What Is Intersectionality? A Complete Breakdown

You've probably heard the term “intersectionality” before. It's cropped up in everyday vocabulary in recent years and is typically mentioned in the same breaths as inequity, injustice or oppression. But is it a word that you can just throw into a conversation to sound smart? Not really. 

The nuances behind intersectionality run deep, and we’d all be doing the world a disservice if we didn’t put in the effort to properly understand it.

So what is intersectionality, exactly? 

Here, we get into the origins of the word intersectionality, the theory behind it, and the movement that encompasses it. If you’re keen to be a decent human being, read on.

Intersectionality refers to the ways in which – according to the Victorian government – “different aspects of a person’s identity can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation”.

Simply put, it’s the suggestion that all forms of oppression are linked.

Womankind Worldwide described it as the “acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression,” including gender, race, class, sexual orientation and physical ability among others.

The word intersectionality was first used by American civil rights activist and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw within critical trace theory debates. Crenshaw spent more than 30 years studying civil rights, race and racism and in 1989 she coined the term intersectionality to describe how race, class and gender – among other individual characteristics – crossover or “intersect” with one another.

Crenshaw introduced the intersectionality theory in her 1989 paper “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”. 

The paper explored unique cases in the justice system where discrimination and marginalisation of individuals were being assessed on either race or gender, not the two together. 

Crenshaw said she created intersectionality meaning a “prism to bring to light dynamics within discrimination law that weren’t being appreciated by the courts.” Her ongoing contributions to social justice activism, and teachings on intersectionality, have ultimately transformed the ways in which we understand discrimination and marginalisation in both a social and political setting.

An example of intersectionality could be that the experience of a queer, Black woman would differ to that of a black man because of the intersectionality of how the world views and treats people based on gender, race and sexuality.

A queer Black woman and a heterosexual Black man would likely be assessed differently in court based on the intersectionality theory. 

Crenshaw suggested courts were ignoring specific challenges that groups within minorities experience. 

Intersecting identities across factors like race, class, gender or sexual orientation create diverse forms of oppression or privilege depending on existing power structures like the patriarchy, ableism, colonialism, imperialism, homophobia and racism. 

Research in the International Journal For Equity in Health found that the axis of inequality in society are “intrinsically entwined”, and that they reinforce one another. It’s important to measure inequality on the basis of interconnectedness of all social and cultural hierarchies – it doesn’t make sense to detach one from the other. 

In 2021, Tiktoker Stephen Thomas Smith explored a common occurrence he experienced as a queer, disabled person. Because of his disability, he expressed that he faced ableism whenever in a LGBT space, over the assumption that he was either straight or held no sexual feelings because of his disability. 

He told the BBC that he felt like he existed in a “place of nowhere” because he was disabled and queer, but wasn’t accepted fully by either community. The intersections of his sexual orientation and physical ability revealed a form of marginalisation that he experienced.

On the other hand, intersectionality has also benefited certain groups of people in society. 

In the US, WASPs or White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, are an elite group who exist across political, media, social, financial and philanthropic classes. Essentially, they benefit from privilege that sees their race, religion and class intersect, with many US presidents belonging to this group. 

Intersectionality encourages you not to look at things one way. 

All personal attributes should be considered in the process of understanding each other, and shouldn’t necessarily be looked at through a one-dimensional lens.

In the Australian workforce, the Australian Public Service Commission expressed an increased interest in acknowledging the link between one’s identity and the acknowledgement of it in the workplace. 

The 2021 APS Employee Census found that 53 per cent of workers identified with two or more diversity groups. This includes identity groups attached to being First Nations, women, LGBTQIA+ and more. As such, they assessed an urgency to build a stronger foundation for reducing marginalisation in the workplace by embedding an inclusive and considerate culture.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency is also building a strong culture of inclusivity by collecting age, location and gender non-binary data under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. They surveyed 3000 working Australians under the Diversity Council Australia’s Inclusion Word Index, gathering that organisations had recorded improved performance and innovation, better customer service and staff experiences, less harassment and discrimination, and instead were a lot more satisfied and secure in their position. 

Committing to equality advocacy is a small step in a big and lengthy process of recognising an employee’s experience with multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination at work. 

Overall, there are active procedures in place in Australia to ensure that intersectionality is examined thoroughly, specifically in the workplace.

To promote social justice and equity, the Victorian government introduced The Gender Equality Act 2020. The Act requires Victorian public sector organisations to champion gender equality and acknowledge intersectionality in and out of the workplace. 

Section 6(8) outlines that “gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of disadvantage or discrimination that a person may experience based on several individual characteristics”. By recognising the intersections within gender inequality, the Act is able to monitor discrimination, disadvantage and inequity. 

Intersectionality as a movement is still an ongoing process, and understanding and applying it across all extensions of life is a prolonged exercise. 

In places of employment, governing bodies have provided an active ear to concerns around intersectional oppression, hoping to detect and discourage forms of marginalisation in the workplace.

An article in the UNSW Journal declared that the federal discrimination law in Australia is still “ill-equipped” to handle cases of intersectional discrimination. Like a lot of countries around the world, there is a long way to go in recognising intersectionality as a whole in our justice system.

Adele is the Junior Writer & Producer for VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter here.

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