Before getting into the complexities of the term that formulates the subject of our discussion, it is imperative to primarily comprehend the two terms exclusively.
Good old Wikipedia very well defines Intersectionality as “a theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities might combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to a combination of factors.”
The International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) defines Feminism as “Quite simply, feminism is about all genders having equal rights and opportunities. It's about respecting diverse women's experiences, identities, knowledge and strengths, and striving to empower all women to realise their full rights.”
The issues that divided early suffragettes torment women till today. For all the forward progress that has been made, women's rights activists have also taken some steps backwards. Feminism, as a movement, has not done a good job at being inclusive of minorities. Women of colour and others belonging to minorities have been left on the peripheries while feminism has largely catered solely to white, upper class, majority viewpoints.
As we know, Feminism is spoken of in waves. With the rise of the fourth wave of feminism, the concepts of privilege and intersectionality have gained widespread traction amongst younger feminists. Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American law professor coined the term Intersectional Feminism in 1989. While the theory was initiated as an evaluation of the oppression faced by women of colour within society, over time the analysis expanded to include more aspects of social identity; including race, gender, sex, sexuality, class, ability, nationality, citizenship, religion and body type. “All inequality is not created equal” she stated. “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,” Crenshaw said.
The problem is that “intersectionality” becomes a label, like “liberal” or “alt-right,” which can then be “weaponized” in the polarity wars. People don’t understand what it means, only that they are “for it” or “against it.” As Crenshaw said, “intersectionality can get used as a blanket term to mean, ‘Well, it’s complicated.’ Sometimes, ‘It’s complicated’ is an excuse not to do anything.”
Each individual has things in common with some other individuals, a place where our interests 'intersect' in a joining way. Any journalist tempted to use intersectionality without attempting to explain to an audience what those 'intersections' are—and what the history of the term is—would be better served with another term, as the 'overlap' of the issues at issue.
When we advocate women’s rights, we unconsciously talk about a very specific set of women including cisgender, heterosexual, upper-caste and upper-class, and able-bodied. Examine for yourself by the means of following examples as to whether the discrimination faced by two individuals brings them down to the same page or not:
A wealthy Hindu woman or a wealthy Muslim woman in India
An upper-caste heterosexual woman or an upper-caste homosexual woman
Never were we, in school, taught about any of the transgender persons and LGBTQ+ right activists, anti-caste activists, disability rights activists leading us to provide a very constrained perception of socio-political issues.
Intersectionality draws attention to the different invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, anti-caste, class politics, etc. It draws attention to what’s been erased from our histories, what we need to unlearn, what needs to be challenged, and who needs to be given a position of power and have a voice of their own. Oppression cannot be seen or understood as something that exists in the same manner for everybody. There are layers to it which overlap and intersect, and this is precisely what intersectional feminism tries to explain. An important aspect that one needs to remember while talking of intersectionality is ‘privilege’. Privilege is important because it is much easier to point out how and why people are oppressed than to point out who is the oppressor and how their dominance is continuing in various ways because of their privileged position in the society. Privilege should not obscure itself from those classes who have it and benefit from it.
Feminist praxis cannot be fully understood unless we understand how issues like caste, class, gender, ability, sexuality among others intersect and influence each other. To present you with an example, an upper-caste woman feels oppressed because she doesn’t have the freedom to have a career cannot define feminism solely on her own experiences, because it does not represent the issues faced by the marginalized women who are exposed to unregulated and unorganized work structures for their survival. The suffering of marginalized women is intersectional because of their marginalized identities. This does not mean that the issues faced by the privileged are not issues per se, but that those issues alone cannot define feminism, and not realizing this would mean glossing over the many layers of oppression and erasing several other experiences.
Crenshaw defines intersectionality as, “The idea that we experience life, sometimes discrimination, sometimes benefits, based on a number of identities.” She first started to develop her theory on intersectionality when she studied the ways black women were discriminated against for both their gender and race. “Intersectionality was basically just a metaphor to say they are facing race discrimination from one direction. They have gender discrimination from another direction, and they're colliding in their lives in ways we really don't anticipate and understand.”
So, now that we understand what intersectionality is, how can we incorporate it into our feminism?
It is crucial to check your privilege in society to be a better feminist. You must recognize your privilege and listen to women who experience the world differently than you do. Despite how daunting and intimidating the term intersectionality may seem, it's just about all of us standing up and looking out for each other. Intersectionality is a term used to describe how different factors of discrimination can meet at an intersection and can affect someone's life.
Adding intersectionality to feminism is important to the movement because it allows the fight for gender equality to become inclusive. Using intersectionality allows us all to understand each other a little bit better. Intersectionality helps us to understand that while all women are subject to the wage gap, some women are affected even more harshly due to their race. Another instance where intersectionality applies is cases of LGBTQ murders - people of colour and transgendered people are more likely to be victims than cisgender people. These are just two examples to explain why intersectionality matters. To truly bring about change that is meaningful for all, everyone's voice needs to be at the table.
At the end of the day, we might all experience discrimination and gender inequality differently and uniquely, but we are all united in our hope for equality.
Author-
Ishta Kaushal
ishta020@gmail.com
Ishta is currently pursuing her Bachelors in Commerce (Honors) with Minors in English Literature from Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. She comes from the hills of Shimla, which is where she took to reading really early on moulding her into the ardent reader that she is today. According to her it would be quite unfair on her part to call herself a feminist, if she couldn't contribute to a feminist community right in her college i.e. the Women’s Development Cell.
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