What is Intersectionality?

For many the word ‘intersectionality’ seems to have entered our consciousness rather suddenly, without much in the way of obvious meaning or explanation. Something to do with everyone being different? Inter…sect…a ‘crossroads of some kind? Are we just making words for extra wokeness points now? Or to make others feel even more uncomfortable about things they do not really…get?

The truth is that the word intersectionality does not describe some strange new phenomena. It is not even a new term. Nor is it just a fancier word for another one that would do just as well.

Intersectionality is an inclusive approach to thinking or acting. Intersectionality demands that people think beyond traditional race-only or gender-only perspectives to understand any given inequality.

Women are not a homogeneous group. The same goes for people of colour, disabled people, LGBT people, older people, and working-class people. No two people, however similar in appearance, share the same collection of identities, experiences, and perspectives. So, while shared identity and experience are vitality important, they alone cannot provide the solutions to the barriers to equity and inclusion imposed upon the individual.

This is not to discredit the aims and impacts of initiatives that shine a light on broad inequalities, such as mandatory gender pay gap reporting. But what does gender pay gap reporting (for example) tell us about the experiences of women of colour? Of gay women? Of disabled women? Of older women? Nothing useful…and that is the point.

Yet we are all, unavoidably, socialised to stereotype based on ‘group identity’ to some degree. We naturally seek out shortcuts to identifying problems and seeking solutions, without necessarily appreciating the bigger picture.

And therefore, the term intersectionality is an important one. Making our workplaces and our societies more inclusive means acknowledging the complexity and interconnection of inequalities. This also requires a basic appreciation of the multiple systems of power (patriarchy, racism, ableism, homophobia etc.) that influence individual experiences, interactions, and opportunities.

Not all problems are simple ones to understand, let alone solve. But the word ‘intersectionality’ offers a tool for transcending singular one-dimensional group-specific politics. Crucially, intersectionality is helping to start more useful conversations that seek to understand and improve complex realities.

Credit to the works of distinguished black feminist scholars and activists Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill-Collins, as well as the University of Sunderland’s Dr Sheila Quaid, and colleagues in our affinity networks at Cundall for the continuing expansion of my own understanding of what it means to take an intersectional approach to issues of inequality.