{{Short description|Theory of discrimination}} {{Globalize|date=February 2025|2=US}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} [[File:Blank Venn diagram purple green orange 01.svg|thumb|300px|An intersectional analysis considers a collection of factors that affect a social individual in combination, rather than considering each factor in isolation, as illustrated here using a [[Venn diagram]].]]
<!-- Simple definition and simple example --> '''Intersectionality''' is an [[Analytic frame|analytical framework]] for understanding how groups' and individuals' [[Social identity|social and political identities]] result in unique combinations of [[discrimination]] and [[Social privilege|privilege]]. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factors include [[gender]], [[caste]], [[sex]], [[Race (human categorization)|race]], [[ethnicity]], [[Social class|class]], [[sexuality]], [[religion]], [[disability]], [[physical appearance]], and [[ageing|age]].<ref name="Academia.edu">{{cite journal |author=Deckha, M. |date=November 2008 |url=https://wjlgs.law.wisc.edu/2008/volume-xxiii-no-2/ |title=Intersectionality and posthumanist visions of equality |journal=Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society |volume=XXIII |issue=2}}</ref> These factors can lead to both [[empowerment]] and [[oppression]].<ref name="Holley 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Holley |first1=Lynn C. |last2=Mendoza |first2=Natasha S. |last3=Del-Colle |first3=Melissa M. |last4=Bernard |first4=Marquita Lynette |title=Heterosexism, racism, and mental illness discrimination: Experiences of people with mental health conditions and their families |journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services |date=2016 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=93–116 |doi=10.1080/10538720.2016.1155520 |s2cid=147454725}}</ref><ref name="Zinn 1996">{{cite journal |last1=Zinn |first1=Maxine Baca |last2=Dill |first2=Bonnie Thornton |title=Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism |journal=Feminist Studies |date=1996 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=321–331 |id={{ProQuest|233181156}} {{Gale|A18800342}} |doi=10.2307/3178416 |jstor=3178416 |url=https://philarchive.org/rec/ZINTDF |hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0022.206 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
<!--Relationship to older concepts of feminism; who's included? --> Intersectionality arose in reaction to both [[white feminism]] and the then male-dominated [[Black liberation]] movement, citing the "interlocking oppressions" of [[racism]], [[sexism]], and [[heteronormativity]]. It broadens the scope of the [[First-wave feminism|first]] and [[Second-wave feminism|second]] [[waves of feminism]], which largely focused on the experiences of women who were [[White women|white]], [[cisgender]], and [[middle-class]],<ref>{{Cite book |author=bell hooks |title=Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-138-82148-4 |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |oclc=886381091}}</ref> to include the different experiences of [[women of color]], [[Poverty and gender|poor women]], [[immigrant women]], and other groups, and aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's differing experiences and identities.<ref name="IWDA">{{cite web |url=https://iwda.org.au/what-does-intersectional-feminism-actually-mean/ |title=What Does Intersectional Feminism Actually Mean? |date=11 May 2018 |publisher=International Women's Development Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423154503/https://iwda.org.au/what-does-intersectional-feminism-actually-mean/ |archive-date=23 April 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<!--Theory here--> The term ''intersectionality'' was coined by [[Kimberlé Crenshaw]] in 1989.{{r|Cooper 2016|p=385}} She describes how interlocking systems of [[Power (social and political)|power]] affect those who are most [[Social exclusion|marginalized in society]].{{r|Cooper 2016}} Activists and academics use the framework to promote [[Social equity|social]] and [[political egalitarianism]].<ref name="IWDA" /> Intersectionality opposes analytical systems that treat each axis of oppression in isolation. In this framework, for instance, discrimination against [[Black women]] cannot be explained as a simple combination of [[misogyny]] and [[racism]], but as something more complicated.<ref name="Crenshaw 2016a">{{cite conference |last1=Crenshaw |first1=Kimberlé |title=The urgency of intersectionality |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality/transcript |conference=TEDWomen 2016 |date=October 2016}}</ref> While many readers understand intersectionality as the overlapping of multiple social identities (e.g., race, gender, and class), the original intent was to provide an internal framework for analyzing systems of oppression and privilege that interlock, and to support putting theory into practice for social justice rather than simply cataloguing individual identities.<ref name=raar>{{cite journal |last1=Aguayo-Romero |first1=R. A. |title=(Re)centering Black Feminism into intersectionality research |journal=American Journal of Public Health |date=2021 |volume=111 |issue=1 |pages=101–103 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2020.306005 |pmid=33326278 |pmc=7750622}}</ref>
<!--Critics here--> Intersectionality has heavily influenced modern feminism and gender studies.<ref name="Jibrin 2015" /> Its proponents suggest that it promotes a more nuanced and complex approach to addressing power and oppression, rather than offering simplistic answers.<ref name="Davis 2008" /><ref name="Jibrin 2015" /> Its critics suggest that the concept is too broad or complex,<ref name="Downing2018" /> tends to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors,<ref name=Downing2018>{{cite journal |last1=Downing |first1=Lisa |title=The body politic: Gender, the right wing and 'identity category violations' |journal=French Cultural Studies |date=2018 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=367–377 |doi=10.1177/0957155818791075 |s2cid=165115259 |url=http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/53670526/Downing_August_Pre_Pub_Body_politic_article.pdf}}</ref>{{r|Coaston 2019}} is used as an ideological tool,<ref name="intersectionality993">{{cite journal |last=Tomlinson |first=Barbara |title=To Tell the Truth and Not Get Trapped: Desire, Distance, and Intersectionality at the Scene of Argument |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=993–1017 |doi=10.1086/669571 |date=2013 |s2cid=144641071}}</ref>{{r|Coaston 2019}} and is difficult to apply in research contexts.<ref name="Bauer2021" /><ref name="Bright 2015" /><ref name="Guan 2021" /> Scholars of postcolonial and transnational feminist studies have also debated the global application of intersectionality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peretz |first=Tal |date=November 2021 |title=Locally specific matrices of domination: Towards a global theory of Intersectionalities |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277539521001035 |journal=Women's Studies International Forum |language=en |volume=89 |article-number=102540 |doi=10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102540}}</ref>
==Key concepts==
===Interlocking matrix of oppression=== [[Patricia Hill Collins]], author of ''Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory'' (2019),<ref name="j830">{{cite book |last=Hill Collins |first=Patricia |title=Intersectionality as critical social theory |publisher=Duke University Press |publication-place=Durham |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-4780-0646-6}}</ref> refers to the various intersections of social inequality as "vectors of oppression and privilege" that together form a [[matrix of domination]]. These concepts describe how people's experiences of privilege and marginalization are shaped not just by individual differences in isolation (e.g., sexual orientation, class, race, age, etc.), but also by the effect of overlaps and interactions between these differences. The impact of a particular factor, such as race, can vary based on the presence or absence of other factors, such as gender or class.<ref name="Ritzer 2013">{{cite book |last1=Ritzer |first1=George |author1-link=George Ritzer |last2=Stepinisky |first2=Jeffrey |title=Contemporary sociological theory and its classical roots: the basics |pages=204–207 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |edition=4th |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-07-802678-2}}</ref>{{rp|204}}
=== Multiple discrimination === [[file:Dyke*Line auf dem Jungfernstieg und neuen Jungfernstieg und auf Booten auf der Binnenalster 002.jpg|thumb|Intersectionality at a Dyke March in Hamburg, Germany, 2020]] In the [[European Union]] (EU) and UK, "multiple discrimination" refers to discrimination which encompasses more than one social classification (e.g., gender, race, class, religion, sexuality, etc.). These categories, which were previously considered in isolation as defining in their own right, are now increasingly approached as different facets of a person's identity, considered as a multidimensional whole.<ref name="Schiek 2011">{{cite book |last1=Schiek |first1=Dagmar |last2=Lawson |first2=Anna |author2-link=Anna Lawson |title=European Union Non-discrimination Law and Intersectionality: Investigating the Triangle of Racial, Gender and Disability Discrimination |date=2011 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-7980-6}}{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>
===Standpoint theory=== [[Standpoint theory]] has been described by Patricia Collins and [[Dorothy E. Smith]]. A standpoint is an individual's world perspective. Standpoint theory suggests that societal knowledge is subjective, being situated within an individual's specific geographic location and the social conditions under which it was produced.<ref name="Mann 1997">{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Susan A. |last2=Kelley |first2=Lori R. |title=Standing at the crossroads of modernist thought: Collins, Smith, and the new feminist epistemologies |journal=[[Gender & Society]] |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=391–408 |doi=10.1177/089124397011004002 |date=1997 |s2cid=55757598}}</ref>{{rp|392}}
==History== {{external media|width=210px|float=right |topic=[[Women of the World Festival|Women of the World Festival 2016]] |video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DW4HLgYPlA ''Kimberlé Crenshaw – On Intersectionality''] via [[Southbank Centre]] on [[YouTube]]<ref name="Crenshaw 2016b">{{cite AV media |people=Crenshaw, Kimberlé |date=14 March 2016 |access-date=31 May 2016 |title=Kimberlé Crenshaw – On Intersectionality – keynote – WOW 2016 |medium=Video |publisher=[[Southbank Centre]] via YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DW4HLgYPlA}}</ref>}}
[[Black feminist]] scholar [[Kimberlé Crenshaw]] introduced the concept of intersectionality in a pair of essays published in 1989 and 1991 in the field of legal studies.<ref name="Duran 2020">{{cite book |last1=Duran |first1=Antonio |last2=Jones |first2=Susan R. |editor1-last=Casey |editor1-first=Zachary A. |title=Encyclopedia of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-44483-6 |pages=310–320 |chapter=Intersectionality |doi=10.1163/9789004444836_041 |s2cid=242630915}}</ref>{{r|Crenshaw 1991}}<ref name="Crenshaw 1989" /><ref name="Cooper 2016">{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Brittney |editor1-last=Disch |editor1-first=Lisa |editor2-first=Mary |editor2-last=Hawkesworth |chapter=Intersectionality |title=The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory |year=2016 |pages=385–406 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-932858-1 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328581.013.20}}</ref> Intersectionality originated in [[critical race studies]] and considers the way different forms of oppression (such as racism, sexism, [[classism]], [[homophobia]], and so on) can combine and interact to produce multifaceted systems of oppression and privilege that shape the experiences of individuals. Crenshaw used intersectionality to demonstrate how these intersecting systems of oppression disadvantaged minorities in the workplace and society.{{r|Crenshaw 1991}}<ref name="Cho 2013">{{Cite journal |last1=Cho |first1=Sumi |last2=Crenshaw |first2=Kimberlé Williams |last3=McCall |first3=Leslie |date=2013 |title=Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=785–810 |doi=10.1086/669608 |issn=0097-9740}}</ref>
Although Crenshaw introduced the term Intersectionality in 1989, recent scholars emphasize that intersectionality is not a static framework but one that has continued to evolve both before and after its namesake. In a 2023 review of the concept's development, T. Batista argued that intersectionality has undergone significant reinterpretation over time as researchers apply it across new geopolitical, legal, and social contexts. The article notes that while Crenshaw's original formulation emerged from Black feminist legal theory to illustrate how racism and sexism operate simultaneously, contemporary scholars increasingly stress the need to maintain a focus on structures of power rather than reducing the concept to overlapping identities.<ref name=tb>{{cite journal |last1=Bastia |first1=T. |date=2023 |title=Reflections on intersectionality: A journey from 1989 to today |journal=Gender, Place, and Culture |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=460–483 |doi=10.1080/0966369X.2022.2126826 |doi-access=free}}</ref> This ongoing academic debate highlights both the durability of Crenshaw's foundational insights and the expanding range of issues to which intersectionality is now applied.<ref name=tb/>
===Precursors to intersectionality=== The historical exclusion of Black women from the feminist movement in the United States resulted in many Black 19th- and 20th-century feminists—including [[Sojourner Truth]], [[Anna J. Cooper]], [[Maria W. Stewart]], [[Ida B. Wells]], and others—challenging their historical exclusion from earlier feminist movements, which were primarily led by white middle-class women who suggested that women were a homogeneous category who shared the same life experiences.<ref name="Davis 1983">{{cite book |last=Davis |first=Angela Y. |author-link=Angela Davis |title=Women, Race & Class |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-394-71351-9}}</ref><ref name="Cooper 2016" /><ref name="Collins 2015" />
