
What is meant by intersectionality?
The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects.
Who coined the term intersectionality?
“Intersectionality” was coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a civil rights activist and legal scholar. In a paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, Crenshaw wrote that traditional feminist ideas and antiracist policies exclude black women because they face overlapping discrimination unique to them.
What is an example of intersectionality?
what is intersectionality. The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects. For example, when a Muslim woman wearing the Hijab is ...
What is the theory of intersectionality?
what is intersectionality. The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects. For example, when a Muslim woman wearing the Hijab is being discriminated, it would be impossible to dissociate her female* from her Muslim identity and to isolate the dimension (s) causing her discrimination.

What is the concept of intersectionality?
Intersectionality is not about pitting different people or groups against each other to assess who is most marginalised or disadvantaged. Instead, intersectionality aims to understand how different people's experiences are shaped where multiple forms of oppression or disadvantage interact.
Why did Crenshaw develop intersectionality?
Twenty-eight years ago, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in a paper as a way to help explain the oppression of African-American women.
Why is Kimberlé Crenshaw important?
Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
What is intersectionality and give an example?
The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects.
What is intersectionality and why is it important?
Intersectionality is how multiple identities interact to create unique patterns of oppression. Originally coined by American scholar and lawyer Kimberle Crenshaw, who drew inspiration from Black feminist movements in the US, the term highlights how race, gender, class, and other factors are interconnected.
What are two examples of intersectionality?
Examples of IntersectionalityMissing and Indigenous Women. ... Missing White Woman Syndrome. ... Stereotypes about Asian Women. ... Disabled and LGBT. ... Black and Gay. ... Girls with ADHD. ... Working Class White Boys in England. ... Stereotypes about Gay Men.More items...•
How does intersectionality impact our lives?
Intersectionality shows us that social identities work on multiple levels, resulting in unique experiences, opportunities, and barriers for each person. Therefore, oppression cannot be reduced to only one part of an identity; each oppression is dependent on and shapes the other.
Why is intersectionality important to feminism?
Intersectionality is a term used to describe how different factors of discrimination can meet at an intersection and can affect someone's life. Adding intersectionality to feminism is important to the movement because it allows the fight for gender equality to become inclusive.
How did the concept of intersectionality develop?
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".
How was intersectionality developed?
The term intersectionality was first introduced in 1989 by critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw, who provided a framework that must be applied to all situations women face, recognizing that all the aspects of identity enrich women's lived experiences and compound and complicate the various oppressions and ...
Why is intersectionality an important concept for the feminist movement?
Intersectionality is a term used to describe how different factors of discrimination can meet at an intersection and can affect someone's life. Adding intersectionality to feminism is important to the movement because it allows the fight for gender equality to become inclusive.
Who invented intersectional feminism?
Kimberlé CrenshawKimberlé Crenshaw, an American law professor who coined the term in 1989 explained Intersectional feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other,” in a recent interview with Time.
Who coined the term intersectionality?
Before AAPF's 20th anniversary, Crenshaw reflects on where intersectionality is heading. Twenty-eight years ago, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in a paper as a way to help explain the oppression of African-American women.
What is the most problematic about the contemporary conversation?
What’s most problematic about the contemporary conversation is the complete irrelevance of women of color. People talk about how constituencies, specifically working class white men, saw a terrible deterioration of their prospects and they were angry and wanted to vote for someone not part of the establishment.
Who is the most often mentioned African American woman killed by police?
The impact can be measured first by noting how infrequently any woman was mentioned as a victim of police violence just two years ago, and now we hear often about “men and women” killed by police, or “African-Americans” rather than “African-American men.” Sandra Bland is the most often mentioned, and many people know the name, Rekia Boyd. But too few know Tanisha Anderson, Mya Hal,l or India Kager. The sense that this itself is a problem is a new recognition, one that activists, elected officials, and even families are beginning to give voice to.
Is intersectionality a grand theory?
Some people look to intersectionality as a grand theory of everything, but that’s not my intention. If someone is trying to think about how to explain to the courts why they should not dismiss a case made by black women, just because the employer did hire blacks who were men and women who were white, well, that's what the tool was designed to do. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, it’s not like you have to use this concept.
What is the most common critique of intersectionality?
To Crenshaw, the most common critiques of intersectionality — that the theory represents a “new caste system” — are actually affirmations of the theory’s fundamental truth: that individuals have individual identities that intersect in ways that impact how they are viewed, understood, and treated.
What is the current debate over intersectionality?
The current debate over intersectionality is really three debates: one based on what academics like Crenshaw actually mean by the term, one based on how activists seeking to eliminate disparities between groups have interpreted the term, and a third on how some conservatives are responding to its use by those activists.
What did Crenshaw argue about the courts?
Crenshaw argues in her paper that by treating black women as purely women or purely black, the courts, as they did in 1976, have repeatedly ignored specific challenges that face black women as a group.
When did Crenshaw first publish her theory?
Crenshaw first publicly laid out her theory of intersectionality in 1989, when she published a paper in the University of Chicago Legal Forum titled “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.”. You can read that paper here. DocumentCloud.
When was intersectionality coined?
It was coined in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap. “Intersectionality” has, in a sense, gone viral over the past half-decade, resulting in a backlash from the right.
What is Crenshaw's theory?
Crenshaw’s theory went mainstream, arriving in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015 and gaining widespread attention during the 2017 Women’s March, an event whose organizers noted how women’s “intersecting identities” meant that they were “impacted by a multitude of social justice and human rights issues.”.
