Intersectionality Definition

The first order of business would be firstly to define ‘Intersectionality’ in order to gain a better understanding and grasp of the concept. ‘Intersectionality’ is a term that was first developed during the second wave of academic feminism during the 1970’s where women’s’ experience was at the forefront of Feminist thought according to Shields (2008). In 1989 Kimberle Crenshaw, an American Legal Scholar, did a study on ‘intersectionality’ in which she refers to an interaction between the different aspects of our ‘identities’ such as ‘gender’, ‘race’ and ‘class’. ‘Intersectionality’ as a concept aims to understand social inequality and systematic injustice by observing the ‘multiple categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power’ (Davis.2008). ‘Intersectionality’ has two major focal points which are identity and difference, and inequality and oppression. The scholars Brah and Phoenix (2004) understand ‘intersectionality’ as an interconnection of a multiple axis of differentiation found when observing at categories’ of identity. They further extend the definition by adding

Donna Lancianese raises the point that identities intersect at the point of symbolism or the meanings associated with the identities. The symbols and meanings associated with the identities are ‘moderated and integrated’ (Lancianese.2014) by society and this is what essentially causes the conflict. (conflict in meaning and interpretation).Thus according to Shields(2008) intersectionality has changed the way in which, particularly feminist scholars, view and challenge ‘gender inequality’ as well as the meaning attached to membership of the groups as written by