In her 1851 "[[Ain't I a Woman?]]" speech, Sojourner Truth spoke from her racialized position as a formerly enslaved woman to critique essentialist notions of [[femininity]].<ref name="Brah">{{cite journal |last1=Brah |first1=Avtar |last2=Phoenix |first2=Ann |date=15 January 2013 |title=Ain't I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol5/iss3/8/ |journal=Journal of International Women's Studies |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=75–86}}</ref> She highlighted the differences between the treatment of white and Black women in society, saying that white women were often regarded as emotional and delicate, while Black women were stereotyped as brutish and subjected to both gendered and racialized abuse. These observations were largely dismissed by many white feminists of the time, who prioritized the suffrage movement over addressing the intersecting oppressions faced by Black women.<ref name="Truth">{{cite book |last=Truth |first=Sojourner |title=Available Means: An Anthology Of Women's Rhetoric(s) |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8229-7975-3 |editor1-last=Ritchie |editor1-first=Joy |pages=144–146 |chapter='Speech at the Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio' (1851) |doi=10.2307/j.ctt5hjqnj.28 |jstor=j.ctt5hjqnj.28 |editor2-last=Ronald |editor2-first=Kate}}</ref>
Early writers and intellectuals such as Cooper, Stewart, Wells, [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]], and Nira Yuval-Davis also emphasized the interconnected nature of racial and gender oppressions, prefiguring intersectionality.<ref name="Cooper 2016" /><ref name="Collins 2015" /> In her 1892 essay titled "The Colored Woman's Office", Cooper identified Black women as crucial agents of social change, emphasizing their unique understanding of multiple forms of oppression.<ref name="Cooper 1892">{{cite book |last=Cooper |first=Anna Julia |title=Social theory: the multicultural, global, and classic readings |publisher=Westview Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8133-5044-8 |editor-last=Lemert |editor-first=Charles |edition=6th |location=Boulder, Colo. |chapter=The colored woman's office |orig-date=1892}}</ref><ref name="Cooper 2016" /> In her book ''A Voice from the South'' (1892), Cooper emphasized the importance of considering the "whole race" by focusing on the lived experiences of Black women. Cooper said that their oppression was just not racial or gender-based but a complex combination of the two.<ref name="Cooper South">{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Anna Julia |title=A Voice from the South |publisher=Aldine Printing House |year=2018 |orig-date=1st pub. 1892 |isbn=978-0-598-55637-0 |language=English}}</ref><ref name="Cooper 2016" />
[[W. E. B. Du Bois]] theorized that the intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain specific aspects of the Black [[political economy]]. [[Patricia Hill Collins]] writes: "Du Bois saw race, class, and nation not primarily as personal identity categories but as social hierarchies that shaped African-American access to status, poverty, and power."{{sfn|Collins|2000|p=44}} Du Bois nevertheless omitted gender from his theory and considered it more of a personal identity category.<ref name="Cooper 2016" /> In 1947, [[Pauli Murray]] used the phrase "Jane Crow" to describe the compounded challenges faced by Black women in the [[Jim Crow South]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Azaransky |first1=Sarah |date=2013 |title=Jane Crow: Pauli Murray's Intersections and Antidiscrimination Law |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=155–160 |id={{gale|A333448072}} |doi=10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.1.155 |jstor=10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.1.155}}</ref>
===Second wave feminism=== [[Patricia Hill Collins]] describes the many proponents of Black, [[Asian American feminism|Asian American]], Latina, [[Indigenous feminism|Indigenous]], and [[Chicana feminism]] active in North America between the 1960s and 1980s as instrumental in the development of intersectionality.<ref name="Collins 2015" /> In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of non-Western feminists of color also articulated ideas similar to intersectionality, such as [[Awa Thiam]], [[Chandra Talpade Mohanty]], [[Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak]], [[Chela Sandoval]], and others.<ref name="Mays 2018">{{cite book |last1=Mays |first1=V. M. |last2=Ghavami |first2=N. |date=2018 |chapter=History, Aspirations, and Transformations of Intersectionality: Focusing on Gender |editor1-first=C. B. |editor1-last=Travis |editor2-first=J. W. |editor2-last=White |editor3-first=A. |editor3-last=Rutherford |editor4-first=W. S. |editor4-last=Williams |editor5-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Cook |editor6-first=K. F. |editor6-last=Wyche |title=APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women: History, Theory, and Battlegrounds |pages=541–566 |publisher=American Psychological Association |publication-place= |isbn= |doi=10.1037/0000059-028}}</ref>
In 1974, a group of Black feminists organized the [[Combahee River Collective]] in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], in response to what they felt was an alienation from both white feminism and the male-dominated [[Black liberation movement]], citing the "interlocking oppressions" of racism, sexism and [[heteronormativity]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Roots of Intersectionality {{!}} University of Rochester School of Nursing |url=https://son.rochester.edu/newsroom/2022/intersectionality.html |website=son.rochester.edu}}</ref> The collective developed the concept of "simultaneity": the simultaneous influences of race, class, gender, and sexuality, which informed the members' lives and their resistance to oppression.<ref name="Wiegman">{{cite book |last=Wiegman |first=Robyn |year=2012 |chapter=Critical kinship (universal aspirations and intersectional judgements) |editor-last=Wiegman |editor-first=Robyn |title=Object lessons |page=244 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, N.C. |isbn=978-0-8223-5160-3 |doi=10.1515/9780822394945 |s2cid=242615176 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/objectlessons00wieg/page/244/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration}} {{block indent |left=2 |Citing: {{cite book |last1=Hull |first1=Gloria T. |last2=Bell-Scott |first2=Patricia |last3=Smith |first3=Barbara |title=All the women are White, all the blacks are men, but some of us are brave: black women's studies |publisher=[[Feminist Press]] |location=Old Westbury, N.Y. |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-912670-92-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/allwomenarewhite00hull/mode/1up |url-access=registration |ref=none}} }}</ref><ref name="Johnson 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Amanda Walker |title=Resituating the Crossroads: Theoretical Innovations in Black Feminist Ethnography |journal=Souls |date=2017 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=401–415 |doi=10.1080/10999949.2018.1434350 |s2cid=149590053}}</ref> The Combahee River Collective advanced an understanding of African-American experiences that challenged analyses emerging from Black and male-centered social movements, as well as those from mainstream cisgender, white, middle-class, heterosexual feminists.<ref name="Norman 2007">{{Cite journal |last=Norman |first=Brian |title='We' in Redux: The Combahee River Collective's ''black Feminist Statement'' |journal=[[differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies]] |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=104 |doi=10.1215/10407391-2007-004 |date=2007}}</ref>
In ''[[DeGraffenreid v. General Motors]]'' (1976), Emma DeGraffenreid and four other Black female auto workers alleged compound [[employment discrimination]] as Black women resulting from [[General Motors]]' seniority-based system of layoffs. The courts weighed the allegations of race and gender discrimination separately, finding that the employment of African-American men in the factory disproved racial discrimination, and the employment of white women in the offices disproved [[gender discrimination]]. The court declined to consider compound discrimination, and dismissed the case.<ref name="HoSang">{{cite book |last1=HoSang |first1=Daniel M. |editor1-last=Burgett |editor1-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Hendler |editor2-first=Glenn |title=Keywords for American cultural studies |date=2020 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-1-4798-6745-5 |pages=142–144 |edition=3rd |chapter=Intersectionality |doi=10.18574/9781479867455-038 |doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |chapter-url=https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/intersectionality/}}</ref>{{r|Adewunmi}} Crenshaw said that in cases such as this, the courts have tended to ignore Black women's unique experiences by treating them as {{em|only}} women or {{em|only}} Black.<ref name="Coaston 2019">{{cite news |last1=Coaston |first1=Jane |title=The intersectionality wars |url=https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination |work=Vox |date=28 May 2019}}</ref>{{r|Crenshaw 1989|pp=141–143}}
In 1978, [[Senegal]]ese writer Awa Thiam wrote of the "threefold oppression" of racism, sexism, and class oppression which impacted African women:<ref name="Mays 2018" />
{{blockquote|The Black woman of Africa suffers threefold oppression: by virtue of her sex, she is dominated by man in a patriarchal society; by virtue of her class she is at the mercy of capitalist exploitation; by virtue of her race she suffers from the appropriation of her country by colonial or neo-colonial powers. Sexism, racism, class division; three plagues.<ref name="Mays 2018" />}}
By the 1980s, as [[second-wave feminism]] began to recede, scholars of color including [[Audre Lorde]], [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]] and [[Angela Davis]] brought their lived experiences into academic discussion, shaping what would become known as "intersectionality" within race, class, and gender studies in U.S. academia.<ref name="Collins 2015" /><ref name="Buikema 2009" /> Scholar [[bell hooks]], in her groundbreaking work ''[[Ain't I a Woman? (book)|Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism]]'' (1981), described the exclusion of Black women's experiences from mainstream feminist narratives and underscored the importance of addressing race, gender, and class as intersecting systems of oppression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=hooks |first=bell |title=Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-138-82151-4 |edition=2nd |publication-date=14 October 2014 |language=English}}</ref> For hooks, the emergence of intersectionality "challenged the notion that 'gender' was the primary factor determining a woman's fate".<ref name="hooks 2014">{{cite book |last=hooks |first=bell |title=Feminist Theory: from margin to center |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=2014 |orig-date=1984 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-1-138-82166-8}}</ref> Inspired by Lorde, [[Afro-German]] women also began to explore issues of overlapping oppression in Germany.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roig |first=Emilia |date=6 March 2018 |title=Intersectionality in Europe: a depoliticized concept? |url=https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/intersectionality-in-europe-a-depoliticized-concept/ |journal=Völkerrechtsblog |language=en |doi=10.17176/20180306-142929}}</ref>
Also in 1981, [[Cherríe Moraga]] and [[Gloria Anzaldúa]] published ''[[This Bridge Called My Back]]: Writings by Radical Women of Color'', an anthology centering the experiences of women of color, which challenges [[white feminist]]s who made claims to solidarity based on [[Sisterhood Is Powerful|sisterhood]], calling for greater recognition of their multiple identities.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Moraga |first1=Cherríe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0j2fBgAAQBAJ |title=This Bridge Called My Back, Fourth Edition: Writings by Radical Women of Color |last2=Anzaldúa |first2=Gloria |date=11 February 2015 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-5438-2 |page=xxii}}{{pb}}{{cite web |author=Nisha Agarwal |date=11 January 2010 |title=This Bridge Called My Back: A Retro Look at Women of Color and Power |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nisha-agarwal/this-bridge-called-my-bac_b_418196.html |access-date=13 January 2010 |work=[[The Huffington Post]]}}</ref> Among other things, works in the anthology call for greater attention to race-related subjectivities in feminism, and ultimately laid the foundation for [[third wave feminism]].<ref>Aenerud, Rebecca "[https://books.google.com/books?id=yCORLQBk1XYC&dq=%22this+Bridge+Called+My+Back+and+the+Challenge+to+Whiteness%22&pg=PA69 Thinking Again: ''This Bridge Called My Back'' and the Challenge to Whiteness]" in {{cite book |author=AnaLouise Keating |title=This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation |author2=Gloria E. Anzaldúa |year=2002 |page=71}}</ref>
In 1988, Deborah K. King published the article "Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology". In it, King addresses what soon became the foundation for intersectionality, saying, "Black women have long recognized the special circumstances of our lives in the United States: the commonalities that we share with all women, as well as the bonds that connect us to the men of our race".<ref name="King1988" />
