This article will cover the following points:
- Intersectionality is … many things: A case study
- Introducing the term ‘category’
- The challenges of intersectionality
- Why does Intersectionality matter here and now?
Intersectionality is … many things: A case study
The term intersectionality initially appeared in the late 1980s and the person introducing it is Kimberlé Crenshaw, acclaimed scholar of civil rights theory among others [1]. Kimberlé was the first to develop the theory of intersectionality that does not resemble any theory that existed at this point. She conceptualized the revolutionary idea, inspired by her black identity and by being a feminist and antiracist, that social inequalities do not act in isolation, but rather are codependent and are manifested not in a unitary way, but interchangeably and like these, they affect the lives of women of color. Here an example would serve best. The example that Kimberlé presented in the TedTalk [2] she gave when explaining intersectionality goes as follows:
A black woman in the US asks to be hired in a car manufacturing plant to offer to her family but she is rejected from the job. When she files a suit against the company, the judge dismisses it. The company, in their defense, claims that they hire both African- Americans and women. The woman acknowledges that but she does not fully agree. The car manufacturing company indeed hires African-Americans but mostly men and yes, they hire women, but mostly white. Therefore, the discrimination on behalf of the company was not based on the woman's racial or gender identity, but because of both. Kimberlé heard that story and deeply desired to name this problem because "we all know that, where there's no name for a problem, you can't see a problem, and when you can't see a problem, you pretty much can't solve it'' as she stated in her TedTalk [2].
Disconnecting aspects like race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, ability, and age are somewhat naïve [3]. It would be much wiser to face them as phenomena that add to one another reciprocally and as a whole, they shape complex social inequalities.
Intersectionality also lies within the systems that assign meaning to those aspects, namely systems of oppression that maintain power hierarchies in society. Let's think of our aforementioned example to illustrate this point. The judge that was handling the case of the black woman wanting to work at the plant was using a distortive way of approaching it since it was not clear if the focus was on gender discrimination or race discrimination. The result however was that the woman lost the case since the company did not allow black women to work there [2]. You can see now, how the power that lies in the hands of the judge implied a social inequality that was not stemming from one alone or two separate constructs but the interconnection between them [4].
Introducing the term ‘category’
Intersectionality can be a confusing topic but at the same time a vital one to comprehend and be aware of in our everyday lives. It may be rooted in the feminist theory [8], but it expands to explain the unfairness that many individuals face in their everyday life.
Three scholars agree that intersectionality can be approached differently and used under many terms. We will explain now what they theorized and identify which of their approaches is closer to the term of intersectionality that we use most frequently today.
Before going there let's make a quick clarification [5]. The term 'category' can be used by a person to categorize themselves but at the same time, the state or other people might categorize this person differently. Therefore, in this article, a 'category' is not a universal term. We know of course that class, ethnicity, race, and gender for example are not equivalent, but they for sure share commonalities and have differences. However, they are still unfortunately used to create boundaries and hierarchies.
That is that a person can be part of an ethnic group that is discriminated against as a group but this specific person may also have another feature that is being separately discriminated on i.e. gender. For example, one might be coming from a lower economic class, but also come from a certain religious background. This person could have been discriminated against separately for their ethnicity and/ or the religious group they belong to when at school but also the case would be different if this person was a man or a woman.
Different conceptualizations: Crenshaw, McCall, and Hancock
We already dived into the explanation that Crenshaw gave: the particular incidents arising from groups or individuals being at the point of the intersection. Remember the African-American woman not getting the jogging example.
McCall, on the other hand, draws on the theory of Crenshaw and explains intersectionality by presenting three approaches [6]:
- Anti-categorical: rejects categories, so intersectionality is better understood in a fluid rather than in a static way. Do not forget that fighting against socially constructed and imposed categories could also be a way to eliminate inequality from its roots.
- Intra- categorical: this approach examines the lived experiences of those at the 'neglected points of the intersection'. Here we can think of a Dutch- Surinamese person having both nationalities, speaking Dutch and being of dark skin but fully integrated into the Dutch society and a working person as well. This person would not experience any inequality because of the Dutch part of their identity.
