The term “Intersectional Feminism” was coined in 1989 by the American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, as “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other.”
It is to state that not all inequality is equal, and that social identities and other factors can impact experiences of discrimination according to each individual.
Intersectional Feminism aims to focus on the voices of those who experience overlapping oppression, in order to understand the depths of the inequalities and the relationships among them in any given context. Therefore, there is emphasis on the voices of POC women.
“Nobody’s free until Everybody’s free.” - Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights and Women’s rights activist
It tackles societal perception of inequality being a ‘them’ problem, instead of a wider issue that should be taken seriously by everyone, instead of something for an unfortunate group of people to deal with.
The emphasis is to call for Feminists to listen to other feminists who are not just like them, and to take into account the existence of other forms of discrimination that overlap, or rather-- intersect with gender oppression. Feminism can be more inclusive and respectful of how different types of oppression can impact an individual simultaneously and all need to be tackled in order to achieve true equality.
It’s to point out that, if feminism wins and men and women are considered as truly equal in culture, politics and wider society-- there will still be women who will be oppressed on the grounds of racism, homophobia, ableism and transphobia.
A white woman is penalised by her gender but has the advantage of race. A black woman is disadvantaged by her gender and her race. A Latina lesbian experiences discrimination because of her ethnicity, her gender and her sexual orientation. Sometimes the term makes people uncomfortable in part because it suggests that white women recognise their privilege and examine the ways in which that privilege can make other women invisible within the feminist movement. This expression has begun a wider discussion about how race can complicate and even impede feminism.
Initially intersectionality was a tough subject because it forced white feminists to admit that they have a systematic privilege over their POC sisters, and that they can be wrong in how they may unintentionally harm those sisters by enacting that privilege. It is about the acknowledgement that while women can face discrimination based on their genders, the POC woman will experience racism, and the queer women will experience homo or transphobia.
The expansion of transectionalism in the feminist movement has allowed for the fourth wave to have a more inclusive take as opposed to previous feminism waves. Previous waves (to a less and less degree as time passed) ignored racial inequalities, and ‘equality’ was sought for on the basis of white and privileged women's issues.
There has never been a time since the creation of the term that has been so important and influential. In 2016, feminists received a stark reminder that there is so much work that needs to be done, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, a man who many feminists deem as the enemy. A man who has blatantly talked about sexually assaulting women, and who clearly has no regard for the women’s plight, won over 50% of the votes drawn by white women. Feminists had to ask themselves why. Why did this man win with so many female votes, after that disaster that was his campaign, which was littered with accusations of misogyny, and the infamous “grab her by the pussy” line. Why were so many white women willing to vote for this man, as opposed to a democrat, and another woman?
It was a stark reality that white privilege saw women able to vote against their fellow women in favour of maintaining their racist views intact. Donald Trump appealed to those women on the basis of fear of 'rapey' and criminal black and Arab men, despite being a sexual miscreant himself (19 accusations in total, all of which he denies). .
Throughout the course of, his presidency, he was not shielded from feminist criticism, despite there being a disappointing lack of change as a result.
Therefore, intersectionality in Feminism is important as it emphasises the importance of diversity within the movement and how unity brings real change to a culture and society. More women of colour and transwomen are becoming figures of the feminism movement, and are drawing the attention of feminists towards other societal issues that should be addressed by the feminist agenda. There is importance in creating more unity, so equality is not afforded to one group, because then that is not true equality. Intersectional feminism has meant that the microphone has been handed to people of more diverse backgrounds, who can offer different perspectives. There are communal issues that women face, but then there are issues that only women of colour would face, white women are not oppressed for the colour of their skin, but women of colour are. So the argument of intersectional feminism is that all voices have a right to be heard and to be taken seriously by the feminist movement.
Intersectionality emphasises the point also that there is no cookie-cutter method on how to be a feminist. What empowers one women may make another extremely uncomfortable (ie. Nudity, Rebellion, or Sexuality, to name a few).
Nudity is empowering to some women, whereas modesty is empowering to other women, it is important that all ideas are represented and respected by the movement, in order to push for that same attitude in society as a whole. It means pushing for an end to patriarchal culture that also houses cultures of racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism.
Inclusivity and respect for identity, creed, sexuality and race are fundamental to the intersectional feminist ideal society.
Equality means that there needs to be intersectionality, because without intersectionality, there is no way that every woman can be equal. Because even if we achieve complete gender equality, then we still live in a society and culture that incubates racism, especially in the form of white supremacy. Racism isn’t also the only problem that women outside of the traditional white middle class and straight feminists of previous waves. There are still cultural norms that see trans women having to overcompensate femininity in order to ‘pass’, while also still facing violence. There are still going to be gay women who are fetishised by onlookers just for holding hands in public. There will also be religious women who are deemed ‘oppressed’ and ‘submissive’ for wearing religious head-scarves.
Intersectionality means equality for all women. The future of feminism is intersectional.