What is intersectionality?
Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how various aspects of a person’s social and political identities (e.g., gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, etc.) combine and intersect to create unique experiences of privilege, disadvantage, or discrimination.
Key Principles
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Multiple Identities
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People do not experience life through a single identity but through the interplay of several factors, such as their race, gender, socioeconomic status, and more.
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Compounded Impact
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The effects of these intersecting identities are not simply additive but synergistic, leading to unique forms of systemic oppression or privilege. For example, the discrimination faced by a Black woman is not just sexism plus racism but a unique experience shaped by the interaction of both.
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Context Matters:
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Intersectionality acknowledges that these overlapping identities operate within larger systems of power, such as patriarchy, capitalism, racism, or heteronormativity, which shape individual and group experiences differently.
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The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar and civil rights advocate, in 1989. She introduced it to describe how race and gender intersected in the legal experiences of Black women, highlighting gaps in anti-discrimination law that failed to account for overlapping identities.
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What is Intersectionality Awareness Week (IAW)?
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ParaPride, an intersectional charity that focuses on supporting and building awareness and inclusion of and access for the disabled LGBTQIA+ community, has launched Intersectionality Awareness Week with a range of other intersectional partners and charities to raise the profile of intersectional communities, their challenges, and their unique and valuable diversity.
​Increasingly, there is recognition from businesses, governments, educators, and community leaders that we must put in place frameworks in society that support and include people to bring their “full selves” into our workplaces, communities, social spaces, and cultures.
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This year’s Intersectionality Awareness Week is, we hope, the start of a global cultural shift from diversity and inclusion frameworks that focus on one aspect of a person’s experience and sense of self, to looking more holistically, compassionately, and openly at people who bring a wide diversity of experience and ability. We hope that you will join us in spreading the message, supporting our cause, and sharing your intersectional experience in your own workplace, community, social space, and beyond and encouraging others to do so.
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