Intersectionality

Intersectionality theory involves the systematic analysis of the ways multiple social categories (e.g, race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age, nation, ability) intersect in different contexts over time.

This theory argues that the categories western societies have used to construct ideas of difference and inequality, like gender, race, class, sexuality, age, nationality, dis/ability, must be examined simultaneously (as best as possible) rather than in isolation from one another. This is because one's location within each of these axes of inequality, and the ways by which these social locations intersect, will create unique experiences, unique ways of thinking and acting, and unique forms of social control.

Three assumptions of intersectionality theory:

1) Inequality is relational. (We construct meanings about normative and non-normative in relation to one another.) Categories aren’t just binary oppositions (e.g., black/white) but they also intersect with other categories to mutually constitute one another. This means we can’t separate them from one another. Instead of looking at race and gender as separate categories, then, from an intersectionality lens, you might examine how gender is racialized and how race is gendered. That is, how they mutually constitute one another.

2) Intersecting inequalities play out in interaction and in social settings. The way someone experiences their identity at the intersection of race, class, gender, etc may vary from one situation to another or may vary over time. In short, the ways we experience and articulate our identities will depend on the setting, the configuration of individuals in it, and so on.

3) People don’t just experience inequalities, they can also resist them. There’s an emphasis in this theoretical perspective on the ways people actively resist, challenge, and transform the conditions of their lives. A key aspect of intersectionality theory is that we are capable of questioning and challenging systems of oppression. There is a transformative component to the theory.

Patricia Hill Collins, an intersectionality theorist, argues that the traditional family ideal (e.g., heterosexual couple with their own biological children in which the father is head, mother cares for home, and home is a private haven separate from the public world of work and politics) is at one and the same time an ideology (a set of normative beliefs and ideas) and a fundamental principle of social organization. And, moreover, she argues that as ideology and principle of social organization, the traditional family ideal props up ideas and practices around gender, race, and nation. In “It’s all in the family” Collins (1998) outlines six ways that gender, race, and nation intersect in family rhetoric and practice.