===''Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex''=== In 1989, [[Kimberlé Crenshaw]] coined the term ''intersectionality'' as a way to help explain the oppression of [[African-American women]] in her essay ''Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics''.<ref name="Cooper 2016" /><ref name="Crenshaw 1989">{{cite journal |last1=Crenshaw |first1=Kimberlé |title=Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics |journal=University of Chicago Legal Forum |date=1989 |volume=1989 |issue=1 |pages=139–167 |url=http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8 |issn=0892-5593}} [https://archive.org/details/DemarginalizingTheIntersectionOfRaceAndSexABlackFeminis/mode/1up?view=theater Full text at Archive.org]</ref> Crenshaw's term has risen to the forefront of national conversations about racial justice, [[identity politics]], and policing—and over the years has helped shape legal discussions.<ref name="Two Decades">{{cite web |author=<!--anonymous author; no byline--> |title=Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More than Two Decades Later |date=8 June 2017 |publisher=Columbia Law School |url=https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later |access-date=14 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="Adewunmi">{{Cite news |last=Adewunmi |first=Bim |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberl-crenshaw-intersectionality-i-wanted-come-everyday-metaphor-anyone-could |title=Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality: 'I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use' |date=2 April 2014 |work=[[New Statesman]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518120135/https://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberl-crenshaw-intersectionality-i-wanted-come-everyday-metaphor-anyone-could |archive-date=18 May 2018 |url-access=limited}}</ref> In her work, Crenshaw discusses [[Black feminism]], arguing that the experience of being a Black woman cannot be understood in terms independent of either being Black or a woman. Rather, it must include interactions between the two identities, which, she adds, should frequently reinforce one another.<ref name="Thomas 2004">{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=Sheila |last2=Crenshaw |first2=Kimberlé |title=Intersectionality: the double bind of race and gender |work=Perspectives Magazine |date=Spring 2004 |page=2 |publisher=[[American Bar Association]] |url=http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/perspectives_magazine/women_perspectives_Spring2004CrenshawPSP.authcheckdam.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118111551/http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/perspectives_magazine/women_perspectives_Spring2004CrenshawPSP.authcheckdam.pdf |archive-date=18 January 2012}}</ref>
In order to demonstrate that women of color have different experiences from white women, Crenshaw explores [[domestic violence]] and [[rape]] committed by men, which for women of color consist of a combination of both racism and sexism. She says that because the discourses designed to address either race or sex do not consider both at the same time, women of color are marginalized within both of them as a result.<ref name="Crenshaw 1991">{{cite journal |last1=Crenshaw |first1=Kimberle |title=Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color |journal=Stanford Law Review |date=1991 |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=1241–1299 |doi=10.2307/1229039 |jstor=1229039 |citeseerx=10.1.1.695.5934 |s2cid=24661090}} {{block indent |left=2 |Reprinted in: {{cite book |editor1-last=Crenshaw |editor1-first=Kimberlé |editor2-last=Gotanda |editor2-first=Neil |editor3-last=Peller |editor3-first=Gary |editor4-last=Thomas |editor4-first=Kendall |title=Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement |year=1995 |location=New York |publisher=The New Press |isbn=978-1-56584-271-7 |pages=357–384 |url=https://archive.org/details/critica_xxx_1995_00_1144/page/357/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |ref=none}} }}</ref> The chapter "''Sexualities, social justice, and sexual justice''" by Jeff Hearn, Sofia Aboim and Tamara Shefer<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hearn |first1=Jeff |last2=Aboim |first2=Sofia |last3=Shefer |first3=Tamara |chapter=Sexualities, Social Justice and Sexual Justice |date=2018 |editor-last=Craig |editor-first=Gary |title=Handbook on Global Social Justice |location=Cheltenham, UK |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |pages=238–240 |isbn=978-1-78643-142-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIdlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA228 |via=Google Books}}</ref> also directly connects to Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality. It is explained how Crenshaw argues that systems of power constantly ignore the way race and gender intersect. This produces unique forms of marginalization for women of colour. Similarly, the passage also critiques global sexual justice efforts for reproducing racialize and gendered hierarchies, specifically when [[Global North]]ern actors frame poor, Black women living in the [[Global South]] as "helpless victims". Both cases touch upon how marginalized groups are spoken ''about'', rather than ''with''.
Crenshaw also delves into several legal cases that exhibit the concept of political intersectionality and how anti-discrimination law has been historically limited, such as ''[[DeGraffenreid v. General Motors]]'', ''Moore v Hughes Helicopter Inc.'', and ''Payne v Travenol''. There are two commonalities, amongst others, between these cases: firstly, each respective court's inability to fully understand the multidimensionality of the plaintiff's intersecting identities, and the limited ability that the plaintiffs had to argue their case due to restrictions created by the very legislation that exists in opposition to discrimination, such as [[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]].<ref name="Crenshaw 1989" />
==Development== {{Feminism sidebar}} The concept of<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rummery |first1=Kirstein |chapter=Gender Equality and Social Justice |date=2018 |editor-last=Craig |editor-first=Gary |title=Handbook on Global Social Justice |location=Cheltenham, UK |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |pages=187–200 |isbn=978-1-78643-142-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIdlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA187 |via=Google Books}}</ref> intersectionality was intended to illuminate dynamics that have often been overlooked by feminist theory and movements.<ref name="McCall 2005" /><ref name="Thompson 2002">{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Becky |title=Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism |journal=Feminist Studies |date=2002 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=337–360 |doi=10.2307/3178747 |jstor=3178747 |s2cid=152165042 |hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0028.210 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What Is Intersectionality? {{!}} Intersections of Gender |url=https://www.ualberta.ca/intersections-gender/about/about-intersectionality.html#:~:text=Intersectional%20research%20design%20understands%20that,,%20ability,%20indigeneity%20and%20income. |access-date=11 May 2023 |website=www.ualberta.ca}}</ref> Racial inequality was largely ignored by first-wave feminism, which was primarily concerned with achieving political equality between white men and white women,<ref name="Fixmer-Oraiz">{{Cite book |title=Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, & Culture |last1=Fixmer-Oraiz |last2=Wood |first1=Natalie |first2=Julia |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-305-28027-4 |location=Boston, Mass.}}</ref>{{rp|59–60}} and second-wave feminism, which sought to dismantle sexism relating to the perceived domestic purpose of women.<ref name="Grady">{{cite web |title=The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained |last=Grady |first=Constance |date=20 March 2018 |website=Vox |url=https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405172242/https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth |archive-date=5 April 2019}}</ref> [[Third-wave feminism]]—which emerged shortly after the term ''intersectionality'' was coined—attempted to address the lack of attention given to race, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity in early feminist movements.{{r|Fixmer-Oraiz|pp=72–73}}
The term became more widely used in the 1990s, particularly following further development of Crenshaw's work by sociologist [[Patricia Hill Collins]]. Collins says Crenshaw's term replaced her own previous coinage "Black feminist thought", and "increased the general applicability of her theory from African American women to all women".<ref name="Mann 2005">{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Susan A. |last2=Huffman |first2=Douglas J. |title=The decentering of second wave feminism and the rise of the third wave |journal=[[Science & Society]] |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=56–91 |jstor=40404229 |date=2005 |doi=10.1521/siso.69.1.56.56799}}</ref>{{rp|61}} Collins sought to create frameworks to think about intersectionality, rather than expanding on the theory itself. She identified three main branches of study within intersectionality: one dealing with the background, ideas, issues, conflicts, and debates within intersectionality; another that seeks to apply intersectionality as an analytical strategy to examine how various [[social institutions]] might perpetuate social inequality; and one that uses intersectionality to bring social change through [[social justice]] initiatives.<ref name="Collins 2015">{{cite journal |last=Collins |first=Patricia Hill |title=Intersectionality's definitional dilemmas |journal=[[Annual Review of Sociology]] |volume=41 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112142 |date=2015 |s2cid=145739525 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=22 October 2023 |title=$1 Million Berggruen Philosophy Prize Awarded to Patricia Hill Collins – Berggruen Institute |url=https://www.berggruen.org/news/usd1-million-berggruen-philosophy-prize-awarded-to-patricia-hill-collins |access-date=19 July 2024 |website=www.berggruen.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sayer |first=Andrew |editor-last=Craig |editor-first=Gary |date=2018 |chapter=Income, Work and Justice* |title=Handbook on Global Social Justice |pages=42–45 |location=Cheltenham, UK |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |isbn=978-1-78643-142-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIdlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
Though intersectionality began with the exploration of the interplay between sexist and racist oppression, with classist and homophobic/biphobic oppression sometimes included, the theory has since expanded to cover other forms of oppression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kathy |title=Writing academic texts differently: intersectional feminist methodologies and the playful art of writing |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-50225-2 |editor-last=Lykke |editor-first=Nina |series=Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality |location=London |page=18 |chapter=Intersectionality as Critical Methodology}}</ref> Additionally, intersectionality has been used to address the differences between women of color even regarding shared experiences such as racism. For example, [[Asian American]] women have reported intersectional experiences that set them apart from other women of color as well as Asian men.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Choi |first1=Jin Young |last2=Smith |first2=Mitzi J. |title=Minoritized Women Reading Race and Ethnicity: Intersectional Approaches to Constructed Identity and Early Christian Texts |date=24 September 2020 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-9159-1 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwD6DwAAQBAJ&dq=asian+american&pg=PA112 |language=en}}</ref> [[Gloria Wekker]] says the Chicana feminist work of Gloria E. Anzaldúa is important because "existent categories for identity are strikingly not dealt with in separate or mutually exclusive terms, but are always referred to in relation to one another".<ref name="Buikema 2009">{{Cite book |title=Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture: A Comprehensive Guide to Gender Studies |editor1=Buikema, Rosemarie |editor2=van der Tuin, Iris |publisher=Routeledge |location=London |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-415-49383-3 |pages=63–65}}</ref>
===Caste=== In South Asia, [[Dalit]] feminists have drawn on intersectional analysis to emphasize the compounded marginalization faced by Dalit women, who experience both caste-based and gender-based discrimination. Scholars such as [[Thenmozhi Soundararajan]] argue in their works like ''The Trauma of Caste'' that mainstream feminist frameworks often neglect these intersecting oppressions, calling for a more nuanced analysis that recognizes caste as a central axis of inequality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Soundararajan |first=Thenmozhi |title=The Trauma of Caste |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-62317-766-9 |location=United States of America |publication-date=15 November 2022 |language=English}}</ref>
===Class=== Collins has used a [[Marxist feminist]] approach to apply intersectional principles to study Black women's poverty and what she calls the "work/family nexus". In her 2000 article "Black Political Economy", she suggests the intersections of [[consumer racism]], gender hierarchies, and disadvantages in the labor market can be centered on Black women's unique experiences—such as the suppression of Black women's economic mobility due to inheritance and [[anti-miscegenation laws]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hill Collins |first=Patricia |title=Black Feminist Thought |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-96014-8 |edition=0 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203900055 |pages=45–46 |ref={{harvid|Collins|2000}}}}</ref><ref name="Browne & Misra 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Browne |first1=Irene |last2=Misra |first2=Joya |title=The Intersection of Gender and Race in the Labor Market |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |date=2003 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=487–513 |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100016 |jstor=30036977 |bibcode=2003ARSoc..29..487B}}</ref>{{rp|506}} [[Chiara Bottici]] has also incorporated elements of [[anarcha-feminism]] to counter criticisms that intersectionality is incomplete or fails to recognize the specificity of women's oppression, saying "that there is something ''specific'' about the oppression of women and that in order to fight it you have to fight ''all'' other forms of oppression."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bottici |first=Chiara |author-link=Chiara Bottici |title=Bodies in Plural: Towards an Anarcha-feminist Manifesto |journal=[[Thesis Eleven]] |volume=142 |issue=1 |year=2017 |page=95 |doi=10.1177/0725513617727793 |s2cid=148911963}}</ref>
