"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 idea that social identities, such as gender, race, class, and sexuality, intersect and cannot be understood in isolation from one another.
Social identity and oppression: The role of social identity in shaping individual experiences of oppression and privilege.
Privilege and power: An examination of power structures and how they reinforce privilege.
Institutional and systemic oppression: The ways in which institutional and systemic oppression function and how they intersect.
Race and racism: The intersections between race, class, gender, and other identity markers.
Gender and gender identity: An exploration of gender identity and gender expression, and how they intersect with other identity markers.
Sexuality and sexual orientation: An examination of how sexuality and sexual orientation intersect with other identity markers.
Disability: An examination of disability and how it intersects with other identity markers.
Intersectionality and activism: A discussion of how intersectionality informs activism and social justice movements.
Feminism and intersectionality: An exploration of intersectionality within feminist philosophy and the ongoing debates around its role and importance.
Gender-based violence: An examination of gender-based violence and how it intersects with other forms of oppression.
Environmental justice: An exploration of environmental justice and how it relates to intersectionality.
Global justice: An examination of issues related to global justice, including poverty, immigration, and displacement.
Queer theory: An exploration of queer theory and its intersections with other identity markers.
Critical race theory: An examination of critical race theory and its intersections with other identity markers.
Postcolonial theory: An exploration of postcolonial theory and its intersections with other identity markers.
Race/Ethnicity: Examining how racism and discrimination based on an individual's race or ethnicity intersects with other factors, such as gender or sexuality.
Gender/Sex: Analyzing how gender identity, expression, and societal expectations intersect to create unique experiences for individuals of different genders.
Class: Addressing how economic and social class intersects with factors such as race, gender, or sexuality, and can create different forms of oppression and privilege.
Sexuality: Examining how sexual orientation and identity intersect with other aspects of identity to create unique experiences of oppression and discrimination.
Disability: Looking at how individual's physical or mental abilities intersect with other factors to create unique experiences of marginalization and discrimination.
Age: Addressing how age intersects with other aspects of identity, such as gender or race, to create different experiences of marginalization and discrimination in society.
Nationality/Immigration Status: Examining how an individual's nationality or immigration status can intersect with other aspects of their identity and create unique experiences of discrimination and oppression.
Religion: Addressing how an individual's religious beliefs intersect with other identity factors, such as gender or sexuality, and can create unique experiences of oppression and discrimination.
Body Size: Examining how an individual's body size intersects with other aspects of their identity, such as race, to create different forms of oppression and discrimination.
Language: Addressing how an individual's language skills or lack thereof can intersect with other aspects of their identity, such as race, and create unique experiences of oppression and discrimination.
"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."