Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American law professor who created the term in 1989 explained the definition of Intersectional Feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other.”
Crenshaw said, “All inequality is not created equal – An intersectional approach shows the way that people’s social identities can overlap, creating compounding experiences of discrimination.” Using the concept to discuss feminism, she said, “We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality, or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts.”
The purpose behind intersectional feminism is to highlight how different aspects of a woman’s identity might intersect with each other to create a unique way they experience the world and the obstacles they might face as a result. It helps us better understand how different forms of discrimination can magnify each other to create vulnerabilities that are individual to each person, it speaks to the multiple ways we can experience discrimination.
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Intersectional feminism: what it means and why it matters right now. (2020, July 1). UN Women. Retrieved January 4, 2023, from https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters
What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot. (2017, January 19). USA Today. Retrieved January 4, 2023, from https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/19/feminism-intersectionality-racism-sexism-class/96633750/