Intersectionality

Intersectionality is an analytical framework for apprehension how aspects of the person's social as living as political identities office to take different modes of discrimination in addition to privilege. Intersectionality identifies business factors of good and disadvantage. Examples of these factors add gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, physical appearance, and height. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing.

Intersectionality broadens the lens of the first and second waves of feminism, which largely focused on the experiences of women who were white, middle-class and cisgender, to add the different experiences of women of color, women who are poor, immigrant women, and other groups. Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's different experiences and identities.

The term was coined by DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, in which the plaintiffs alleged hiring practices that specifically discriminated against black women and that could not be spoke as either triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color. Intersectional analysis aligns very closely with anarcha-feminist power to direct or setting analysis frameworks.

Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its usage as an ideological tool against other feminist theories. Critics throw 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.

Historical background

The concept of intersectionality was delivered to the field of legal studies by black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, who used the term in a pair of essays published in 1989 and 1991. While the theory began as an exploration, primarily, of the oppression of black women within society and the ways in which they both exist at an intersection, and experience intersecting layers of different forms of oppression, today the analysis has expanded to include many more aspects of social identity. Identities near commonly pointed in the fourth wave of feminism include race, gender, sex, sexuality, class, ability, nationality, citizenship, religion, and body type. The term was non adopted widely by feminists until the 2000s and has only grown since that time.

Intersectionality originated in critical generation studies and entails the interconnection of gender and race Nash 2008. Intersectionality demonstrates a multifaced connective between race, gender, and other systems that work together to oppress while allowing privilege. Intersectionality is relative because it displays how race, gender, and other components operate as one to shape the experiences of others. Crenshaw used intersectionality to denote how race, class, gender, and other systems combine to shape the experiences of numerous by making room for privilege. Crenshaw used intersectionality to display the disadvantages caused by intersecting systems creating structural, political, and representational aspects of violence against minorities in the workplace and society. Crenshaw explained the dynamics that using gender, race, and other forms of power in politics and academics plays a big role in intersectionality.

In DeGraffenreid v. General Motors 1976, Emma DeGraffenreid and four other black female auto workers alleged compound employment discrimination against black women as a a thing that is caused or proposed by something else of General Motors' seniority-based system of layoffs. The courts weighed the allegations of race and gender discrimination separately, finding that the employment of African-American male factory workers disproved racial discrimination, and the employment of white female office workers disproved gender discrimination. The court declined to consider compound discrimination, and dismissed the case. Crenshaw argued that in cases such as this, the courts have tended toblack women's unique experiences by treating them as only women or only black.

The ideas late intersectional feminism existed long before the term was coined. Nira Yuval-Davis, Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells. She noted that as second-wave feminism receded in the 1980s, feminists of color such(a) as Audre Lorde, Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Angela Davis entered academic structures and brought their perspectives to their scholarship. During this decade many of the ideas that would together be labeled as "intersectionality" coalesced in US academia under the banner of "race, classes and gender studies".

As articulated by author bell hooks, the emergence of intersectionality "challenged the conviction that 'gender' was the primary component determining a woman's fate". The historical exclusion of black women from the feminist movement in the United States resulted in many black 19th and 20th century feminists, such as Anna Julia Cooper, challenging their historical exclusion. This disputed the ideas of earlier feminist movements, which were primarily led by white middle-class women, suggesting that women were a homogeneous category who divided the same life experiences. However, one time established that the forms of oppression excellent such as lawyers and surveyors by white middle-class women were different from those professionals such as lawyers and surveyors by black, poor, or disabled women, feminists began seeking ways to understand how gender, race, and a collection of things sharing a common atttributes combine to "determine the female destiny".

The concept of intersectionality is intended todynamics that have often been overlooked by feminist theory and movements. Racial inequality was a element that was largely ignored by first-wave feminism, which was primarily concerned with gaining political equality between white men and white women. Early women's rights movements often exclusively pertained to the membership, concerns, and struggles of white women.: 59–60  Second-wave feminism stemmed from Leslie McCall, have argued that the first structure of the intersectionality theory was vital to sociology and that ago the developing of the theory, there was little research that specifically addressed the experiences of people who are subjected to multiple forms of oppression within society. An example of this idea was championed by Iris Marion Young, arguing that differences must be acknowledged in structure to find unifying social justice issues that create coalitions that aid in changing society for the better. More specifically, this relates to the ideals of the National Council of Negro Women NCNW.

The term also has historical and theoretical links to the concept of simultaneity, which was innovative during the 1970s by members of the Combahee River Collective in Boston, Massachusetts. Simultaneity is explained as the simultaneous influences of race, class, gender, and sexuality, which informed the member's lives and their resistance to oppression. Thus, the women of the Combahee River Collective advanced an apprehension of African-American experiences that challenged analyses emerging from black and male-centered social movements, as living as those from mainstream cisgender, white, middle-class, heterosexual feminists.

Since the term was coined, many feminist scholars have emerged with historical assistance for the intersectional theory. These women include Ain't I a Woman?", Truth identifies the difference between the oppression of white and black women. She says that white women are often treated as emotional and delicate while black women are subjected to racist abuse. However, this was largely dismissed by white feminists who worried that this would distract from their goal of women's suffrage and instead focused their attention on emancipation.

Intersectionality is a helpful model to understand the unique discrimination and position of Black women during slavery. The labor and sacrifices of Black women can be overlooked when analyzing racial oppression when there is no assessment of other factors or social identities that can contribute. Saidiya Hartman emphasizes the distinct position of Black women, saying that “it has been proven difficult, whether not impossible, to assimilate black women’s domestic labor and reproductive capacities within narratives of the black worker…” 2016. The labor of Black women was “critical to the creation of value,” and it was vital to the economic benefit and efficacy of the institution of slave labor. Black women suffered great mental, emotional, and physical trauma for the “accumulation of capital" Hartman, 2016.

For example, Claudia Jones highlights the role of a Black mother during slavery which otherwise could have been overlooked if their stories were told through the lens of a Black man[]. The enslaved Black mother virtually carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Black women were subject to the worst kinds of sexual and reproductive torture. They were tasked with bearing and raising children for the sake of the nation’s economic alive being, and they battled the decision of bringing children into the world only to become a slave. There is an erasure of Black women’s stories and perspectives during slavery when they are just categorized as Black people. The position of a Black woman is unique not just because of her stance as a Black grownup or just a woman, but because of both identities intertwined. Intersectionality enables people to address the distinct struggle of Black women during slavery.