Intersectional Feminist Analysis, Essay Example

Feminism, in most instances, is taken as a movement that aims at achieving gender equality. It is believed that both women and men within society are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Through the idea of the intersectionality of feminism, people became more inclusive, allowing women of all religions, races, and identities to be heard. Intersectional feminism is used to voice for the rights of those who feel oppressed in society to understand the depths of inequalities and ensure that they get equal rights (Women, par 2).  More significantly, intersectionality describes the factors of discrimination that affect women’s life; thus, adding it to feminism is essential because it makes the fight for gender equality inclusive. Thus, intersectional feminist allows people within the society to understand each other a little bit better, leading to equality among community members. This paper aims to analyze inspectional feminism by looking at its history intersectionality today and why it matters to our work significantly.

History of Intersectional Feminism

The idea of intersectionality was introduced in 1989 by Kimberle Crenshaw, who explained intersectional feminism to view how various forms of inequality exacerbate each other. Intersectional feminism was meant to provide a framework applicable to all situations and marginalization women face. The idea of Crenshaw was to show that women were not in a position to separate numerous injustices they face because they experience them interjectionally. Given that the early issues that affected women in the early years are still experienced, Crenshaw came up with the intersectional approach to show that all inequality is not created equal. The idea behind intersectionality was to show that people’s social identities can overlap and lead to compounding discrimination (Smith, 8). In addition, intersectional feminism, as explained by Kimberle, was a form of making sure that people understand the whole concept of inequalities.

For instance, Valdecir Nascimento, a prominent activist, has been fighting to ensure that every woman’s right is put at the center. This was because black women were part of the early feminist movement to see equality within society. The use of intersectional lenses was a recognition that they were historical issues surrounding women. Notably, long history of systematic discrimination and violence among women was the key issue that brought inequalities that led to the formation of intersectional feminism. For example, poverty and racism were more excellent contributors that denied people their rights and opportunities within society, extending across generations. Historically the intersectional feminism helps to understand what women go through in terms of wage gap and race. Therefore, intersectional feminism helped make that there’s a change within society by showing that everyone’s voice needed to be at the table.

Intersectional feminism Today 

Consequently, the ongoing global crises experienced today need an intersectional feminism lens to build back a better equal society. Significantly, today’s issues are not equal because different communities and countries worldwide face multiple and compounding problems that need to be looked at in an equal way. For instance, the current issues of Covid-19 have brought long-standing inequalities and decades of discriminatory practices that lead to unequal trajectories. Therefore, to fight the current issue, there’s a need to better understand the issue at hand and find solutions that will work for everyone within the community (Women, par 7). Moreover, intersectional feminism has helped today by making sure that injustices do not go unnamed or challenged. Furthermore, it has built standing solidarity on the issue that affects them, thus building a future that no one is left behind. Also, intersectional feminism has acted as a catalyst for bringing justice and safety for everyone today. Therefore, the intersectional feminism approach in today’s society creates the opportunity to build a better and resilient community that is served equally.

Importance of Intersectional Feminism

The main aim of intersectional feminism is to give an avenue to all the various types of feminists. Therefore, theorizing feminism into intersectionality is significant to people’s lives and experiences and how different identities interact. Intersectionality remains a broad concept in the limelight of both political and social debates within feminist societies. First of all, it is vital to highlight the various cases involving gender discrimination among women. In Cambodia, a study by IWDA revealed that females who have physical and mental disabilities are exposed to violence from their close relatives, and their partners often control them. Consequently, Fiji women get through hardships to access relief, especially when Cyclone Winston strikes. Therefore, that explains why it is significant to study intersectional feminism (Homawoo et al., par. 30). In a nutshell, intersectionality creates diversity in all aspects and waves of feminism. In this case, since its derivation, the concept majored in giving an insight into the various experiences of white, middle-class females and the multiple experiences of African American women, poor females, and immigrant groups. The concept isolates itself from white feminism by appreciating women’s life experiences, characters, and identities from different world regions.

Therefore, intersectionality serves as a decent avenue where all the problems can be discussed uniformly. Intersectional feminism contributed to the generalization of different aspects, groups, and not only women, as indicated by Crenshaw in the Washington Post as follows. “Intersectional erasures are not exclusive to black women. People of color within LGBTQ movements; girls of color in the fight against the school-to-prison pipeline; women within immigration movements; trans women within feminist movements; and people with disabilities fighting police abuse — all face vulnerabilities “(Crenshaw, par. 5). Even though we are not the relevant authorities, appreciating the different easy in which segregation intersects and magnifies gender-based inequalities is an impactful move to ensure that the females reap the rewards of protecting their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Criticism of Intersectional Feminism

According to opponents of intersectionality feminism, the theory is unreliable because it makes faulty and inaccurate projections about some minority communities in society. Moreover, the fact that it possesses some characteristics of ambiguity makes it lack a proper definition since the approach seems open-ended. Generally, intersectional feminism develops a single anti-oppression opinion that seeks help from several supporters. In such cases, it usually is hard to achieve praxis in its realization because the approach only focuses on issues affecting the female gender alone and not societal problems. Furthermore, several scholars have criticized intersectional feminism because it seems to have some adverse effects on the civil rights movement. In most cases, campaigners of the theory have solely dependent on the arguments while ignoring the various traditions and media that the sentiments are made (Banet-Weiser, Sarah, & Laura, 8870. Finally, intersectionality feminism mainly focuses on studying group identities, making it easy to overlook the individual perspective. Therefore, that ends with inaccurate assumptions on personal values, attributes, and attitudes.

Conclusively, the paper has focused on giving an analysis of intersectional feminism analysis. Intersectionality refers to how different issues regarding segregation can connect and influence an individual’s life. The concept was first introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw, 1989, after realizing that both gender and ethnicity were studied as separate entities. Intersectionality is mostly illustrated based on the case involving Degrafeenreid and General Motors. In the case, women sued General Motors for both gender and racial segregation, but it was found that women were not discriminated against in any way. The addition of intersectionality to feminism is very significant since it promotes inclusivity in the fight against gender inequalities. Even though people undergo different experiences in the face of discrimination, they are all united in the battle and hope for equality.

Works Cited

Banet-Weiser, Sarah, and Laura Portwood-Stacer. “The traffic in feminism: An introduction to the commentary and criticism on popular feminism.” Feminist media studies 17.5 (2017): 884-888.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé “Opinion | Why Intersectionality Can’t-Wait.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/.

Homawoo, Jemima, et al. “The Importance of Intersectional Feminism.” InStepp, Inc., 9 Feb. 2017, www.instepp.org/the-importance-of-intersectional-feminism/.

Smith, Sharon. “Black feminism and intersectionality.” International Socialist Review 91.11 (2013): 1-16.

Women, U. N. “Intersectional feminism: what it means and why it matters right now.” UN Women (2020).