===Colonialism=== In Latin America, [[Maria Lugones]] introduced the concept of the "coloniality of gender" to explore how colonial histories intersect across race, gender, and class, creating unique forms of oppression for Indigenous and Afro-descendant women. Her work reveals the imposition of Eurocentric gender norms during colonial rule, which marginalized non-Western gender identities and social structures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lugones |first=María |date=2007 |title=Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System |journal=Hypatia |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=186–209 |jstor=4640051 |issn=0887-5367}}</ref> [[Mara Viveros Vigoya]] also provides a Latin American perspective which considers the need to address colonialism as part of an intersectional approach.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Viveros Vigoya |first=Mara |date=2016 |title=La interseccionalidad: una aproximación situada a la dominación |trans-title=Intersectionality: a situated approach to domination |journal=Debate Feminista |volume=52 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1016/j.df.2016.09.005 |doi-access=free |issn=0188-9478 |jstor=44735227 |lang=es}}</ref>
==Forms== In "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color", Kimberlé Crenshaw outlines three forms of intersectionality to describe the violence women experience: structural, political, and representational.<ref name="Crenshaw 1991"/> These frameworks are still used today.<ref name="Evans2022" /><ref name="Cho 2013" />
=== Structural intersectionality === Structural intersectionality considers how people are marginalized by the combined effects of different overlapping and reinforcing forms of systemic, institutional, and structural inequality.<ref name="Evans2022" /><ref name="Homan 2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Homan |first1=Patricia |last2=Brown |first2=Tyson H. |last3=King |first3=Brittany |date=2021 |title=Structural Intersectionality as a New Direction for Health Disparities Research |journal=Journal of Health and Social Behavior |language=EN |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=350–370 |doi=10.1177/00221465211032947 |issn=0022-1465 |pmc=8628816 |pmid=34355603}}</ref>{{r|Cho 2013|p=797}}{{r|Crenshaw 1991|p=1245}} Crenshaw uses this approach to analyze the structural classism, racism, and sexism that combine to make women of color more vulnerable to domestic violence and rape, as well as how a failure to recognise the overlapping of these structures has resulted in inadequate interventions for such women.<ref name="Pedulla2014" />{{r|Cho 2013|p=797}}
In 2020, Alesha Durfee used the structural intersectional approach to examine the inability of "multiply marginalized" people, such as women of color, to file for, obtain, serve, and enforce protective orders in domestic violence situations, and suggested that the systems in place replicated wider social inequalities. Durfee said the basis for such inequalities was "policies and procedures based on inappropriate assumptions about individuals" that do not account for the complexity of their lived experiences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Durfee |first=Alesha |date=2021 |title=The Use of Structural Intersectionality as a Method to Analyze How the Domestic Violence Civil Protective Order Process Replicates Inequality |journal=Violence Against Women |language=EN |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=639–665 |doi=10.1177/1077801220958495 |pmid=32965175 |issn=1077-8012}}</ref> In 2021, a group of researchers using a structural intersectional approach found that the impact of overlapping structural racism, sexism, and income inequality in U.S. healthcare varied considerably across the country but was most consistently associated with poor health in Black women.<ref name="Homan 2021" />
=== Political intersectionality === Political intersectionality considers how activist or political movements can marginalize people with multiple intersecting identities by focusing on "allegedly universal, single-axis approaches" which either exclude them or else ignore or downplay the complexities of their experiences.{{r|Cho 2013|p=800}}<ref name="Evans2022">{{Cite journal |last=Evans |first=Elizabeth |date=2022 |title=Political intersectionality and disability activism: Approaching and understanding difference and unity |journal=The Sociological Review |language=en |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=986–1004 |doi=10.1177/00380261221111231 |doi-access=free |issn=0038-0261}} {{cc-notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}}</ref> Black feminists such as Crenshaw and Deborah K. King have used political intersectionality to explore the separation of race- and gender-based discourse within the anti-racist and feminist movements, which requires women of color to prioritise their interests as either "people of color" or "women", rather than reflecting that they are both.<ref name="Crenshaw 1991"/><ref name=King1988>{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Deborah K. |title=Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |date=1988 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=42–72 |doi=10.1086/494491 |s2cid=143446946}}</ref> This framework has since been applied to consider other intersections, such as class, sexuality, and disability.<ref name="Pedulla2014" /><ref name="Evans2022" />
Sameena Azhar et al. have argued that [[Asian American]]s are subject to myths that they "do not experience racialized, sexualized, and gendered [[microaggressions]]". They suggest these attitudes serve to socially and politically delegitimize Asian Americans' experiences of racism. They suggest that stereotypes of Asian Americans that frame their sexuality "in ways that maintain the social and political dominance of white men" affect Asian American men and women differently. For example, Asian American women were often perceived as romantically desirable and overly sexualized, while their male counterparts were perceived as asexual.<ref name="Azhar 2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Azhar |first1=Sameena |last2=Alvarez |first2=Antonia R. G. |last3=Farina |first3=Anne S. J. |last4=Klumpner |first4=Susan |date=2021 |title='You're So Exotic Looking': An Intersectional Analysis of Asian American and Pacific Islander Stereotypes |journal=Affilia |language=EN |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=282–301 |doi=10.1177/08861099211001460 |issn=0886-1099 |quote=Coupled with these racialized stereotypes regarding the assumed higher education and wealth of APIs are coexisting stereotypes regarding their gender and sexuality. In [the] American context, Asian women are often portrayed in overtly sexualized ways as the objects of desire for men, particularly white men (Sue et al., 2007). Conversely, Asian men are portrayed as effeminate, emasculated, weak, and sexually undesirable. [...] API sexuality is again shaped in ways that maintain the social and political dominance of white men.}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
=== Representational intersectionality === Representational intersectionality is the study of how intersecting identities (e.g., race, gender, class, sexuality) are depicted in cultural narratives and media, and how this creates or reinforces overlapping forms of marginalization.<ref name="Evans2022" /> Crenshaw used this framework to analyze how stereotypical portrayals of women of color in popular culture often perpetuate harm against them.<ref name="Crenshaw 1991"/> Subsequent analysis of representation in popular culture has also used an international approach.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Matsuda1993" />
Analyzing film and television, [[bell hooks]] suggests women of color are frequently portrayed as hyper-sexualized, "sassy", or docile tropes—such as the "fiery Latina', "submissive Asian", "[[angry Black woman]]"— which erase the full complexity of their intersecting identities, perpetuate oppressive societal attitudes and norms (such as sexism, racism, and classism), and even lead to violence against women of color.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=hooks |first=bell |title=Black looks: race and representation |date=2007 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=978-0-89608-433-9 |edition=Nachdr. |location=Boston, Mass}}</ref> According to Mari J. Matsuda and others, these tropes also appear in advertising and marketing campaigns, which often portray women of color in "exotic" or "hyper-feminine" terms and thereby reinforce stereotypes of them as commodities or objects of consumption.<ref name="Matsuda1993">{{Cite book |last1=Matsuda |first1=Mari J. |title=Words that wound: critical race theory, assaultive speech, and the First Amendment |last2=Lawrence |first2=Charles R. III |last3=Delgado |first3=Richard |last4=Crenshaw |first4=Kimberlé |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-0-367-31404-0 |location=New York London}}</ref>{{page number needed|date=May 2025}}
In their analysis of news media, including over two million articles published by [[Fox News]] and ''[[The New York Times]]'' between 2000–2022, Elliot Ash and others found that news stories involving [[women of color]], [[LGBTQ]]+ people, and other minority groups often used sensational or stereotypical lenses, ignoring socioeconomic contexts or broader [[structural inequalities]], and effectively "flattening" the narrative of complex identities. They especially noted tropes of criminality, cleanliness, and invasion about immigrants, single parents, and [[Transgender|trans]] people, which they found had shaped broader perceptions of marginalized communities.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ash |first=Elliot |date=April 2022 |title=Visual Representation and Stereotypes in News Media |url=https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp9686.pdf |publisher=CESifo Group Munich}}</ref> In the context of [[domestic violence]], Timothy Laurie and Hannah Stark also observe disparities in representations of victims and offenders: "[[cisgendered]], white, middle-class women are most often regarded as victims responding to an oppressive gender order, and [[women of colour]], Indigenous women, and working-class women are more likely to be regarded as potential criminals."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Coercive Control in Queer Relationships: Reframing Gender and Violence in Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House |first1=Timothy |last1=Laurie |first2=Hannah |last2=Stark |journal=Life Writing |year=2025 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=845–861 |doi=10.1080/14484528.2025.2536275 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Other forms===
====Strategic intersectionality==== {{One source|section|date=May 2025}} Marie-Claire Belleau has called for "strategic intersectionality" in order to foster cooperation between feminisms of different ethnicities.<ref name="Belleau 2007">{{cite book |last=Belleau |first=Marie-Claire |chapter=L'intersectionalité: Feminisms in a divided world; Québec-Canada |editor-last1=Orr |editor-first1=Deborah |title=Feminist Politics: identity, difference, and agency |pages=51–62 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=978-0-7425-4778-0 |display-editors=etal |year=2007}}</ref>{{rp|51}} She refers to different ''nat-cult'' (national-cultural) groups that produce different types of feminisms. Using the [[Culture of Quebec|Québécois]] nat-cult as an example, Belleau says that many nat-cult groups contain infinite sub-identities within themselves, saying that there are endless ways in which different feminisms can cooperate by using strategic intersectionality, and that these partnerships can help bridge gaps between "dominant and marginal" groups.<ref name="Belleau 2007"/>{{rp|54}} Belleau argues that, through strategic intersectionality, differences between nat-cult feminisms are neither essentialist nor universal, but should be understood as resulting from socio-cultural contexts. Furthermore, the performances of these nat-cult feminisms are also not essentialist. Instead, they are strategies.<ref name="Belleau 2007"/>
====Transnational intersectionality==== [[Postcolonial feminists]] and [[transnational feminism|transnational feminists]] have criticized intersectionality as a concept emanating from WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic)<ref name="WEIRD 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Henrich |first1=J. |last2=Heine |first2=S. J. |last3=Norenzayan |first3=A. |title=The weirdest people in the world? |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=33 |issue=2–3 |pages=61–83 |doi=10.1017/S0140525X0999152X |pmid=20550733 |date=2010 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-26A1-6 |s2cid=220918842 |url=https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/WeirdPeople.pdf |hdl-access=free}}</ref> societies that unduly universalizes women's experiences.<ref name="Herr2014">{{cite journal |last1=Herr |first1=Ranjoo Seodu |title=Reclaiming Third World Feminism |journal=Meridians |date=2014 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.2979/meridians.12.1.1 |s2cid=145668809}}</ref><ref name="KurtisAdams2015">{{Cite journal |last1=Kurtis |first1=T. |last2=Adams |first2=G. |title=Decolonizing liberation: Toward a transnational feminist psychology |journal=Journal of Social and Political Psychology |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=388–413 |doi=10.5964/jspp.v3i1.326 |jstor=3178747 |date=2015 |doi-access=free |hdl=1808/21823 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Postcolonial feminists have worked to revise Western conceptualizations of intersectionality that assume all women experience the same type of gender and racial oppression.<ref name="Herr2014" /><ref name="Transnational Psychology">{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Lynn H. |last2=Machizawa |first2=Sayaka |last3=Rice |first3=Joy K. |title=Transnational Psychology of Women: Expanding International and Intersectional Approaches |publisher=American Psychological Association |location=Washington, D.C. |year=2019 |edition=1st |isbn=978-1-4338-3069-3}}{{page needed|date=March 2021}}</ref> [[Shelly Grabe]] coined the term ''transnational intersectionality'' to represent a more comprehensive conceptualization of intersectionality. Grabe wrote, "Transnational intersectionality places importance on the intersections among gender, ethnicity, sexuality, economic exploitation, and other social hierarchies in the context of empire building or imperialist policies characterized by historical and emergent [[global capitalism]]."<ref name="Grabe2012">{{cite journal |last1=Grabe |first1=Shelly |last2=Else-Quest |first2=Nicole M. |title=The Role of Transnational Feminism in Psychology: Complementary Visions |journal=Psychology of Women Quarterly |date=22 May 2012 |doi=10.1177/0361684312442164 |s2cid=53585351}}</ref>
