"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."
Understanding the intersection of race and gender, exploring how they intersect and impact one another in complex ways.
Intersectionality: The concept that suggests different forms of oppression and discrimination cannot be understood in isolation and intersect in complex ways.
Privilege: The advantages and benefits that people may receive based on their group membership, such as race or gender, and how it can create unequal power dynamics.
Social Constructionism: The idea that race, gender, and other identities are not naturally occurring categories but rather, socially constructed in the context of historical, cultural and political factors.
Patriarchy: A social system where men hold the majority of the power and women are marginalized in relation to them.
Oppression: The systemic, institutionalized discrimination and disadvantage experienced by certain social groups, such as people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
Intersectional Feminism: A feminist perspective that recognizes that the oppression and struggles of women vary across different intersecting identities, such as race, sexuality, class, ability, and more.
Toxic Masculinity: The adherence to traditional norms of masculinity, which can lead to the promotion of violence, aggression, and other harmful behaviors.
Transphobia: Fear and hatred of transgender people, resulting in their marginalization, discrimination, and violence.
Queer Theory: A critical theory that challenges the "normal" binary views of gender and sexuality, and instead focuses on fluidity, diversity, and subjectivity of these identities.
Ableism: Discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities, resulting in their exclusion, segregation, and marginalization.
White Supremacy: The belief that white people are superior to people of color and that white culture is the standard by which other cultures should be measured.
Imperialism: The practice of extending power, control, and influence over other countries and people, usually through domination, exploitation, and colonization.
Cultural Appropriation: The unauthorized use of elements from another culture, often without respect for their historical or social meaning, and exploitation of their economic value.
Postcolonialism: The critical examination of the cultural, social, and political legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
Body Politics: The various ways in which the body is perceived, regulated, and controlled by social norms, institutions, and power relations.
Male: Identifying as male, or assigned male at birth.
Female: Identifying as female, or assigned female at birth.
Transgender: Identifying as a gender different from the one assigned at birth.
Non-binary: Identifying outside of the binary gender system of male and female.
Genderqueer: Identifying as neither male nor female or some combination of the two.
Intersex: Being born with anatomy that does not fit typical male or female categories.
Asian: A person from any of the countries or regions in Asia, including East, Southeast, and South Asia.
Black or African American: A person with origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
Hispanic or Latino: A person with origins in any of the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America or the Caribbean.
White: A person of European or Middle Eastern descent.
Native American or Alaska Native: A person with origins in any of the indigenous tribes or nations of North America.
Pacific Islander: A person from any of the countries or regions in the Pacific area.
Heterosexual: Attracted to the opposite gender.
Homosexual: Attracted to the same gender.
Bisexual: Attracted to both same and opposite genders.
Asexual: Experiencing little or no sexual attraction.
Pansexual: Attracted to all genders or attracted to people regardless of gender.
Queer: A term used by some to describe a non-heterosexual or non-cisgender identity.
Physical disability: A condition that affects a person's mobility, such as paralysis or amputation.
Sensory disability: A condition that affects a person's senses, such as deafness or blindness.
Cognitive disability: A condition that affects a person's ability to learn or process information, such as dyslexia or Down syndrome.
Mental health disability: A condition that affects a person's emotional or psychological well-being, such as depression or anxiety.
Chronic illness disability: A condition that affects a person's physical health and requires ongoing medical treatment, such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis.
Developmental disability: A condition that affects a person's intellectual and/or physical development from birth or a young age, such as autism or cerebral palsy.
"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."