"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 recognition of the ways in which various forms of oppression and privilege, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, intersect and influence each other.
Intersectionality: Intersectionality is the study of how different forms of social oppression intersect and how they contribute to experiences of discrimination and inequality for marginalized individuals or groups.
Colonialism: Colonialism is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
Postcolonialism: Postcolonialism is the study of the cultural, social, and political effects of colonialism and imperialism, including the legacy of colonization and the processes of decolonization.
Race: Race is a social construct that categorizes people into groups based on physical features, such as skin color and facial features.
Ethnicity: Ethnicity refers to a shared cultural heritage, including language, customs, traditions, and history, among a group of people.
Gender: Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
Sexuality: Sexuality refers to an individual's sexual identity, including their sexual orientation, preferences, and desires.
Class: Class refers to a social and economic hierarchy that categorizes individuals or groups based on factors such as wealth, income, occupation, and education.
Intersectional analysis: Intersectional analysis is a method of examining how different forms of oppression intersect and impact individuals or groups.
Postcolonial theory: Postcolonial theory is a framework for examining the cultural, social, and political effects of colonialism and imperialism.
Power: Power refers to the ability to influence or control others or events.
Resistance: Resistance refers to the act of opposing or fighting against oppression, injustice, or domination.
Hybridity: Hybridity refers to the mixing of different cultural forms and identities, resulting in the creation of new cultural identities and practices.
Eurocentrism: Eurocentrism is the dominance of European culture, history, and values over other cultures and histories.
Globalization: Globalization refers to the increasing interconnectedness of the world, including economic, political, and cultural exchanges between countries and regions.
Neocolonialism: Neocolonialism refers to the continuing economic and political domination of former colonies by former colonial powers.
Orientalism: Orientalism is the portrayal of non-Western cultures and societies as exotic, inferior, and static by Western writers and scholars.
Cultural appropriation: Cultural appropriation refers to the adoption or use of cultural elements or practices from one cultural group by another, often for commercial or personal gain, without understanding or respecting the original culture.
Indigenous rights: Indigenous rights refer to the legal and political rights of indigenous communities and peoples, including the right to land, self-determination, and cultural preservation.
Environmental justice: Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Gender and Colonialism: The intersection of gender and colonialism, how colonization created gendered power relations in which women were often relegated to subordinate positions.
Race and Colonialism: The intersection of race and colonialism, how colonialism constructed racial hierarchies in which white Europeans dominated over Indigenous peoples.
Nationalism and Colonialism: The intersection of nationalism and colonialism, how colonialism interrupted the development of national identities and often led to state violence and repression against those seeking national self-determination.
Class and Colonialism: The intersection of class and colonialism, how colonialism often resulted in the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of elites at the expense of the majority of people.
Environmentalism and Colonialism: The intersection of environmentalism and colonialism, how colonialism led to the exploitation of natural resources, destruction of ecosystems and displacement of Indigenous peoples.
Queerness and Colonialism: The intersection of queer identities and colonialism, how Euro-American norms of sexuality were imposed on colonized people, leading to violence and oppression for queer individuals.
Disability and Colonialism: The intersection of disability and colonialism, how colonialism created disabling conditions both physically and socially, which persist today in the form of structural inequalities and discrimination.
Diaspora and Postcolonialism: The intersection of diaspora experiences and postcolonialism, how colonialism created dispersals of populations across vast geographical spaces, leading to experiences of loss, longing, and displacement that continue to be felt today.
Multiculturalism and Postcolonialism: The intersection of multiculturalism and postcolonialism, how postcolonial societies are shaped by multiple cultures and identities, often leading to clashes between different cultural groups.
Nationalism and Postcolonialism: The intersection of nationalism and postcolonialism, how postcolonial societies struggle with the legacies of colonialism and the development of national identities free from colonial domination.
"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."