Both Postcolonial and transnational feminists advocate attending to "complex and intersecting oppressions and multiple forms of resistance".<ref name="Herr2014" /><ref name="Transnational Psychology" /> Vrushali Patil argues that intersectionality ought to recognize transborder constructions of racial and cultural hierarchies. About the effect of the state on identity formation, Patil says: "If we continue to neglect cross-border dynamics and fail to problematize the nation and its emergence via transnational processes, our analyses will remain tethered to the spatialities and temporalities of colonial modernity."<ref name="Vrushali">{{cite journal |last1=Patil |first1=Vrushali |title=From Patriarchy to Intersectionality: A Transnational Feminist Assessment of How Far We've Really Come |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |date=2013 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=847–867 |doi=10.1086/669560 |jstor=10.1086/669560 |s2cid=144680534}}</ref>
Expanding on these global and decolonial perspectives, philosopher Charles W. Mills has argued that Western political philosophy has historically excluded race and colonialism from its moral frameworks, calling for a "decolonization" of liberal thought to address global systems of domination.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mills |first=Charles W. |title=Decolonizing Western Political Philosophy |journal=New Political Science |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |year=2015 |doi=10.1080/07393148.2014.995402 |doi-broken-date=23 November 2025}}</ref> Similarly, contributors to Gary Craig's ''Handbook on Global Social Justice'' emphasize that intersectional approaches must account for worldwide structures of inequality such as colonial history, race, and class, in order to achieve substantive and inclusive justice.<ref>{{cite book |date=2018 |editor-last=Craig |editor-first=Gary |title=Handbook on Global Social Justice |location=Cheltenham, UK |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |pages=238–240 |isbn=978-1-78643-142-4}}</ref> Elaborating on this line of thought, Marc Aziz Michael has shown, relying on dominant female STEM enrolment and proficiency data in the Arab world, that even when intersectional axes of thought are included in Western thinking, they are typically perceived as a stacking of oppressions, rather than crossroads of freedom and resistance.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Michael |first1=Marc Aziz |date=24 December 2025 |title=Beyond the Techno-Harem: on the absence of intellectual stereotype threat in the Arab world-evidence from Egypt |journal=Cultures of Science |language=en |doi=10.1177/20966083251410322 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Chandra Mohanty discusses alliances between women worldwide as an example of intersectionality in a global context. She rejects the Western feminist theory, especially when it writes about global women of color, and is generally associated with "third world women". She argues that "third world women" are often thought of as a homogeneous entity, when, in fact, their experience of oppression is informed by their geography, history, and culture. When Western feminists write about women in the global South in this way, they dismiss the inherent, intersecting identities that shape feminism in the global South. Mohanty questions the performance of intersectionality and relationality of power structures within the US and colonialism, and how to work across identities with this history of colonial power structures.<ref name="Mohanty 1984">{{cite journal |last1=Mohanty |first1=Chandra Talpade |title=Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses |journal=Boundary 2 |date=1984 |volume=12/13 |pages=333–358 |id={{INIST|11910852}} |doi=10.2307/302821 |jstor=302821}}</ref>
This is elaborated on by Christine Bose, who discusses a global use of intersectionality that works to remove associations of specific inequalities with specific institutions while showing that these systems generate intersectional effects. She uses this approach to develop a framework that can analyze gender inequalities across different nations and differentiates this from an approach (the one that Mohanty was referring to) which, one, paints national-level inequalities as the same and, two, differentiates only between the global North and South. This is manifested through the intersection of global dynamics, such as economics, migration, or violence, with regional dynamics, such as histories of the nation or gendered inequalities in education and property.<ref name="Bose 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Bose |first1=Christine E. |title=Intersectionality and Global Gender Inequality |journal=Gender & Society |date=February 2012 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=67–72 |doi=10.1177/0891243211426722 |s2cid=145233506}}</ref>
The application of transnational intersectionality to the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict|Israeli-Palestinian conflict]] has been promoted and criticized. Feminist groups have supported [[Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions|"Boycott, Divest, Sanction"]] (BDS) resolutions based on intersectionality perspectives.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-12 |title=National Women’s Studies Association to consider BDS resolution at upcoming conference |url=https://usacbi.org/2015/11/national-womens-studies-association-to-consider-bds-resolution-at-upcoming-conference/ |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2015, the [[National Women's Studies Association]] promoted a resolution saying "discussions about a transnational, anti-imperialist, intersectional, feminist response" are relevant to BDS, centering "intersectional analysis on the links between interlocking systems of domination and foreground the transnational movements that are determined to dismantle them."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sharoni |first=Simona |last2=Abdulhadi |first2=Rabab |last3=Al-Ali |first3=Nadje |last4=Eaves |first4=Felicia |last5=Lentin |first5=Ronit |last6=Siddiqi |first6=Dina |date=2015-10-02 |title=Transnational Feminist Solidarity in Times of Crisis |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616742.2015.1088226 |journal=International Feminist Journal of Politics |language=en |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=654–670 |doi=10.1080/14616742.2015.1088226 |issn=1461-6742 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230125102557/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616742.2015.1088226 |archive-date=2023-01-25}}</ref>
However, others challenge the transnational use of intersectionality, arguing that it is a political framework rather than a neutral analytical tool.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stoegner |first=Karin |date=2019-01-01 |title=New Challenges in Feminism. Intersectionality, Critical Theory, and Antizionism |url=https://www.academia.edu/38490243/New_Challenges_in_Feminism_Intersectionality_Critical_Theory_and_Antizionism |journal=Alvin H. Rosenfeld (ed.): Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism. The Dynamics of Delegitimization. Indiana University Press 2019}}</ref> In 2016, ''[[Inside Higher Ed]]'' columnist [[Cary Nelson]] wrote that injustices "occur in different parts of the world in different contexts under different political systems," while any "intersection often occurs only in the mind of the beholder or in a political manifesto."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Cary |title=The Intersectionality Muddle |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/02/15/concept-intersectionality-mutating-and-becoming-corrupted-essay |access-date=2026-03-17 |website=Inside Higher Ed |language=en}}</ref> In 2019, sociologist Karin Stögner wrote that intersectionality is "more than an analytical concept that helps capture social reality in its complexity; it is also a political program," suggesting it contributes to a "delegitimization of Israel" as "one of the last bastions of imperialism and colonialism."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stoegner |first=Karin |date=2019-01-01 |title=New Challenges in Feminism. Intersectionality, Critical Theory, and Antizionism |url=https://www.academia.edu/38490243/New_Challenges_in_Feminism_Intersectionality_Critical_Theory_and_Antizionism |journal=Alvin H. Rosenfeld (ed.): Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism. The Dynamics of Delegitimization. Indiana University Press 2019}}</ref>
== Europe == Evidence suggests that within Europe there is a divide between [[White-collar worker|white]] and [[Blue-collar worker|blue collar workers]], and their levels of political engagement, white collar men demonstrated the highest levels of political engagement while on the opposite side of the spectrum falls blue collar women.<ref name=intand>{{Cite journal |last1=Grasso |first1=Maria |last2=Giugni |first2=Marco |date=December 2025 |title=Intersectionality and inequalities in political participation in Europe: how do gender, class and age relate to political exclusion? |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41295-025-00423-w |journal=Comparative European Politics |language=en |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=830–855 |doi=10.1057/s41295-025-00423-w |issn=1472-4790}}</ref> Women in Europe are observed to generally have less political confidence, especially those who were not able to achieve higher levels of education and/or work blue collar jobs.<ref name=intand/>
One aspect relevant to European intersectionality has to do with the migration status of an individual. European migrants come from across the globe from various different circumstances that may or may not have forced them to flee their homes due to arranged marriages or internal conflict.<ref name=idonwa>{{Cite journal |last1=Avignone |first1=Tatiana |last2=Gemignani |first2=Marco |last3=Fernández-Pacheco Alises |first3=Gloria |date=11 July 2025 |title='I don't want this for my daughter, because this is what I experienced': young migrant women's constructions of gender reciprocity and intersectionality |journal=Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies |language=en |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1080/1369183X.2025.2529501 |issn=1369-183X}}</ref> These situations by nature make these individuals vulnerable because they are in an unfamiliar place and do not generally have a lot of resources to support themselves. Exact numbers differ year by year, as there is a significant number of unaccompanied children migrants.<ref name=idonwa/> This is on top of reports of [[racism]], [[islamophobia]] and general anti-migrant sentiment at almost every level of European society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Moffitt |first1=Ursula |last2=Juang |first2=Linda P. |last3=Syed |first3=Moin |date=31 January 2020 |title=Intersectionality and Youth Identity Development Research in Europe |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=11 |article-number=78 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00078 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=7005132 |pmid=32082225}}</ref>
Studies in Europe that have used intersectionality as a guiding framework have contributed to a better understanding of [[gender based violence]], showing that it does not occur in isolation and that its underlying patterns can be anticipated and addressed.<ref name=rolofi>{{Cite journal |last1=Humbert |first1=Anne Laure |last2=Strid |first2=Sofia |last3=Tanwar |first3=Jagriti |last4=Lipinsky |first4=Anke |last5=Schredl |first5=Claudia |date=May 2025 |title=The Role of Intersectionality and Context in Measuring Gender-Based Violence in Universities and Research-Performing Organizations in Europe for the Development of Inclusive Structural Interventions |journal=Violence Against Women |language=en |volume=31 |issue=6–7 |pages=1688–1711 |doi=10.1177/10778012241231773 |issn=1077-8012 |pmc=11969888 |pmid=38374665}}</ref> Gender based violence does not affect all groups equally. Certain populations are more susceptible due not only to their individual circumstances but also to broader societal and institutional factors.<ref name=rolofi/>
== Applications == {{Globalize|section|USA|2name=the United States|date=March 2017}} Intersectionality has been applied in many fields from politics,<ref name="Hancock 2007">{{cite journal |last=Hancock |first=Ange-Marie |title=Intersectionality as a normative and empirical paradigm |journal=[[Politics & Gender]] |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=248–254 |doi=10.1017/S1743923X07000062 |date=June 2007 |s2cid=144145167}}</ref><ref name="Holvino 2010">{{cite journal |last=Holvino |first=Evangelina |title=Intersections: The simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies |journal=[[Gender, Work & Organization]] |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=248–277 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00400.x |date=May 2010}}</ref> education<ref name="McCall 2005" /><ref name="Cooper 1892"/><ref name="Jones 2003">{{cite journal |last=Jones |first=Sandra J. |title=Complex subjectivities: class, ethnicity, and race in women's narratives of upward mobility |journal=[[Journal of Social Issues]] |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=803–820 |doi=10.1046/j.0022-4537.2003.00091.x |date=December 2003}}</ref> healthcare,<ref name="Kelly 2009">{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Ursula A. |title=Integrating intersectionality and biomedicine in health disparities research |journal=Advances in Nursing Science |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=E42–E56 |doi=10.1097/ANS.0b013e3181a3b3fc |pmid=19461221 |date=April–June 2009 |s2cid=26510963}}</ref><ref name="Viruell-Fuentes et al 2012" /> and employment, to economics.<ref name="Ladson-Billings Tate 1995">{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315709796-2 |chapter=Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education |title=Critical Race Theory in Education |year=2016 |last1=Ladson-Billings |first1=Gloria |last2=Tate |first2=William F. |pages=10–31 |isbn=978-1-315-70979-6 |s2cid=140276325 |chapter-url=https://www.unco.edu/education-behavioral-sciences/pdf/TowardaCRTEduca.pdf |archive-date=6 February 2021 |access-date=15 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206030038/https://www.unco.edu/education-behavioral-sciences/pdf/TowardaCRTEduca.pdf }}</ref> Scholars of intersectionality have also advocated for its use more widely.<ref name="Cho 2013"/><ref name="Levine-Rasky 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Levine-Rasky |first1=Cynthia |title=Intersectionality theory applied to whiteness and middle-classness |journal=Social Identities |date=March 2011 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=239–253 |doi=10.1080/13504630.2011.558377 |s2cid=145104826}}</ref> Little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality, owing to misapplication of theoretical concepts and problems in methodology.<ref name="Bauer2021" /> Intersectionality is frequently used in feminist and sociological research to analyze how overlapping identities such as race, gender, class, and sexuality shape experiences of discrimination and privilege in society.<ref>Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989.</ref>
