Intersectionality : Studying gender through the lens of interlocking systems of oppression

Temps de lecture : 7 minutes

Intersectionality : Studying gender through the lens of interlocking systems of oppression

08.06.2020

Written by Manon Cassoulet-Fressineau
Translated by Bianca Wiles

At the end of the twentieth century, American lawyer Kimberly Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality”^[1]Crenshaw (Kimberlé W.), « Cartographie des marges : intersectionnalité, politiques de l’identité et violences contre les femmes de couleur », 2005 [éd. originale, 1994], Cahiers du genre, … Continue reading ». This notion came in response to a scientific and political need to understand how different forms of oppression interact. In this sense, intersectionality seeks to question how social ties relating to gender, class, and race^[2]Falquet (Jules) et Kian (Azadeh), « Introduction : Intersectionnalité et colonialité », 2015, Les cahiers du CEDREF [En ligne], vol. 20, available at : http://journals.openedition.org/cedref/731 (among others) may inter-relate. Holding a great variety of meanings ^[3]Jaunait (Alexandre) et Chauvin (Sébastien), « Intersectionnalité », Achin Catherine éd., Dictionnaire. Genre et science politique. Concepts, objets, problèmes, 2013,  Presses de Sciences … Continue reading», the intersection of structures of domination was constructed by African-American feminists as a political critique and gradually integrated the fields of social sciences. According to Alexandre Jaunait and Sébastien Chauvin, intersectionality, in academia, can now be considered a “critical theory” as it “allows us to articulate the normative interests of those minorities situated at the intersection of main axes of social inequalities, and who do not have their interests represented by social movements”^[4]Ibid.»

Widely diverse, intersectionality remains a recent concept with still very vague epistemological outlines, especially considering that its theorisation has varied depending on geographical location and has taken on different forms, sometimes serving opposing purposes^[5]Ibid..

In this context, we will attempt to outline the genesis of intersectionality and understand some of the most significative theoretical applications of it through several case studies.

The first section of this paper, serving as an introduction, will focus on the emergence of intersectionality as a political critique in the context of American Black Feminism. We will then analyse how this notion has been applied and what controversies have arose therefrom.

From Civil Rights to feminism : acknowledging the erasure of black women within social movements, the premise of intersectionality

Until the 1960s-1970s, black women’s situation remained a blind spot within both the feminist and the Civil Rights movements in the United States. From 1982 onwards, the activist Anna Julia Cooper brought to light the fact that these women lack any specific and defining identity. She states that a woman of colour “is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem, and is as yet an unknown or an unacknowledged factor in both.^[6]Cooper (Anna Julia), A voice from the South : By a Black Woman of the South, University of North Carolina, 2007 [éd. originale 1892] 160p.»

In the aftermath of the abolition of slavery, and in the struggle to give African Americans a right to vote, tension started to arise within the feminist movement. In fact, white feminists, while in favour abolishing slavery, were outraged at the idea of black men being given the right to vote before them. Ultimately, American women (regardless of race) were granted the same right only 50 years (circa) later^[7]In the United States, women are given the right to vote in 1920, whereas black men were, theoretically, granted such right in 1870.. This point of contention comes to show that black women’s conditions and rights were at that time, entirely overlooked, a non-existent question which was completely absent from any social claim.

As a result of dissonant voices within the feminist movement, the politization of African American identity began as a reaction to its erasure within social movements. This sought to question the belief that “patriarchal exploitation constituted women’s common, specific and primary oppression^[8]Delphy (Christine), L’Ennemi principal, Tome 1, Syllepse, 1997, 262p. » (Christine Delphy) and deconstruct the seeming sisterhood that regrouped all feminists. Indeed, according to Elizabeth Spelman, “to acknowledge « difference » is to acknowledge women who are neither white not middle-class^[9]Spelman (Elizabeth. V.), Inessential woman: Problems of exclusion in feminist thought, Beacon, 1998.». Conversely, Bell Hooks recognises that it is precisely to accept the existence of a sisterhood which contributes to the examination of the variety of forms of subordination to which women are subjected^[10]Hooks (Bell), “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity between Women”, 1986, Feminist Review, no. 23, pp. 125–138, disponible sur : www.jstor.org/stable/1394725.. To expose the interlocking systems of oppression women are victims to became a political tool for Black Feminists who struggled to even establish themselves within the Civil Rights movement.

The Black Panthers movement can serve as an example, representative of the above dynamic. Setting the tone, movement leaders willingly entrusted women with secondary responsibilities, and asserted their identity through the exaltation of black masculinity and an unabashed macho culture. However, this public depiction did not accurately represent the real division of tasks within the organisation. In this regard, the historian Sylvie Laurent reminded that no less than 60% of Black Panther activists were women who, equally to men, carried arms. What is more, aside from their fight for African American rights, these women considered themselves “feminists^[11]Laurent (Sylvie), « « Femme noire garde la tête haute » : le féminisme méconnu du Black Panther Party », 11 octobre 2018, The Conversation [En ligne], available at: … Continue reading». They were confronted to both, racist violence from the general American society and sexist violence from their male comrades. While these women “were fighting alongside their male counterparts, both in the domestic and public spheres^[12]Ibid.», the collective memory of the organisation has focused on the activism of the main male figures, erasing women Panther activists.

Interrogating African American women’s exclusion from social spaces, and more specifically from social movements fighting for black liberation and gender equality, is what allowed these women to bring to light the interlocking systems of oppression they are faced with. Although this took place years before the formulation of this notion, this period formed the “origins of intersectionality^[13]Ibid.». In fact, at that time, African American women were already fighting against the “monopoly of representation^[14]Jaunait (Alexandre) et Chauvin (Sébastien), « Intersectionnalité », Achin Catherine éd., Dictionnaire. Genre et science politique. Concepts, objets, problèmes, 2013,  Presses de Sciences … Continue reading » which profited those who were initially considered as those with greater legitimacy to lead the movements (namely white women and black men).

