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Intersectionality

The concept of intersectionality originates in Black feminist thought. Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American feminist legal scholar, coined this term in the late 1980’s to reflect the complexity of the experience of workplace discrimination of black women. Crenshaw showed that this experience could not be adequately captured by using a ’single-axis’ discrimination legal framework based on race or sex alone as this rendered invisible the experiences of those who were at the ‘intersection’ of race and gender. She used the metaphor of intersecting roads to depict intersecting roads of oppression (Crenshaw 1989, p. 149). [See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRci2V8PxW4  animation at 4:08 ] 

Since the publication of Crenshaw’s seminal work, the concept of intersectionality has travelled across multiple disciplines, national contexts, institutions and organisational practices. The concept has also been extended beyond gender and race to include other social groups/ categories/discrimination grounds, such as age, ability, sexual orientation and religion.  

Intersectionality is a contested concept which has been interpreted as a theory, a research paradigm, a methodology, an analytical tool, a ‘lens’ or a sensibility. There is also lack of agreement about the subject of intersectionality (the ‘things’ that are ‘intersecting’), i.e., whether these are ‘categories’, ‘identities’, ‘social groups’, ‘social relations’, ‘grounds’ or ‘strands’ (Walby et al. 2012, 229). 

Despite the multiple understandings and uses of the concept of intersectionality, a majority of theorists concur with the view that intersectionality is inextricably linked to an analysis of power, privilege and oppression. A good general definition to start with is the following: 

“Intersectionality promotes an understanding of human beings as shaped by the interaction of different social locations (e.g., ‘race’/ethnicity, Indigeneity, gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability/ability, migration status, religion). These interactions occur within a context of connected systems and structures of power (e.g., laws, policies, state governments and other political and economic unions, religious institutions, media). Through such processes, interdependent forms of privilege and oppression shaped by colonialism, imperialism, racism, homophobia, ableism and patriarchy are created”. 

 [See http://vawforum-cwr.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/intersectionallity_101.pdf .  See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1islM0ytkE  ] 

An analysis of intersecting relations of power is at the core of intersectionality approaches. From an intersectional perspective, power is relational, which implies that a person can simultaneously experience both power and oppression in varying contexts and at varying times (Collins, 2019). An intersectional approach aims to transform the power relations that are taken for granted among the privileged, as well as the structures that create those power differentials. If intersectionality is to be a truly transformative project, researchers and practitioners must consider their own social position, role and power. This kind of ‘reflexivity’ involves critical self-awareness, role-awareness, interrogation of power and privilege, and the questioning of assumptions and ‘truths’ in their work before setting priorities and directions in research and policy (Scully et al., 2017).  

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