"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 study of overlapping social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination, especially based on sex and gender, race, class, and sexuality.
Social Identities: This refers to the various identities that a person has, such as their race, gender, sexuality, age, religion, disability status, etc. These identities intersect to create a unique experience of privilege or oppression.
Power and Inequality: This topic explains how the society is structured in a hierarchical way with those who hold more power and privilege, exercising control over the lives of those who have less power and privilege.
Privilege: This refers to the advantages and benefits that people have due to their social identities.
Oppression: This refers to the systematic and institutionalized mistreatment of a group of people based on their social identities.
Intersectionality Theory: This theoretical framework, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, explains how social identities intersect to create unique experiences of privilege and oppression, and how social justice movements should recognize and address these intersections.
Feminist Theory: This theory examines the experiences and perspectives of women in society, and critiques the patriarchal structures that perpetuate gender inequality.
Queer Theory: This theory explores gender and sexuality beyond the binary, and critiques the heteronormative structures and assumptions in society.
Critical Race Theory: This theory examines the intersections of race and racism with other forms of oppression, and critiques the systemic and institutionalized nature of racism.
Disability Studies: This field of study addresses societal attitudes and policies that create barriers for people with disabilities, and promotes accessibility and inclusion.
Environmental Justice: This field of study examines how environmental issues intersect with social identities, and critiques the disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on marginalized communities.
Globalization and Post-Colonialism: These topics address the historical and contemporary exploitation of colonized peoples, and critique the global systems of power and inequality that perpetuate these inequalities.
Reproductive Justice: This topic examines the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in accessing reproductive healthcare, and advocates for the right to make informed reproductive healthcare decisions.
Sex Work and Prostitution: This field of study examines the intersections of gender, capitalism, and sex work, and critiques the policies that perpetuate exploitation and harm towards sex workers.
Cultural Appropriation: This topic critiques the commodification and exploitation of the cultural practices and artifacts of marginalized communities by dominant cultures.
Allyship: This topic addresses the responsibilities of privileged individuals in recognizing and challenging systems of oppression, and promoting social justice and equity.
Gender intersectionality: Examines how different genders intersect with other forms of social oppression.
Racial intersectionality: Examines how race intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Queer intersectionality: Examines how sexual orientation intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Disability intersectionality: Examines how ability intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Class intersectionality: Examines how class intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Age intersectionality: Examines how age intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Nationality and citizenship intersectionality: Examines how nationality and citizenship intersect with other forms of social oppression.
Religion intersectionality: Examines how religion intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Transgender intersectionality: Examines how gender identity intersects with other forms of social oppression.
Sexual violence intersectionality: Examines how sexual violence intersects with other forms of social oppression.
"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."