===Domestic violence=== {{See also|Violence against people with disabilities}} Women with disabilities encounter more frequent [[domestic violence]] with a greater number of abusers. Health care workers and personal care attendants perpetrate abuse in these circumstances, and women with disabilities have fewer options for escaping the abusive situation.<ref name="Cramer 2010">{{cite book |author1=Cramer, Elizabeth P. |author2=Plummer, Sara-Beth |chapter=Social work practice with abused persons with disabilities |editor-last1=Lockhart |editor-first1=Lettie |editor-last2=Danis |editor-first2=Fran S. |title=Domestic violence: intersectionality and culturally competent practice |pages=131–134 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-14027-0 |year=2010 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/domesticviolence0000unse_e7x2/page/131/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref> There is a "silence" principle concerning the intersectionality of women and disability, which maintains an overall social denial of the prevalence of abuse among the disabled and leads to this abuse being frequently ignored when encountered.<ref name="Chenoweth">{{cite journal |last=Chenoweth |first=Lesley |title=Violence and women with disabilities: silence and paradox |journal=[[Violence Against Women (journal)|Violence Against Women]] |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=391–411 |doi=10.1177/1077801296002004004 |date=December 1996 |s2cid=56939366}}</ref> This can exacerbate limited autonomy and social isolation of disabled individuals, and place women with disabilities in situations where further or more frequent abuse can occur.<ref name="Cramer 2010" />
===Education=== Intersectionality in education involves considering multiple elements of people's identities to increase accessibility, such as language, learning style, and disabilities. Laura Gonzales and Janine Butler say that an intersectional approach can help decrease the impact of disadvantages in the learning environment.<ref name="CF">{{Cite web |title=CF 44: Multilingualism, Multimodality, and Accessibility by Laura Gonzales and Janine Butler |url=https://compositionforum.com/issue/44/multilingualism.php |access-date=15 March 2023 |website=compositionforum.com |language=en}}</ref> For example, the research by Gonzales and Butler found benefits from incorporating bilingual delivery, adjustments for disability, and inclusion of marginalized subjects in their writing assignments.<ref name="CF" /> Authors Collin Lamout Craig and Staci Maree suggest there are also benefits for intersectionality in aiding acknowledgment and understanding in academia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Craig |first1=Collin Lamont |last2=Perryman-Clark |first2=Staci Maree |date=Spring 2011 |title=Troubling the Boundaries: (De)Constructing WPA Identities at the Intersections of Race and Gender |url=http://associationdatabase.co/archives/34n2/34n2craig-perryman-clark.pdf |journal=Council of Writing Program Administrators |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=37–58 |via=WPA Journal Archives}}</ref>
Within the institution of education, Sandra Jones' research on working-class women in academia takes into consideration meritocracy within all social strata, but argues that it is complicated by race and the external forces that oppress.<ref name="Jones 2003" />
=== Employment === Intersectional approaches to employment may be implemented in different ways in different organizations. Within the UK charity sector, Ashlee Christoffersen identified five different conceptualizations of intersectionality. "Generic intersectionality" was observed in policy areas, where intersectionality was conceptualized as developing policies to be in everyone's universal interest rather than being targeted to particular groups. "Pan equality" was a concern for issues that affected most marginalised groups. "Multi-strand intersectionality" attempted to consider different groups when making a decision, but rarely viewed the groups as overlapping or focused on issues for a particular group. "Diversity within" is considered one main form of identity, such as gender, as most important, while occasionally considering other aspects of identity, with these different forms of identity sometimes seen as detracting from the main identity. "Intersections of equality strands" considered the intersection of identities, but no form of identity was seen as more relevant. In this approach, it was sometimes felt that if one dealt with the most marginalized identity, the system would tend to work for all people. Christoffersen referred to some of these meanings given to intersectionality as "additive" where inequalities are thought of as being added to and subtracted from one another.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Christoffersen |first=Ashlee |date=1 October 2021 |title=The politics of intersectional practice: competing concepts of intersectionality |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/227507791/ChristoffersenA2021PPThePoliticsOfIntersectionalPractice.pdf |journal=Policy & Politics |language=en |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=573–593 |doi=10.1332/030557321X16194316141034 |s2cid=236668880 |issn=1470-8442}}</ref>
In the United States, studies of the labor market suggest there are economic inequalities due to the intersections of race and gender, including for African American women.<ref name="Browne & Misra 2003"/>{{rp|506–507}} In a book by Esther Chow and others, the authors write: "The impact of patriarchy and traditional assumptions about gender and families are evident in the lives of Chinese migrant workers, sex workers and their clients in South Korea, and Indian widows, but also Ukrainian migrants and Australian men of the new global middle class."<ref name="Chow 2011">{{cite book |last1=Chow |first1=Esther Ngan-Ling |last2=Segal |first2=Marcia Texler |last3=Lin |first3=Tan |title=Analyzing Gender, Intersectionality, and Multiple Inequalities: Global-transnational and Local Contexts |date=2011 |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing |isbn=978-0-85724-744-5}}{{page needed|date=March 2021}}</ref>
===Healthcare=== Intersectionality has been used as a critical framework in healthcare, such as in addressing issues of reproductive justice, where the intersection of race, class, and gender shapes access to healthcare and family planning resources for women of color. An intersectional lens reveals a disproportionate rate of maternal mortality among Black women in the United States. Black women experience a significantly higher rate of pregnancy-related deaths, despite controlling for insurance status, income, and education. Research has linked these disparities to structural racism and implicit bias within the healthcare system. Healthcare providers have been shown to cause an underestimation of Black patients' pain and inadequate or delayed treatment, specifically in maternal care and pain management.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Howell |first=Elizabeth A. |date=June 2018 |title=Reducing Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality |journal=Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=387–399 |doi=10.1097/GRF.0000000000000349 |issn=1532-5520 |pmc=5915910 |pmid=29346121}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hoffman |first1=Kelly M. |last2=Trawalter |first2=Sophie |last3=Axt |first3=Jordan R. |last4=Oliver |first4=M. Norman |date=19 April 2016 |title=Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=113 |issue=16 |pages=4296–4301 |bibcode=2016PNAS..113.4296H |doi=10.1073/pnas.1516047113 |issn=1091-6490 |pmc=4843483 |pmid=27044069 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
People of color, in general, often experience differential treatment in the healthcare system. For example, in the period immediately after [[9/11]], researchers noted [[low birth weight]]s and other poor birth outcomes among Muslim and Arab Americans, a result they connected to the increased racial and religious discrimination of the time.<ref name="Lauderdale 2006">{{cite journal |last1=Lauderdale |first1=Diane S. |title=Birth Outcomes for Arabic-Named Women in California Before and After September 11 |journal=Demography |date=2006 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=185–201 |doi=10.1353/dem.2006.0008 |pmid=16579214 |s2cid=12752541 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Some researchers have also argued that immigration policies can affect health outcomes through mechanisms such as [[Stress (biology)#Overview|stress]], restrictions on access to health care, and the [[social determinants of health]].<ref name="Viruell-Fuentes et al 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Viruell-Fuentes |first1=Edna A. |last2=Miranda |first2=Patricia Y. |last3=Abdulrahim |first3=Sawsan |title=More than culture: Structural racism, intersectionality theory, and immigrant health |journal=Social Science & Medicine |date=December 2012 |volume=75 |issue=12 |pages=2099–2106 |doi=10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.12.037 |pmid=22386617 |s2cid=12047435}}</ref>
[[Social determinants of health]], such as food security, access to clean air and water, housing stability, and employment conditions, can also have significant impacts on health outcomes,<ref>{{citation |mode=cs1 |type=preprint |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Carmen B. |title=A Bayesian Mixture Model Approach to Examining Neighborhood Social Determinants of Health Disparities in Endometrial Cancer Care in Massachusetts |date=10 December 2024 |arxiv=2412.07134 |last2=Wu |first2=Stephanie M. |last3=Alimena |first3=Stephanie |last4=McGregor |first4=Alecia J. |last5=Stephenson |first5=Briana JK}}</ref> particularly for marginalized communities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=David R. |last2=Cooper |first2=Lisa A. |date=19 February 2019 |title=Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action |journal=International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |volume=16 |issue=4 |page=606 |doi=10.3390/ijerph16040606 |doi-access=free |issn=1660-4601 |pmc=6406315 |pmid=30791452}}</ref> Environmental racism,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Beard |first1=Sharon |last2=Freeman |first2=Kenda |last3=Velasco |first3=Maria L. |last4=Boyd |first4=Windy |last5=Chamberlain |first5=Toccara |last6=Latoni |first6=Alfonso |last7=Lasko |first7=Denise |last8=Lunn |first8=Ruth M. |last9=O'Fallon |first9=Liam |last10=Packenham |first10=Joan |last11=Smarr |first11=Melissa M. |last12=Arnette |first12=Robin |last13=Cavalier-Keck |first13=Crystal |last14=Keck |first14=Jason |last15=Muhammad |first15=Naeema |date=22 January 2024 |title=Racism as a public health issue in environmental health disparities and environmental justice: working toward solutions |journal=Environmental Health |volume=23 |issue=1 |page=8 |doi=10.1186/s12940-024-01052-8 |doi-access=free |issn=1476-069X |pmc=10802013 |pmid=38254105 |bibcode=2024EnvHe..23....8B}}</ref> a form of systemic racism where communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of environmental hazards, contributes to elevated rates of asthma, cancer, and other chronic illnesses. Rising temperatures and natural disasters as a result of climate change also disproportionately impact populations with limited economic resources and restricted access to healthcare.
Historical medical exploitation continues to inform health disparities today. The [[Tuskegee Syphilis Study]], in which Black men were denied treatment for syphilis without their consent or knowledge, and the forced sterilization of Indigenous and Latina women, driven by the eugenics movement,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Novak |first1=Nicole L. |last2=Lira |first2=Natalie |last3=O'Connor |first3=Kate E. |last4=Harlow |first4=Siobán D. |last5=Kardia |first5=Sharon L. R. |last6=Stern |first6=Alexandra Minna |date=May 2018 |title=Disproportionate Sterilization of Latinos Under California's Eugenic Sterilization Program, 1920–1945 |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=108 |issue=5 |pages=611–613 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2018.304369 |issn=0090-0036 |pmc=5888070 |pmid=29565671}}</ref> racial and colonial control, and targeting through welfare and public health programs,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Borrero |first1=Sonya |last2=Zite |first2=Nikki |last3=Creinin |first3=Mitchell D. |date=October 2012 |title=Federally funded sterilization: time to rethink policy? |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=102 |issue=10 |pages=1822–1825 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2012.300850 |issn=1541-0048 |pmc=3490665 |pmid=22897531}}</ref> are all examples of systemic medical abuse. These events have contributed to longstanding distrust in healthcare institutions among marginalized communities. Additionally, medical research has historically excluded people of color, women, and disabled individuals<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=DeCormier Plosky |first1=Willyanne |last2=Ne'eman |first2=Ari |last3=Silverman |first3=Benjamin C. |last4=Strauss |first4=David H. |last5=Francis |first5=Leslie P. |last6=Stein |first6=Michael A. |last7=Bierer |first7=Barbara E. |date=October 2022 |title=Excluding People With Disabilities From Clinical Research: Eligibility Criteria Lack Clarity And Justification |journal=Health Affairs |volume=41 |issue=10 |pages=1423–1432 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00520 |pmid=36190895 |issn=0278-2715 |doi-access=free}}</ref> from clinical trials, resulting in gaps in knowledge about how various treatments affect these populations. This underrepresentation persists in many areas of research and contributes to unequal health outcomes today.
