"Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how a person's various social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege."
This topic delves into the complex and overlapping identities that result from the intersection of social categories, investigating how individuals navigate and experience them.
History of Intersectionality: The origins and development of intersectionality as a concept and as a tool for analyzing social inequalities.
Intersectionality and Race: The ways in which race intersects with other social categories, such as gender, sexuality, class or disability to shape experiences of discrimination, oppression or privilege.
Intersectionality and Gender: How gender identities and expressions intersect with other social categories, such as race, class, or sexuality, to create unique experiences of marginalization and empowerment.
Intersectionality and Sexuality: The impact of sexual orientation and sexual identity on other aspects of identity, such as race, gender or class, and how these intersections shape social experiences.
Intersectionality and Disability: Understanding the ways in which disability intersects with other social categories, such as race, gender, or sexuality, to produce unique experiences of discrimination and marginalization.
Intersectionality and Class: The interconnectedness of class inequality with other social categories, such as race, gender or sexuality, and how these intersections shape social experiences.
Intersectionality and Religion: The impact of religion on other aspects of identity, such as race, gender or sexuality, and how religious identity intersects with other social categories to create unique experiences of marginalization or empowerment.
Intersectionality and Nationality: The ways in which national identity intersects with other social categories, such as race, gender or class, to produce unique experiences of discrimination and marginalization.
Intersectionality and Immigration: Understanding the experiences of immigrants and their intersection with other social categories, such as race or class, to create distinct experiences of marginalization or privilege.
Intersectionality and Colonialism: The historical and ongoing impact of colonialism on intersecting structures of power and privilege, such as race, gender or class, and how they shape social experiences.
Race/Ethnicity: This identity refers to a person's cultural, ethnic, or racial background, which includes but isn't limited to Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, or White.
Gender: This identity concerns a person's internal sense of being male, female, both or neither.
Nationality: This identity describes one's citizenship, place of birth, or country of origin.
Religion: This identity is about one's beliefs, practices, and rituals within a particular faith or spiritual tradition.
Sexual Orientation: This identity refers to a person's romantic and/or sexual attraction to individuals of a particular gender.
Socioeconomic status: This identity describes a person's economic and social position within society, based on factors like income, education, and employment status.
Disability: This identity concerns a person's physical or mental impairment, which may impact their daily life and experiences.
Age: This identity refers to a person's chronological age or their stage of life, which may impact their experiences and perspectives.
Education: This identity is based on one's level of education or academic achievement, which may influence their worldview and opportunities.
Language and Linguistic Identity: This identity refers to a person's first, second, or multiple languages, and how language affects their communication, social, and cultural experiences.
"Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance."
"These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing."
"Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's differing experiences and identities."
"The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989."
"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."
"Intersectionality engages in similar themes as triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color."
"Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its use as an ideological tool against other feminist theories."
"Critics have characterized the framework as ambiguous and lacking defined goals."
"As it is based in standpoint theory, critics say the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the theory of intersectionality."
"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."
"The analysis ... provided recommendations on analytic best practices for future research."
"An analysis of academic articles published through May 2020 found that intersectionality is frequently misunderstood when bridging theory into quantitative methodology."
"In 2022, a quantitative approach to intersectionality was proposed based on information theory, specifically synergistic information."
"In this framing, intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome (e.g. income, etc.) that can only be learned when multiple identities (e.g. race and sex) are known together."
"Intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome [...] that can [...] not [be] extractable from analysis of the individual identities considered separately."
"Critics [argue] the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"Intersectionality broadens the scope of the first and second waves of feminism, [...] to include the different experiences of women of color, poor women, immigrant women, and other groups."