UPSC MAINS SOCIOLOGY SYLLABUS
Paper 2 – Section C – (vii) Challenges of Social Transformation:
- Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability.
- Poverty, deprivation and inequalities.
- Violence against women.
- Caste conflicts.
- Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism.
- Illiteracy and disparities in education.
INTRODUCTION
If feminism is advocating for women’s rights and equality between the sexes, intersectional feminism is the understanding of how women’s overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination.
INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM
Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American law professor who coined the term in 1989 explained Intersectional feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other”. “All inequality is not created equal,” she says. An intersectional approach shows the way that people’s social identities can overlap, creating compounding experiences of discrimination.
Crenshaw has spoken about Intersectionality theory by stating that it is the study of how different power structures interact in the lives of minorities, specifically black women. Intersectionality draws attention to the different invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, anti-caste, class politics, etc.
EXAMPLE
A white woman is penalized 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.
BIG AWARENESS MOMENT
Intersectionality has received increased attention in part due to how the Women’s March on Washington came together. The rally, which began organically on Facebook, was initially criticized for failing to include any women of colour as organizers. That later changed. The march’s policy platform is called “Unity Principles,” which include the belief that “gender justice is racial justice is economic justice.”
WHITE FEMINISM
It’s important to note that not all feminists who are white practice “white feminism.” “White feminism” depicts the way white women face gender inequality as the way all women experience gender inequality, which just isn’t correct. The key to combating “white feminism” is education about intersectionality.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CONCEPT
Intersectionality draws attention to the different invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, anti-caste, class politics, etc. Intersectional feminism challenges the dominant idea of feminism which is overtly white/upper-class/upper-caste/
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. So without an understanding of privilege and intersectionality, the feminist movement cannot call itself anti-oppression.
CONCLUSION
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. 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.