===Immigration=== The [[African American Policy Forum]] (AAPF) has advocated for an intersectional approach to immigration policy, considering factors such as race, marriage, and gender. The AAPF says that immigrant women's lives are often threatened by abusive spouses who are already citizens, and yet such women cannot divorce their spouses for two years if they seek permanent resident status. According to the AAPF, the law currently includes "no exceptions for battered women who often faced the risk of serious injury and death on the one hand, or deportation on the other".<ref>African American Policy Form. (n.d.). ''A primer on intersectionality''. https://www.aapf.org/_files/ugd/62e126_19f84b6cbf6f4660bac198ace49b9287.pdf</ref>
===Psychology=== {{Main|Biases|Heuristics in judgment and decision-making}}
Researchers in psychology have incorporated intersection effects since the 1950s.<ref name="SQ">{{Cite journal |last1=Samuelson |first1=William |last2=Zeckhauser |first2=Richard |date=1 March 1988 |title=Status quo bias in decision making |journal=Journal of Risk and Uncertainty |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=7–59 |doi=10.1007/BF00055564 |s2cid=5641133 |issn=1573-0476}}</ref> These intersection effects were based on studying the lenses of biases, heuristics, stereotypes, and judgments. Psychologists have extended research in psychological biases to the areas of cognitive and motivational psychology. What is found is that every human mind has its own biases in judgment and decision-making that tend to preserve the status quo by avoiding change and attention to ideas that exist outside one's personal realm of perception.<ref name="SQ" /> Psychological interaction effects span a range of variables, although person-by-situation effects are the most examined category. As a result, psychologists do not construe the interaction effect of demographics such as gender and race as either more noteworthy or less noteworthy than any other interaction effect. In addition, oppression can be regarded as a subjective construct when viewed as an absolute hierarchy.
Even if an objective definition of oppression were reached, person-by-situation effects would make it difficult to deem certain persons or categories of persons as uniformly oppressed. For instance, Black men are stereotypically perceived as criminals, which makes it much more difficult for them to get hired for a job than a white man. However, gay Black men are perceived as harmless, which increases their chances of getting employed and receiving bonuses, even though gay males are also socially disadvantaged. The stereotype of gay men as harmless helps Black men transcend their reputation for criminality.<ref name=Pedulla2014>{{cite journal |last1=Pedulla |first1=David S. |title=The Positive Consequences of Negative Stereotypes: Race, Sexual Orientation, and the Job Application Process |journal=Social Psychology Quarterly |date=2014 |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=75–94 |doi=10.1177/0190272513506229 |s2cid=144311164}}</ref> Several psychological studies have likewise shown that possessing multiple oppressed or marginalized identities has effects that are not necessarily additive, or even multiplicative, but rather, interactive in complex ways.<ref name="Remedios 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Remedios |first1=Jessica D. |last2=Chasteen |first2=Alison L. |last3=Rule |first3=Nicholas O. |last4=Plaks |first4=Jason E. |title=Impressions at the intersection of ambiguous and obvious social categories: Does gay+Black=likable? |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |date=November 2011 |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=1312–1315 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.015 |hdl=1807/33199 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Fattoracci 2020">{{cite journal |last1=Fattoracci |first1=Elisa S. M. |last2=Revels-Macalinao |first2=Michelle |last3=Huynh |first3=Que-Lam |title=Greater than the sum of racism and heterosexism: Intersectional microaggressions toward racial/ethnic and sexual minority group members. |journal=Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology |issn=1939-0106 |date=2020 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=176–188 |doi=10.1037/cdp0000329 |pmid=32191048 |s2cid=213180686}}</ref>
One of the main issues that affects the research of intersectionality is the construct problem. Constructs are what scientists use to build blocks of understanding within their field of study.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Construct {{!}} Psychology, Measurement & Testing {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/construct |access-date=7 December 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> It is important because it gives us something to measure. As mentioned previously, it is incredibly difficult to define oppression and, specifically, the feeling of being oppressed and the ways that different kinds of oppression may interact as a construct.<ref name="GA">{{Cite journal |last=Grabe |first=Shelly |date=2020 |title=Research Methods in the Study of Intersectionality in Psychology: Examples Informed by a Decade of Collaborative Work With Majority World Women's Grassroots Activism |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=11 |article-number=494309 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.494309 |pmid=33192755 |pmc=7658295 |issn=1664-1078 |doi-access=free}}</ref> As psychology grows and changes its ability to define constructs, this research will likely improve.<ref name="GA" />
=== Remediation === To provide sufficient preventive, redressive, and deterrent remedies, judges in courts and others working in [[conflict resolution]] mechanisms take into account intersectional dimensions.<ref name="Nissen 2023">{{Cite journal |last=Nissen |first=A. |title=Gender-Transformative Remedies for Women Human Rights Defenders |date=2023 |journal=Business and Human Rights Journal |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=381–384 |doi=10.1017/bhj.2023.41 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-and-human-rights-journal/article/gendertransformative-remedies-for-women-human-rights-defenders/2A05A3CBAA5C62794AE194565813CD25 |hdl=1887/3716539 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
===Social work=== In the field of [[social work]], proponents of intersectionality hold that unless service providers take intersectionality into account, they will be of less use for various segments of the population, such as those reporting domestic violence or disabled victims of abuse. According to intersectional theory, the practice of [[domestic violence]] counselors in the [[United States]] urging all women to report their abusers to police is of little use to [[women of color]] due to the history of racially motivated [[police brutality]], and those counselors should adapt their counseling for women of color.<ref name="Bent-Goodley et al">{{cite book |author1=Bent-Goodley, Tricia B. |author2=Chase, Lorraine |author3=Circo, Elizabeth A. |author4=Antá Rodgers, Selena T. |chapter=Our survival, our strengths: understanding the experiences of African American women in abusive relationships |editor-last1=Lockhart |editor-first1=Lettie |editor-last2=Danis |editor-first2=Fran S. |title=Domestic violence: intersectionality and culturally competent practice |page=77 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-14027-0 |year=2010 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/domesticviolence0000unse_e7x2/page/77/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>
===Other fields=== Intersectionality has also been used in [[critical animal studies]] and [[ecofeminist]] literature, particularly in considering how our treatment of animals and the natural environment affects people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Falcón |first=Sylvanna M. |chapter=Intersectionality, Global Patriarchy, and the Power of Feminist Performance |editor1-last=Davis |editor1-first=Kathy |editor2-last=Lutz |editor2-first=Helma |date=2023 |title=The Routledge International Handbook of Intersectionality Studies |pages=113–121 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781003089520-11 |isbn=978-1-003-08952-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salter |first=Colin |date=2015 |title=The animal question and condition: intersectionality and Critical Animal Studies in the Asia-Pacific |url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol4/iss1/2 |journal=Animal Studies Journal |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–11 |issn=2201-3008}}</ref><ref name="Fox 2024">{{Cite journal |last=Fox |first=Laura |date=2024 |title=The Intersectionality of Environmental Injustice, Other Societal Harms, and Farmed Animal Welfare |journal=Environmental Justice |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=101–109 |doi=10.1089/env.2021.0125 |issn=1939-4071 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2024EnvJ...17..101F}}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}}</ref> For example, factory farming can be understood not just as an issue of animal welfare but also as an issue of [[environmental justice]], workers' rights, and public health which may disproportionately impact marginalized communities and peoples.<ref name="Fox 2024" />
== Responses ==
===Academic=== [[File:Black women leading the way.jpg|thumb|A crowd of people in a [[Black Lives Matter]] protest in 2015. The main focus is four Black women, one holding a sign.]] Many feminists have positively engaged with the idea of intersectionality. Black feminists, in particular, suggest that an understanding of intersectionality is a vital element of gaining political and social equity and improving the societal structures that oppress individuals.<ref name="Hutchinson 2011">{{cite book |author1=Hutchinson, Janet R. |title=Women in Public Administration: theory and practice |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7637-7725-8 |editor-last1=D'Agostino |editor-first1=Maria |location=Sudbury, Mass. |page=8 |chapter=Feminist theories and their application to public administration |editor-last2=Levine |editor-first2=Helisse}}</ref> [[Beverly Guy-Sheftall]] says, "Black women experience a special kind of oppression and suffering in this country which is racist, sexist, and classist because of their dual race and gender identity and their limited access to economic resources".<ref name="Guy-Sheftall">{{Cite book |last=Guy-Sheftall |first=Beverly |title=Words of fire: an anthology of African-American feminist thought |date=1995 |publisher=New Press |isbn=978-1-56584-256-4 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781565842564/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}</ref> Stephanie A. Shields says that each part of someone's identity "serve as organizing features of social relations, mutually constitute, reinforce, and naturalize one another". Shields says that one aspect cannot exist individually, rather it "takes its meaning as a category in relation to another category."<ref name="IP">{{Cite web |last=Shields |first=Stephanie |date=18 July 2008 |title=Gender: An Intersectionality Perspective |url=http://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/gender_and_intersectionality.pdf}}</ref>
Some scholars suggest intersectionality is often weaponized against other forms of feminism.<ref name="intersectionality993" /><ref name="Downing2018" /> Barbara Tomlinson, of the Department of Feminist Studies at [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], has been critical of the applications of intersectional theory to attack other ways of feminist thinking.<ref name="intersectionality993" /> Downing says intersectionality, seen through the framework of [[Andrea Dworkin]]'s class-based [[radical feminism]], focuses too much on group identities and interests over individuality, leading to simplistic analysis and inaccurate assumptions about how a person's values and attitudes are determined.<ref name="Downing2018" /> [[Iris Marion Young]] suggests that differences must be acknowledged in order to find unifying social justice issues that create coalitions that aid in changing society for the better.<ref name="Carastathis">{{Cite book |jstor=j.ctt1fzhfz8 |title=Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons |last=Carastathis |first=Anna |date=2016 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1fzhfz8 |isbn=978-0-8032-8555-2 |editor-last1=Leong |editor-first1=Karen J. |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Andrea}}{{Page needed|date=November 2021}}</ref> More specifically, this relates to the ideals of the [[National Council of Negro Women]] (NCNW).<ref name="Mueller 1954">{{cite journal |last1=Mueller |first1=Ruth Caston |title=The National Council of Negro Women, Inc. |journal=Negro History Bulletin |date=1954 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=27–31 |jstor=44175227}}</ref>
Scholar Jennifer Nash says that, using an [[Afro-pessimism (United States)|Afropessimist]] framework, intersectionality may flatten the unique experiences of Blackness and gender by treating different forms of identity as equivalent.<ref name="Nash 2018">{{Cite book |last=Nash |first=Jennifer C. |title=Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality |date=6 December 2018 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-0225-3 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv111jhd0 |jstor=j.ctv111jhd0}}</ref>{{page number needed|date=February 2025}} Nash also criticizes the superficial use of intersectionality by some institutions without addressing systematic inequalities.<ref name="Nash 2018" />{{page number needed|date=February 2025}}
===Utility=== Among scholars, proponents of intersectionality cite its broad applicability and embrace of nuance, while its critics say it is overly complex or too broad.<ref name="Davis 2008" /><ref name="Cooper 2016" /><ref name="Jibrin 2015" /> Sociologist [[Kathy Davis (sociologist)|Kathy Davis]] says intersectionality's broad applicability and consideration of multiple factors makes it a useful critical tool: "It encourages complexity, stimulates creativity, and avoids premature closure, tantalizing feminist scholars to raise new questions and explore uncharted territory."<ref name="Davis 2008">{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Kathy |date=2008 |title=Intersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful |journal=Feminist Theory |volume=9 |pages=67–85 |doi=10.1177/1464700108086364 |s2cid=145295170}}</ref>
