Intersectionality Reflection Paper

Something that I’ve learned from this course was the term “intersectionality” and how that plays into equity. While isolating an issue does help in understanding its roots, the next step we should be taking is to understand the interconnecting nature of social identities. This many help us to become a more equitable society. For example, when Chelsea facilitated the workshop where we touched upon intersectionality in the pay gap, we learned how both gender and racial identity can affect an individual’s wage. While white women earn $0.74 to a white man’s dollar, black women only make $0.64. Understanding intersectionality is vital to battling the interwoven prejudices people face in their daily lives such as bridging the pay gap between all

For example, when we learned about the history of the income polarization in Toronto neighbourhoods, I gained a better understanding of the classism rooted in our society. I learned that previously, the higher-income individuals preferred the suburbs, while the lower-income individuals resided downtown. As the higher-income group began to find certain characteristics of the lower-income neighbourhoods desirable, gentrification occurred and the original residents were displaced. With this background knowledge, a causal model could be created to identify the causes of the income polarization in Toronto or other cities and this may help us slowly combat the issue. That being said, I would like to learn about the historical context of other social issues such as when the idea of “coming out” started and why people in the LGBTQ+ community were (and still are) viewed as mentally unstable. I would also like to learn about why patriarchally societies so prevalent and when and why certain societies decided that one gender is superior to another. In conclusion, I would still like to learn about the history behind social issues as I believe that having context many help us find ways to combat these