Intersectionality emerged from the ideas discussed in critical race theory. The term intersectionality was borrowed specifically from the work of legal scholar Kimberly Crenshaw (1989), who sought to draw attention to how the treatment of African American women within the law should be interpreted, analyzed, and understood through double lenses, racial discrimination. Intersectionality theory was originally introduced by feminist legal scholar Kimberly Crenshaw (1989) to describe the experience of black women living at the intersection of race and gender. Intersectional theory postulates that people with multiple social categories have unique experiences that are determined not simply by the sum or average of their constituent categories, but rather by some kind of interactive effect.
Examples of such interrelated social categories include, among others, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, and age. In other cases, intersectional identities may exacerbate the risk of alcohol abuse due to the convergence of minority stressors (eg, heterosexism, sexism, and racism) and group norms that condone alcohol use (eg, Bowleg, Juan, Brooks, Black, and Burkholder, 2003; Collins , 2000; Greene, 2000; Newcomb, Heinz, and Mustanski, 2012). Without a cross-lens, events and movements that address injustices against one group may end up perpetuating systems of injustices against other groups.
Psychological research can be transformed by adopting an intersectional framework that embraces gender inequality in the context of multiple levels of oppression. It’s crucial to acknowledge that the methods described here are not the only approaches that can be used to address intersectoral research, but they are useful as a set of tools for designing rigorous intersectoral health research that can be used to advance gender equity and equity in line with the goal of the theory. intersectionality as a basis for legal reform (Crenshaw 1989).
We recommend that researchers avoid the risk of essentialization by emphasizing how the experience experienced by individual participants provides insight into the specific dynamics at work in a given context in relation to overlapping identities, rather than claiming a universal advantage that oppressed groups have in understanding dynamics. Warner and colleagues (2016) also recommend empirically testing specific inferences from these intersection points.
Thus, Halko (2009) advocates the use of intersectionality as a “lens” or “viewpoint” to understand a relatively narrow microscope approach, examining multiple social identities in a way that neither adds nor subtracts. A theory of intersectionality, developed by feminist legal theorist Kimberl Crenshaw in 1989, highlights how oppressed social groups live on the fringes of society and do not have equal access to resources and opportunities. Black feminist legal scholars use intersectionality theory to demonstrate how systems of power and resilience based on axes such as gender, race, and class overlap rather than independently affect individuals or groups (Crenshaw 1989). Mainly used in legal research, intersectionality theory provides a framework for understanding the experiences of populations under multiple systems of oppression, particularly with regard to anti-discrimination legislation and gender-based violence.
Intersection is an important framework or approach that provides a mindset and language for exploring the relationships and interdependencies between categories and social systems. Intersectionality is the basis for conceptualizing an individual, a group of people or a social issue as subject to a range of discrimination and adverse effects. It takes into account people’s overlapping personalities and experiences to understand the complexities of the biases they face. Intersectionality is a black feminist theory of power that acknowledges how multiple systems of oppression, including racism, patriarchy, and capitalism, interact to spread disadvantage and institutionally stratify different groups.
The critical racial theorist Crenshaw (1989) is credited with coining the term “intersectionality”, which is now widely used to describe an analytical approach to understanding life experience through the prism of many intersecting categories of oppression (Cole, 2009). While many of the early advocates of intersectionality were African American, theory has proven necessary to understand a wide range of differences, including sexual orientation, age, class, disability, and more. Intersectionality is now considered crucial to social justice work. Ultimately, the goal of intersectionality is recognized as the multifaceted nature of human experience.
One of the strengths of intersectionality as a basis for considering identity overlap and oppression is that it requires viewing others as more than one category. Instead of being defined solely by gender or race, intersectionality reinforces the notion that we are complex human beings who are defined and influenced by multiple identifying factors. Intersectionality is the recognition that within groups of people with a common identity, be it gender, sexuality, religion, race, or one of the many other aspects that define identity, there are differences within the group. In other words, each person perceives the social structure slightly differently because the intersection of their identities reflects the intersection of overlapping oppressions.
From a historical perspective, it is clear that leaders of many social movements, such as the feminist and civil rights movements of the 1960s, ignored the impact of overlapping identities on social inequality, thereby marginalizing their fellow citizens. When Kimberly Crenshaw uses numerous black feminist concepts of power and identity as an analytical lens for intersectionality, she uses it to demonstrate the single axis that dominates the anti-discrimination system and discourse of anti-racism and feminism structural limitations. However, according to the practical aspects of critical race theory, intersectionality is limited in scope, and the goal is not merely to understand the social relations of power, nor to limit the view of intersectionality to those relations it questions. Often the drive behind their transformation is hidden. Understandable in this way, intersectionality, like critical race theory more generally, is a concept inspired by the need for social change.
Based on black feminism and critical racial theory, intersectionality is a method and disposition, a heuristic and analytical tool. The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberly Crenshaw, a black academic feminist who was concerned about the lack of adequate support for women of color in the US justice system. Although intersectionality began with the study of the interaction between gender and race, other identities and oppressions have been added to the theory over time. Since the term was coined, many feminist scholars have come forward with historical support for intersectional theory.
It is important to understand the history of black feminist thought that influenced Crenshaw to develop the term “intersection.” Expanding on collective theory, Crenshaw argues that in order to understand the oppression of black women, one must look at the intersection of darkness and femininity. Many recent scholars, such as Leslie McCall, have argued that the introduction of the theory of intersectionality was crucial to sociology, and prior to the development of this theory, there was little research devoted to experiencing multiple forms in society. The experience of oppressed people. The surge in theorizing in this field can be seen in an influential way by other feminist scholars before Crenshaw (eg Combahee River Collective, 1977; Moraga and Anzaldua, 1983; Hooks, 1984; Hurtado, 1989; Collins, 1990). way of writing to explain. Intersectionality has drawn attention to the limitations of focusing research on one aspect of female identity, such as gender or race, even before the term was coined.