- Inter-categorical: the use of existing categories to document relationships of multiple inequalities among social groups. This approach is maybe more comprehensive, as it explains that since inequality already exists among groups, we can understand it better when examining those groups. Here you can think once more of the black woman applying for the car company job. She may have gotten the job if the company hired black women.
According to McCall intersectionality as we know it today is closer to the second and third approaches.
At last, Hancock explains her take on intersectionality by introducing three approaches as well [7]:
- Unitary approach: only one category is examined, and it is presumed to be primary and stable
- Multiple approaches: more than one categories are addressed and they matter equally
- Intersectional approach: more than one category is addressed; the categories matter equally; the relationship between the categories is open; the categories are fluid not stable, and mutually constitute each other. Again this is the closest approach to intersectionality as we describe it frequently today.
As you can understand, intersectionality is rooted in a philosophical sphere on how to conceptualize categories and their interrelational roles when it comes to explaining inequalities or power dynamics. Imagine that books and crazy long articles are explaining the topic, and for one to grasp it fully, they need to spend some more time puzzling their head. What we try in this article is to introduce you to the concept of intersectionality and show a bit of its relevance. ☺
Why does Intersectionality matter here and now?
As we have previously mentioned, intersectionality is closely related to the feminist theory [8]. It is considered to be not only an important theoretical framework that can be used to analyze oppression as a multifaceted problem, but it also originates in the antiracist feminist critiques that women's oppression cannot be captured by gender alone. Intersectionality is something to be celebrated for existing as it does not only uplifts feminism but also assists the emergence of legislation and is extended human rights discourses as well.
The UN Women 2020 publication [9], stressed the fact that since the world is undergoing a health crisis due to the current pandemic, intersectionality's lens is a straightforward way to view things from now on. Communities suffer not only because they face the effects of this crisis on education, care, employment, and protection, and of course, other needs have been put aside. However, for people belonging to communities that were not heard before it is even harder for them to be heard now. The coronavirus pandemic brought rather hidden inequalities at the front like the unequal offers for treatment of people affected by the virus depending on their class for example. Imagine how hard would therefore be for activists, lawyers, and other disciplines to fight for an individual that is facing multiple discriminations without the phenomenon of intersectionality in their hands.
Not all news is bad though. Crises offer the opportunity for structural inequalities to be seen and studied more clearly because they are at their peak. In other words, they offer a nice 'reset' moment- where we can imagine there is a time freeze, and after the clocks start ticking again, there is a better 'normal' than what we have been experiencing before.
Additional Sources:
- Book: IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All, The first children's book about intersectionality by the CLC collective You can find it here: https://www.clccollective.com/
- Video: Watch the TED Talk by Kimberle Crenshaw on her concept of Intersectionality here https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
- Comic: This Comic Series Perfectly Explain the Need for Intersectional Feminism. You can find it here: https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
References
- Crenshaw, K., (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. doi:10.2307/1229039)
- Crenshaw, K. (2016, December) The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw [Video] TED Conferences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o&ab_channel=RichRussoRichRusso
- Smooth, W. G. (2013). Intersectionality from Theoretical Framework to Policy Intervention. Situating Intersectionality, 11–41. doi:10.1057/9781137025135_2
- Collins, P. H., (2015) Intersectionality’s Definitional Dilemmas, Annual Review of Sociology, 1-20, DOI: 10.1146/annual-soc-073014-112142
- Anthias, F. (2012). Intersectional what? Social divisions, intersectionality, and levels of analysis. Ethnicities, 13(1), 3–19. doi:10.1177/1468796812463547
- McCall, L. (2005). The Complexity of Intersectionality. Signs, 30(3), 1771-1800. doi:10.1086/426800
- Walby, S., Armstrong, J., & Strid, S. (2012). Intersectionality: Multiple Inequalities in Social Theory. Sociology, 46(2), 224–240. doi:10.1177/0038038511416164
- Carastathis, A. (2014). The Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory. Philosophy Compass, 9(5), 304–314. doi:10.1111/phc3.12129
- https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters