Intersectionality: what is it?

It is evident that being a part of certain subgroups within society causes certain individuals to be marginalised. As Crenshaw (1991) argued, these certain subgroups are often used as negative frameworks in which social power works to exclude or marginalise those who are different. This blog will focus on the impact of being part of a marginalised group on one’s political engagement. The marginalised groups that will be the focus here are ethnic minorities and females. Also, the ways in which this marginalisation has been perhaps tackled will be mentioned.

We have movements that supposedly cater for these marginalised groups. Namely, the civil rights movement, as well as the more recent ‘black lives matter’ movement, that was supposedly formed to improve the rights of ethnic minorities, black people more specifically. Also, we have the feminist movement that apparently work to improve the rights of women. However, what is perhaps ignored here is the fact that some individuals may be disadvantaged in more than one way, through experiencing the overlapping nature of discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality and class, which has been termed as ‘intersectionality’ (Strolovitch, 2007:47). This term is quite ambiguous, perhaps relating to many different “social variables”. However, when focusing on improving the political engagement of certain individuals, e.g. black women, this term may relate to the fact that this cannot be tackled using perhaps a “linear method” of only looking at ‘race’ or gender. Instead, we must look at different factors simultaneously. Similarly, Collins (2000:18) argued that intersectionality reminds us that oppression cannot be reduced to one fundamental type. This will perhaps be the focus of this blog post and whether this is in fact what may be causing certain individuals to perhaps be less likely to politically engage than others.

Black women have perhaps been more hindered from politically engaging, compared to other subgroups. This is due to the fact that they did not have full voting rights until 1965 (Michener et al, 2012). Also, there is perhaps an underrepresentation of black women in politics.

Figure 1: Ethnic minority MPs by gender and Party in 2015 & 2017 (House of Commons Library, 2017)

In figure 1, we can see that in 2015 there were slightly more ethnic minority males in the political position of being MPs, than ethnic minority females. However, in 2017 this evened out, as there were the same amount of ethnic minority female MPs, as there were ethnic minority male MPs. However, although the general election returned 26 ethnic minority female MPs, this was just 4% of all MPs and 12.5% of all female MPs (House of Commons Library, 2017). This shows that although there perhaps has been an improvement in the representation of ethnic minority females in politics, there is still an inequality experienced by those in the intersections of different subgroups. This could be due to the fact that ethnic minority women, black women specifically, may face “the intersectional experience of racism and sexism” (Crenshaw, 1997 cited in Michener et al, 2012:3). Therefore, they may not be discriminated against based only on the fact that they are black, or because they are female, but both simultaneously.

Some countries may be aiming to tackle certain inequalities targeting particular subgroups. For example, in the USA, a fairly recent movement took place to perhaps tackle inequality based on ‘race’, which was called the ‘Black lives matter movement’. This is a social movement rooted in the collective and individual experience of black people in America (Clayton, 2018:449). In this way, this movement was perhaps used to mostly tackle racial inequality. However, this then may ignore other inequalities; for example, through perhaps not focusing on the experiences of black females in particular. Also, the movement was sparked by the shooting of an African American named Trayvon Martin (Clayton, 2018:450). This could mean that this movement was perhaps brought about to tackle ‘racism’ predominantly, rather than other inequalities.

There have been debates on how to improve the political engagement of certain individuals. This can include the introduction of ‘quotas’. These are used to intervene in party nomination procedures by requiring that a certain percentage of the candidates fielded by a party be of a certain group (Htun, 2004:441). However, the usefulness of these quotas in tackling intersectionality specifically, could be in question. As women receive candidate quotas, whereas ethnic groups receive legislative reservations (Htun, 2004:439). Therefore, this may help individuals who fit into either one of these subgroups, but perhaps may not as much for those who fit into both. Therefore, the question is: what can be done about the issue of intersectionality? Can ‘race’, gender and other inequalities be tackled simultaneously?

 

 

 

Bibliography:

Clayton, D. M. (2018) ‘Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement: A Comparative Analysis of Two Social Movements in the United States’. Journal of Black Studies. 49(5). Pp. 448–480. Doi: 10.1177/0021934718764099.

Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review. 43(6) Pp. 1241-1300.

Hill, P.C. (2000) Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Available at: ProQuest EbookCentral. (Date accessed: 29/03/19).

House of Commons Library (2017) Ethnic Minorities in Politics and Public Life. Available at: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01156 (Date accessed: 11/03/19).

Htun, M. (2004) Is Gender like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups. Perspectives on Politics. 2(3). Pp. 439-458. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3688807 (Date accessed: 29/03/19).

Michener, J., Dilts, A. & Cohen, C. (2012) African American Women: Intersectionality in Politics. The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship. Oxford University Press. Available at: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195188059.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195188059-e-19 (Date accessed: 30/03/19).

Strolovitch, D.Z. (2007) Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Available at: ProQuest Ebook Central. (Date accessed: 29/03/19).