"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."
Examines how race and gender intersect to shape experiences of discrimination, oppression, and privilege.
Intersectionality Theory: Understanding the basics of intersectionality theory which explores the idea that different forms of oppression intersect to create unique experiences for individuals who experience multiple forms of marginalization.
Gender: Understanding what the term gender means, how it differs from sex, and its impact on society and individuals.
Race: Understanding what the term race means, how it impacts society and individuals, and how racism has shaped our world.
Sexuality: Understanding what the term sexuality means, how it intersects with other aspects of identity, and how it has been used as a tool of oppression.
Social class: Understanding what social class means, how it intersects with race, gender, and sexuality, and how it has been used as a tool of oppression.
Intersectionality and identity formation: Understanding how our multiple identities intersect to shape our experiences and how power operates in society.
Health disparities: Understanding how social determinants of health intersect with race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class to create health disparities.
Legal frameworks: Understanding legal frameworks that impact marginalized communities, including but not limited to the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and employment laws.
Power and privilege: Understanding how power and privilege operate in society, how certain forms of power and privilege intersect, and how they contribute to inequity.
Stereotyping and bias: Understanding what stereotypes and biases are and how they impact marginalized communities.
Feminism and womanism: Understanding the basic principles of feminism and womanism, and how they have evolved over time.
Disability: Understanding what the term disability means, how it intersects with other aspects of identity, and how ableism has contributed to marginalization.
Immigration: Understanding the experiences of immigrants, how immigration laws impact marginalized communities, and how intersectionality informs our understanding of immigration issues.
Environmental justice: Understanding how environmental factors intersect with race, class, and gender to create disparities in access to resources, pollution exposure, and climate change impacts.
Media representation: Understanding how media representation impacts marginalized communities, including but not limited to television, film, advertising, and journalism.
"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."