What intersectionality means

Intersectionality has become a bit of a buzzword, used as a shorthand for all things diversity, equity and inclusion. But what does it mean?  

Intersectionality is about -isms

Intersectionality describes the way systems of oppression intersect. In other words, people don’t experience just one form of oppression at a time.  

Instead, they experience particular forms of oppression, because multiple forms of discrimination (like racism, sexism, and ableism) combine, overlap, or intersect in the lives of marginalised people.

“[It’s] the idea that when it comes to thinking about how inequalities persist, categories like gender, race, and class are best understood as overlapping and mutually constitutive rather than isolated and distinct” – Adia Harvey Wingfield

The history of intersectionality

Legal theorist and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw coined the term in 1989, initially using it to explain the particular experiences of African American women, who experience both racism and sexism.

We need to understand this because intersectioanlity is not an abstract idea. It is not the idea that we all move through the world differently.

It’s about:

  • the unique oppression faced by Black women, who experience misogynoir (anti-Black racism plus sexism).

  • the specific discrimination faced by queer Muslims,

  • and many other real, physical, particular experiences.

It’s now used more widely to talk about other intersecting identities, like class, orientation, migration status, disability or nationality.  

But it didn’t start out that way.

As Crenshaw puts it: “Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there.” 

They all intersect.

And that matters. Because, throughout history, people have experienced the intersections of different -isms.

And the law and other support systems had totally failed them.

Crenshaw coined intersectionality to describe the ways that African American women were being failed by the law, which asked them to choose between their race and their gender.

In the UK, the Equality Act still treats different -isms as though they are separate.

It’s not positionality

 If you ask someone to define intersectionality, a lot of the time they’ll say something like:

“It’s the idea that all our different identities intersect. For example, I’m not just a woman I am also working class. Or he’s not just a man, he’s also gay and a migrant.”

That’s not what intersectionality means.

That’s closer to positionality. Which is about the different parts of our identity.

For example, my positionality as a white cisgender middle class woman shapes my experience of the world. It means I get given respect (even in spaces where I am the least informed person in the room) and I’m often listened to (even when I don’t know what I’m talking about).

Why we need intersectionality  

As Crenshaw’s research shows, Black women don’t experience racism separately from sexism. They experience the intersection of both, which is sometimes called misogynoir (coined by Moya Bailey).

Programmes intended to support women often end up serving only a small subsection of women. Research in the US finds that white women benefit more from affirmative action policies than any other group.  

If we fail to take an intersectional approach, our efforts at tackling ableism, classism, sexism, heterosexism (homophobia), other -isms will end up serving the most privileged people, and neglecting the most marginalised. Inclusion must be intersectional, or it is not inclusion.  

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