Rekia Jibrin and Sara Salem suggest that because intersectional theory creates a unified but complex idea of anti-oppression politics, this creates difficulties achieving [[Praxis (process)|praxis]] and results in significant ambiguity in how the framework should be applied.<ref name="Jibrin 2015" /> As it is based in [[standpoint theory]], Lisa Downing says the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression.<ref name="Downing2018" />
[[Brittney Cooper]] says that "intersectionality does not deserve our religious devotion" but that "as a conceptual and analytic tool for thinking about operations of power, intersectionality remains one of the most useful and expansive paradigms we have".<ref name="Cooper 2016" /> In responding to critics of intersectionality who find it to be incomplete, or argue that it fails to recognize the specificity of women's oppression, [[Chiara Bottici]] says that "there is something ''specific'' about the oppression of women and that in order to fight it you have to fight "''all'' other forms of oppression".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bottici |first=Chiara |author-link=Chiara Bottici |title=Bodies in Plural: Towards an Anarcha-feminist Manifesto |journal=[[Thesis Eleven]] |volume=142 |issue=1 |year=2017 |page=95 |doi=10.1177/0725513617727793 |s2cid=148911963}}</ref> [[Cheryl Townsend Gilkes]] and Joy James say there is value in focusing on the experiences of Black women.{{sfn|Collins|2000|p=44}}
Patricia Hill Collins also argues that without [[Critical theory|critical social theory]], intersectionality falls flat. She argues that the mission of intersectionality currently within academia is too broad as a theoretical project, leading to its meaning being diluted both by the left and the right.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Patricia Hill |title=Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory |date=23 August 2019 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-0709-8 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11hpkdj |jstor=j.ctv11hpkdj}}</ref> As a result, intersectionality needs to take a position as a critical social theory in order to further it as a discipline and as a theory that can be utilized to dismantle systematic oppression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Patricia Hill |title=Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory |date=23 August 2019 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-0709-8 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11hpkdj |jstor=j.ctv11hpkdj}}</ref>
===Research=== Many recent academics, such as [[Leslie McCall]], have argued that the introduction of the intersectionality theory was vital to sociology and that before the development of the theory, there was little research that specifically addressed the experiences of people who are subjected to multiple forms of oppression within society.<ref name="McCall 2005">{{cite journal |last1=McCall |first1=Leslie |title=The Complexity of Intersectionality |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |date=2005 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=1771–1800 |doi=10.1086/426800 |jstor=10.1086/426800 |hdl=20.500.12209/1062 |s2cid=16690122}}</ref>
There have been recent attempts to apply the intersectionality theory to research that involves disability, gender, and poverty. For example, Jacqueline Moodley and Lauren Graham<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Moodley |first1=Jacqueline |last2=and Graham |first2=Lauren |date=2015 |title=The importance of intersectionality in disability and gender studies |journal=Agenda |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=24–33 |doi=10.1080/10130950.2015.1041802 |issn=1013-0950}}</ref> focused on the intersection of disabled, impoverished, South African men and women to find what effect different combinations of the characteristics and identities had on outcomes of education, income, and employment. Also, researchers have used data from the National Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, and [[Americans with Disabilities Act]] (ADA) Research Project to explore the interactions among disability, gender, age, race, and employer characteristics and it connection to the outcome of workplace harassment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shaw |first1=Linda R. |last2=Chan |first2=Fong |last3=McMahon |first3=Brian T. |date=2012 |title=Intersectionality and Disability Harassment: The Interactive Effects of Disability, Race, Age, and Gender |journal=Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin |language=EN |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=82–91 |doi=10.1177/0034355211431167 |issn=0034-3552}}</ref>
Others suggest that generating [[hypothesis|testable predictions]] from intersectionality theory can be complex.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bowleg |first=Lisa |date=1 September 2008 |title=When Black + Lesbian + Woman ≠ Black Lesbian Woman: The Methodological Challenges of Qualitative and Quantitative Intersectionality Research |journal=Sex Roles |language=en |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=312–325 |doi=10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z |issn=1573-2762 |s2cid=49303030}}</ref><ref name="Bauer2021" /> Liam Kofi Bright, Daniel Malinsky, and Morgan Thompson suggest a framework of [[Causal graph|graphical causal modeling]] to provide "[[Graphical model|empirically testable interpretations]] of intersectional theory" to address such concerns.<ref name="Bright 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Bright |first1=Liam Kofi |last2=Malinsky |first2=Daniel |last3=Thompson |first3=Morgan |date=2015 |title=Causally Interpreting Intersectionality Theory |journal=Philosophy of Science |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=60–81 |doi=10.1086/684173 |s2cid=53695694}}</ref>
An analysis of academic articles published through December 2019 found that there are no widely adopted quantitative methods to investigate research questions informed by intersectionality and provided recommendations on analytic best practices for future research.<ref name="Guan 2021">{{cite journal |last1=Guan |first1=Alice |last2=Thomas |first2=Marilyn |last3=Vittinghoff |first3=Eric |last4=Bowleg |first4=Lisa |last5=Mangurian |first5=Christina |last6=Wesson |first6=Paul |title=An investigation of quantitative methods for assessing intersectionality in health research: A systematic review |journal=SSM - Population Health |date=December 2021 |volume=16 |article-number=100977 |doi=10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100977 |pmid=34869821 |pmc=8626832}}</ref> An analysis of academic articles published through May 2020 found that intersectionality is frequently misunderstood when bridging theory into quantitative methodology.<ref name="Bauer2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Bauer |first1=Greta R. |last2=Churchill |first2=Siobhan M. |last3=Mahendran |first3=Mayuri |last4=Walwyn |first4=Chantel |last5=Lizotte |first5=Daniel |last6=Villa-Rueda |first6=Alma Angelica |date=June 2021 |title=Intersectionality in quantitative research: A systematic review of its emergence and applications of theory and methods |journal=SSM - Population Health |language=en |volume=14 |article-number=100798 |doi=10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100798 |pmc=8095182 |pmid=33997247}}</ref>
===Political=== Critics of intersectionality also say that it is used as a tool of [[neoliberalism]]. Cooper says: "To suggest as Puar does that intersectionality is a tool of a neoliberal agenda rather than a tool that works against it is a line of thinking that should be vigilantly guarded against."<ref name="Cooper 2016" /> Jibrin and Salem suggest that, while intersectionality has radical origins, its ambiguities mean it has been embraced by neoliberal feminists, undermining its radical nature:<ref name="Jibrin 2015" />
{{blockquote|Given the empirical examples presented, we are convinced that the rise of class domination in what we know as the neoliberal university creates the conditions for concepts like intersectionality to become diluted and commodified. By depoliticizing intersectionality neoliberal market regimes empty radical struggle of structural critiques and translate them into palatable (unthreatening) narratives of social justice, multiculturalisms.<ref name="Jibrin 2015">{{Cite journal |last1=Jibrin |first1=Rekia |last2=Salem |first2=Sara |date=2015 |title=Revisiting intersectionality: reflections on theory and praxis |url=https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/f/1861/files/2014/10/2015_5_salem.pdf |journal=Trans-Scripts |volume=5 |issn=2160-6730}}</ref>}}
Conservatives such as American conservative commentator [[Ben Shapiro]] suggest that intersectionality creates a "hierarchy of victimhood", where individuals are categorized as "members of a victim class by virtue of membership in a particular group".{{r|Coaston 2019}}
On the international political scale, intersectional lenses have not been applied to the topic of human right laws. Gauthier de Beco found using an intersectional lens that people with disabilities that belong to racial or ethnic, gender, and age minorities lack suitable human rights.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Beco |first=Gauthier |date=27 May 2020 |title=Intersectionality and disability in international human rights law |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642987.2019.1661241 |journal=The International Journal of Human Rights |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=593–614 |doi=10.1080/13642987.2019.1661241 |issn=1364-2987}}</ref>
===Others=== Philosopher [[Tommy J. Curry]] published several works suggesting intersectional feminism implicitly adopts, and thereby perpetuates, harmful stereotypes of Black men.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Tommy J. Curry |date=2021 |chapter=Decolonizing the Intersection: Black Male Studies as a Critique of Intersectionality's Indebtedness to Subculture of Violence Theory |editor=Robert Beshara |title=Critical Psychology Praxis: Psychosocial Non-Alignment to Modernity/Coloniality |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003119678-11 |isbn=978-1-003-11967-8 |s2cid=234091480}}</ref> Curry says Crenshaw's intersectional model depends on second-wave feminist ideas, imported from subculture of violence theorists who argue that Black masculinity is compensatory and sexually predatory. In so doing, Curry says that the intersectional feminist concept of "[[Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female|Double Jeopardy]]" is fundamentally mistaken because intersectionality is over-determined by feminist politics. Curry also says that Crenshaw's conclusions in ''Mapping the Margins'' rely on gender essentialism that erases Black male victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and lethal violence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curry |first=Tommy |title=The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood |publisher=Temple University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4399-1486-1}}</ref>
==See also== {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * [[Class discrimination]] * [[Class reductionism]] * {{annotated link|Cross-cutting cleavage}} * [[Disability justice]] * [[Implicit stereotype]] * [[Kyriarchy]] * [[Matrix of domination]] * [[Misogynoir]] * [[Oppression Olympics]] * [[Polylogism]] * [[Progressive stack]] * [[Syndemic]] * [[Womanism]] {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Carastathis |first1=Anna |title=Basements and Intersections |journal=Hypatia |date=2013 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=698–715 |doi=10.1111/hypa.12044 |jstor=24542081 |s2cid=143824123 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259550036 |issn=0887-5367 |via=ResearchGate}} * {{cite journal |last1=Carastathis |first1=Anna |title=The Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory |journal=Philosophy Compass |date=2014 |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=304–314 |doi=10.1111/phc3.12129 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263725959 |via=ResearchGate}} * {{cite web |last=Collins |first=Patricia Hill |title=Defining Black Feminist Thought |publisher=Women of Color Web |year=1990 |url=http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/WoC/feminisms/collins2.html |archive-date=11 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211050851/http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/WoC/feminisms/collins2.html}} * {{cite book |editor-last1=Bernroider |editor-first1=Lucie |editor-last2=Born |editor-first2=Anthony |editor-last3=Kulz |editor-first3=Christy |editor-last4=Gang |editor-first4=Sung |title=Intersectionality and the City: Exploring Violence and Inequality in Urban Space |isbn=978-1-003-52972-9 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2025 |doi=10.4324/9781003529729}} * {{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Patricia Hill |last2=Bilge |first2=Sirma |title=Intersectionality |date=2020 |publisher=Polity Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-1-5095-3967-3 |edition=2nd}} * {{cite book |last=Hankivsky |first=Olena |title=Intersectionality 101 |url=https://www.sfu.ca/iirp/documents/resources/101_Final.pdf |publisher=Institute for Intersectionality Research & Policy, Simon Fraser University |location=Vancouver, B.C. |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-86491-355-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423171506/https://www.sfu.ca/iirp/documents/resources/101_Final.pdf |archive-date=23 April 2017 |url-status=unfit}}
==External links== * {{Wikiquote-inline}} * {{Wiktionary-inline|intersectionality}} * {{cite web |title=Justice Rising: moving intersectionally in the age of post-everything |publisher=London School of Economics |series=Public Lectures and Events |type=podcast |date=26 March 2014 |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player?id=2360}}
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[[Category:Intersectionality| ]] [[Category:Intersectional feminism]] [[Category:Feminist theory]] [[Category:2010s controversies]] [[Category:2020s controversies]] [[Category:1989 neologisms]]