"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 field focuses on how different identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability, intersect and influence one's experiences in society. It examines the way power, privilege and social hierarchies operate through these intersections and how it affects marginalized groups.
Intersectionality: The interconnectedness of social categories such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability, and how they shape individual experiences of oppression and privilege.
Feminism: A social, political, and cultural movement that advocates for gender equality and the dismantling of patriarchal systems.
Queer Theory: An interdisciplinary field of study that explores the social and cultural constructions of sexuality, gender, and identity.
Transgender Studies: The study of how transgender individuals navigate social systems, and the effects of social structures on transgender experiences.
Critical Race Theory: An analytical framework that examines the intersections of race, power, and privilege, and how they shape social, legal, and political systems.
Social Justice: A philosophical and political movement that seeks to promote social equality and advocate for oppressed or marginalized groups.
Postcolonialism: An interdisciplinary field of study that explores the interactions between colonial powers and colonized societies, and the effects of those interactions on post-colonial societies and cultures.
Cultural Studies: A field of study that explores the production, consumption, and distribution of culture within societies.
Black Feminism: A feminist movement that emphasizes the experiences of Black women and the intersections of race, gender, and social class in shaping those experiences.
Empowerment: The process of increasing an individual's sense of self-efficacy, self-determination, and control over their own lives and experiences.
Intersectional Allyship: The practice of actively working to recognize and challenge privilege, and to support and uplift marginalized groups.
"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."