intersectionality as a tool
published 3.16.21
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, we celebrate landmark judicial rulings, legendary feminists, and persistent activism. But filtering history to champion only female-centered events and influential figures fails to recognize the multitude of other identities that enabled female “firsts” to pave the way.
Trailblazers don’t fit a strict mold along the lines of gender, race, ethnicity, age, ability, class, sexual orientation, religion, geography, job, education, family status, immigration status, or language abilities. Every facet of our identity informs how we are perceived and perceive others.
Here are a few ways to acknowledge intersectionality every day.
First, the Rundown
The theory of intersectionality was developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to explain how cross-cutting identities affect an individual’s experiences. While Crenshaw’s initial research centers on the prejudices exhibited towards Black women, merging race and gender, its use has grown to encompass other areas of social identity. These injustices call attention to the ease of developing incomplete perceptions; Crenshaw insists that:
“without frames that allow us to see how social problems impact all the members of a targeted group, many will fall through the cracks of our movements, left to suffer in virtual isolation”.
Categorization may be a great way to organize your life, but identities are not labels. Identities elevate the greater picture, and labels inhibit others from seeing it. Contributions and dreams are a product of the identities one holds, as are disappointments and obstacles. Yes, it's personal, but it’s you.
So what meaning can we derive from intersectionality over thirty years after its inception? In a recent interview with Columbia University, Crenshaw asserted that “for me in 2021, intersectionality is the call to recognize that everything is contingent, even the ability to say these words. They have brought the fight to us. And we cannot fail to answer that”.
This interdependency should not only inform how we view ourselves and others, but how we analyze and challenge the exclusivity of greater institutional frameworks, no matter how dominant or embedded they may be.
Start with You
While common identities can generate shared spaces, we do not overlap as often on lived experiences. This multiplicity calls for reflecting on your own identities: collectively, what role have they played during your most defining moments? Recent research by the Myers-Briggs Company found that “increased self-awareness led to improvements in confidence, decision-making, people-management and stress management”.
Instead of emotions and character, think about how your identities influence your roles, relationships, and worldview.
Deloitte notes how our own unconscious biases play into routine interactions with others. Assumptions build barriers, and these impressions take form in recurring email conversations, first acquaintances, police stops, and school class-Zooms.
Now, Think Bigger
Intersectionality provides us with a starting point to view the world, not just people. Crenshaw’s theory exposes injustices within our institutional fabric– workplaces, governments, media, schools– and along with it, the ideas generated, policies enacted, products created, and people shaped in these spheres.
Persistent issues like wealth disparity, food insecurity, and discriminatory housing practices highlight those disproportionately harmed and largely silenced. Intersectionality attributes this disregard in part to combinations of identities such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status. More than anything, intersectionality highlights how crucial it is that our solutions to such serious issues consider and recognize overlapping identities.
It’s often said that hindsight is 20/20. With an intersectional outlook towards the news headlines, boardroom, natural environment, and everywhere else your passions lie, each of us is more aware of the power dynamics at play.
Strive to Externalize
Intersectionality equips us with the theoretical background to recognize how one’s identities influence the power dynamics, interactions, and inherent hierarchies that limit our lives. But intersectionality can be a catalyst that empowers us to speak up and find solutions.
Inequality and oppression grow from a failure to appreciate our layered identities. In response to issues like these, we must call out unjust policies and norms. Intersectionality can elevate understanding in countless ways: write about it, read about it, and talk about it. Our ability to fix the effects of past mistakes and evolve depends on it.
Take what you learn from Crenshaw’s ceaselessly relevant work and use it to spotlight our intertwined identities, Women’s History Month and every month. If you’d like to learn more about how we build teams that consider intersectional identities, please reach out. We’d love to chat.
by Sofia Liszka
Associate