Who coined the term "intersectionality"?
Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in a 1989 academic paper. But it’s not just academic panels where the fight over what intersectionality is — or isn’t — plays out. Intersectionality has become a dividing line between the left and the right. Sen.
What is intersectionality and critical race theory?
A: Intersectionality and critical race theory are lenses that are forged in Black history, and build on that history, the history of how race and racism has been structured into our society, into our law, into our very institutions. I would say Black History Month is an opportunity to really grapple with what white supremacy has to do with our country nearing the edge of collapse. And, frankly, how reunion without justice is the name of the disorder that affects us still.
What is intersectionality podcast?
presidential election, giving Columbia Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw the chance to fully explicate and illuminate the oft-misunderstood concept of intersectionality, a groundbreaking framework that shows the nature of race, class, and gender as interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage.
What is the 1619 project?
It retells and rethinks what it would mean to narrativize the American story from the arrival of the first Africans who were imported, telling the story from slavery forward, as opposed to 1776. But rather than just talking about 1619, we were explicitly intersectional. We talked about 1619 from the perspective of the breeding of Black women, which ultimately is what slavery became. What are the ideologies around women that needed to be disrupted and racialized to justify what was being done to Black women? What are the stereotypes that that ideology engenders? And how have those stereotypes not been fully disrupted?
Who is the host of Intersectionality Matters?
As Intersectionality Matters! enters its third season, Columbia News checks in with host and Columbia Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw on why it is more important than ever.
Is intersectionality a legitimate idea?
A: Well, I have to preface it by saying that with the executive order to dissolve the 1776 commission that President Biden signed, intersectionality is now a legitimate idea again to be discussed in the federal government. In September, intersectionality was an idea non grata, along with critical race theory and implicit bias and structural racism. When an idea gets to a point that a government decides that they have to call it out, to discredit it, that is telling me that there is power in it. There is huge value in it.
What does intersectionality mean for us in the NIH community?
What does intersectionality mean for us in the NIH community? The framework of intersectionality reminds us that we should bring our whole and authentic selves to work in order to perform our best and foster a collaborative environment with our colleagues (see Part 3). Mike Robbins explains this using the Authenticity Equation: Honesty – Self-Righteousness + Vulnerability = Authenticity (Robbins, 2018).
What is intersectionality in social work?
In 2013, The Oxford Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care broadened Crenshaw’s conceptualization of the term, defining it as the combined effects of one's multiple identities, which includes identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and employee status.
What is intersectionality in a conversation?
Intersectionality is a framework to begin the conversation - never underestimate the importance of learning about individuals and their unique stories. Get to know your colleagues and compare your similarities and differences. If you feel comfortable, share your stories with others as well.
What was the focus of the Crenshaw case?
Crenshaw’s work initially focused on the experiences of black women. The genesis of her work was two different civil court cases defending two separate groups of black women. The defendants argued that they were experiencing the additive effects of both racial and gender discrimination in workplace hiring practices. Both groups lost their cases. The judges believed that because black men had jobs and white women had jobs with their respective employers, then the employers could not discriminate against black women. The black women argued that their discrimination was unique from black men and white women. They did not face discrimination because of their race or gender; they faced discrimination because of the cumulative effects of their race and gender.
Who created the term "intersectionality"?
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar, created a term to describe our multiple identities: intersectionality. Crenshaw explains that our identities are like traffic flowing at an intersection – one identity may flow in one direction while another identity is flowing in a different direction (Crenshaw, 1989).
Why did black women not face discrimination?
They did not face discrimination because of their race or gender; they faced discrimination because of the cumulative effects of their race and gender.
How to overcome biases?
How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them
Should we fall through the cracks of social justice?
No one should fall through the cracks of our social justice movements. Real inclusion demands that we address intersectional vulnerabilities. Learn more about #SayHerName and intersectional justice.
What is intersectionality theory?
“ Intersectionality theory provides a dynamic research paradigm —a prism from which to analyze more fully a range of social problems in order to ensure inclusive remedies and greater collaboration across social movements. Intersectionality moves beyond traditional frameworks that separate social problems into discrete challenges facing specific groups. It starts from the premise that people have multiple identities, and being members of more than one “group,” they can simultaneously experience oppression and privilege. Intersectionality sheds light on the unique experiences that are produced when various forms of discrimination intersect with these converging identities. It is a dynamic strategy for linking the grounds of discrimination (e.g., race, gender, class, sexual identity, etc.) to historical, social, economic, political, and legal contexts and norms that intertwine to create structures of oppression and privilege. “
What happens if a black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection?
Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination. “.
What is the analogy of traffic in an intersection?
Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them.
When did Crenshaw introduce the concept of intersectionality?
Crenshaw introduced the concept of “intersectionality” to feminist theory nearly 30 years ago in a seminal paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, describing the “intersectional experience” as something “greater than the sum of racism and sexism.”.
What is intersectional feminism?
Intersectional feminism examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that women face, based not just on gender but on ethnicity, sexuality, economic background and a number of other axes. Advertisement.
Who dropped the metaphor for recognizing co-opting of progressive ideas as "glitches in the matrix"?
Kimberle Crenshaw just dropped an incredible metaphor for recognizing co-opting of progressive ideas as "glitches in the matrix." 🙌🏾 #NN17
Can we have an intersectionality that excludes black women?
THIS THIS THIS: "We cannot have an intersectionality that excludes Black women." @sandylocks #NN17 pic.twitter.com/k8WmuHKA0h