From a legal tool to the scientific one: towards an intersectional understanding of systems of oppression

It is at the end of the 1990s that Kimberly Crenshaw formalised the notion of intersectionality and contributed to a more expansive use of the term. In her seminal article titled “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color^[15]Crenshaw (Kimberlé W.), « Cartographie des marges : intersectionnalité, politiques de l’identité et violences contre les femmes de couleur », 2005 [éd. originale, 1994], Cahiers du genre, … Continue reading », Crenshaw initially seeks to create a legal tool for the defence of African American women, victims of physical and sexual violence. Since the American justice system tends to evaluate separately its effects in terms of gender and race (when women of colour can be situated at the intersection of these groups), these women were not “considered as legally relevant cases^[16]Crenshaw (Kimberlé W.), « Cartographie des marges : intersectionnalité, politiques de l’identité et violences contre les femmes de couleur », 2005 [éd. originale, 1994], Cahiers du genre, … Continue reading ». CCrenshaw laments the fact that the efforts arising from the aim to “politicise women’s or people of colour’s lived experiences” are systematically used “as if the questions and experiences these people are confronted to happen in mutually exclusive fields^[17]Ibid. ». In these circumstances and in order to remedy this issue, intersectionality seeks a better understanding of women of colour’s situation, acknowledging the non-exclusive character of forms of domination which take place in American society. To assert their “intersectional identity” would allow black women to counter the “marginalisation of their interests and experiences^[18]Ibid p54. » permettrait, de ce fait, aux femmes noires de contrer la « marginalisation de leurs intérêts et de leurs expériences^[19]Ibid p54. ». In other words, intersectionality seeks to shatter the essentialisation of social relations of gender and race.

This critical analysis of US law was furthered to social sciences as a whole. In France, notably, scientific research has increasingly adopted intersectionality as a theoretical frame in order to condemn the stigmatising character of certain laws (particularly the law relating to the right to wear a headscarf). Here, it is clear that academia seeks to end the hierarchisation of systems of oppression and the essentialisation of those social groups considered as “dominated”. This intersectional sociological understanding has permitted the study of “intersectional” minorities such as Muslim women, and has successfully brought to light symbolic violence they are victims of^[20]Guénif-Souilamas (Nacira) et Macé (Éric), « Les féministes et le garçon arabe », 2004, Agora débats/jeunesses, vol. 37, Sports et identités. pp. 108-110..

A divisive concept : highlighting the epistemological challenges and controversies

Intersectionality, be it within or outside of academia, was met with many critiques. Theories of intersectionality present a first difficulty, which is also one common to feminist critical theory, it combines analytical and normative aspects. This may in turn create epistemological complications. Also, some researchers take issue with the idea that intersectionality “creates problems which, in the field of empirical research, are inexistent^[21]Jaunait (Alexandre) et Chauvin (Sébastien), « Intersectionnalité », Achin Catherine éd., Dictionnaire. Genre et science politique. Concepts, objets, problèmes, 2013,  Presses de Sciences … Continue reading », in the sense that totally dissociating effects of race and gender may seem abstract (“as race is always gendered, and gender always racialised^[22]Ibid. »). There would therefore be a risk of essentialising different categories of domination and reducing this study to a descriptive understanding and perspective of the issues at hand. Reacting to this criticism, Danièle Kergoat volunteered the notion of “consubstantiality of social relations^[23]Galerand (Elsa) et Kergoat (Danièle), « Consubstantialité vs intersectionnalité? À propos de l’imbrication des rapports sociaux », 2014, Nouvelles pratiques sociales, vol.26 (2), pp.44-61. ». According to this notion, various systems of domination “co-construct” themselves rather than interlock. Kergoat calls sociologists to adopt a “dynamic understanding of power relations^[24]Ibid. » with the aim to complement an intersectional analysis rather than compete with it.

Finally, and from an external perspective, intersectionality has caused much controversy in public debates. In France, for instance, to address gender in light of social relations of race has proven difficult as some see this approach as an attack on republican universalism. Accordingly, in 2017, a seminar titled “Considering intersectionality in educational research” was nearly cancelled due to substantial opposition to it from both left-wing republicans and identity-focused right-wing followers^[25]The seminar took place at the École du Professorat et de l’Éducation de l’Académie in Créteil on May 18th and 19th, 2017.. Sociologist Eric Fassin understood this opposition as attempted censorship, considering it to be a threat to academic freedom^[26]Fassin (Eric), “Comment un colloque sur “l’intersectionnalité” a failli être censuré », 18 mai 2017, BiblioObs [En ligne], available at: … Continue reading.

« Feminism should not be limited to the study of gender-differences^[27]Fassin (Éric), « Les langages de l’intersectionnalité », 2015, Raisons politiques, vol. 58, no. 2,pp. 5-7. »

All in all, intersectionality seems to have becomes an essential tool in both the spheres of activism and gender studies. Theories of intersectionality further the ambition to « decolonise » feminism and reflect the reality of different forms of oppression imposed on the “subaltern”, as understood by Gayatri Spivak. These theories call into question the feminist movement’s essentialist abuses and allow for a better defence and the rights and freedom of those women subject to various power systems. While it may have been criticised and attacked,  intersectionality seems topical in today’s context and appropriate in bringing to light the violence and discrimination (both physical and symbolic) which still take place today.

To quote this article : Manon Cassoulet-Fressineau, “Intersectionality : Studying gender through the lens of interlocking systems of oppression”, 05.06.2020, Gender in Geopolitics Institute.