"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."
The theory that different social identities and categories (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, class) intersect and interact to create unique experiences and forms of oppression and privilege.
Race: The social construct used to distinguish individuals based on physical characteristics, including skin color and hair texture. Intersectionality highlights how race intersects with other social categories, such as gender and class, to create different experiences of oppression and privilege.
Gender: The societal norms and expectations around behavior and identity based on one's anatomical sex. Intersectionality recognizes that gender is not a fixed or binary concept, and that it intersects with other categories to shape experiences of marginalization.
Class: The socio-economic hierarchy that determines access to resources, power, and opportunities. Intersectionality shows how class intersects with other social categories to create differential experiences of oppression and privilege.
Sexual Orientation: A person's emotional and physical attraction to others, including heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. Intersectionality recognizes that sexual orientation intersects with other categories to shape experiences of marginalization.
Culture: Shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artefacts that characterize a group or society. Intersectionality highlights how culture intersects with other categories to shape experiences of oppression and privilege.
Age: The number of years a person has lived, which shapes one's experiences, opportunities, and expectations in life. Intersectionality recognizes that age intersects with other categories to create differential experiences of oppression and privilege.
Ability: The physical, cognitive, and sensory capacities of individuals. Intersectionality shows how ability intersects with other social categories to create different experiences of marginalization.
Religion: A system of beliefs, practices, and values that shape one's worldview and behaviour. Intersectionality highlights how religion intersects with other categories to create differential experiences of oppression and privilege.
Language: The way in which people communicate and express themselves, including spoken and written forms. Intersectionality recognizes that language intersects with other categories to shape experiences of marginalization.
Nationality: One's citizenship, country of origin, or cultural identity. Intersectionality shows how nationality intersects with other categories to create differential experiences of oppression and privilege.
"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."