Intersectionality

KEY POINTS

• Part of taking an intersectional approach is recognising people’s lives are multi-dimensional and complex; we expect multiple stories
• Human lives cannot be explained by single categories, such as gender, race, sexual orientation etc. Lived experience is an interactive process that goes beyond individual labels
• Lived experience is shaped by the interaction of identities, contexts and social dynamics
• People can experience privilege and oppression simultaneously
• Structural inequity interacts with contextual factors and social dynamics, increasing marginalisation, inequity, and health disparity
• To understand someone’s experience, we must also understand structures and systems
• Relationships involve power dynamics and power imbalances are inevitable. The question is how we acknowledge and negotiate power, particularly in institutions
• Reflexivity can support service providers to increase their awareness of their positions of power
• Urges transformation and collective work towards social justice

Be open to addressing the issues

Listen in order to understand

Develop a diversity responsiveness plan

Become a reflective, learning system

Intersectionality is an analytic framework that addresses identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society. Taking an intersectional approach means looking beyond a person’s individual identities and focusing on the points of intersection that their multiple identities create. The term was coined by black feminist and legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw to describe how individuals with multiple marginalized identities can experience multiple and unique forms of discrimination that cannot be conceptualised separately¹.

Crenshaw advocated that discrete definitions of discrimination as occurring within a single category (e.g. attributing discrimination to either race or gender but not both) did not capture the experiences of people who experience discrimination due to the specific intersection of their multiple identities1. Focusing on the experiences of black women and other women of colour, she demonstrated that using a single-issue approach to discrimination results in the systemic exclusion of intersecting discrimination.^{1, 2}

Intersectionality has been a widely applied framework in studying and addressing issues of discrimination ranging from gender, race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other identities. Intersectionality has also been applied within the context of reducing health disparities amongst socially disadvantaged groups through examining social factors that might cause such disparities³. For example, homophobic and transphobic discrimination (either real or anticipated) from health practitioners has now emerged as a key factor in both precipitating health issues and lower rate of health-seeking in members of the LGBTIQ+ community.⁴  This fear has shown to be compounded in immigrant and asylum-seeking people who are also LGBTIQ+, who may also face difficulties accessing culturally appropriate services or fear the impact that disclosure may have on their visa status.^{5, 6} 

An intersectional lens to equity requires us to engage in a reflective process, recognising the ways in which different social identities (including our own) produce intersecting systems of privilege or oppression, and how these systems create different lived experiences within our social context³.

When used thoughtfully, intersectionality recognises the diversity of experiences within marginalized groups and provides a framework for recognising and addressing the needs of individuals who are most disadvantaged, setting a pathway for a more just and equitable world.

AN ETHICAL STANCE

• Centering Ethics helps us put our shared ethics at the centre by taking positions against neutrality and for justice.
• Doing Solidarity means that we see all of our work towards justice as inter-connected and that we act collectively.
• Naming Power requires identifying injustices and taking positions that address abuses of power. It includes witnessing peoples’ resistance to oppression, addressing privilege, and creating practices of accountability.
• Fostering Collective Sustainability acknowledges that we are meant to do this work together. We resist individualism and invite collective social responsibility for a just society without putting the burden of an unjust society on the backs of individual workers.
• Critically Engaging with Language acknowledges the power of language and commitments to using language in liberatory ways. It welcomes the language that occurs outside of words.
• Structuring Safety creates practices that invite safety into our work, informs us to act as allies where we are privileged and to honour collaboration.

DOING JUSTICE AS A PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY IN COMMUNITY WORK
Vikki Reynolds 2010