonia. To arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of expressions of ethnicity and responses to stigmatisation, we follow an intersectional approach, considering how constructions of ethnicity and reactions to stigmatisation are gendered. This study adds a gender dimension to understanding belonging and the discursive construction of group boundaries by minority groups. We use the ‘equalisation strategies’ framework developed by Lamont and Bail (2007) to understand how a specific group of Russian-speaking women in Estonia attempt to establish themselves as equal with dominant ethnic groups. Our findings illuminate how, in the Estonian context, claims of belonging can be made and seen as legitimate on the basis of ethnicity rather than stemming from and linked to the discourses of citizenship or civil rights.
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