Introducing Intersectionality

How can we hope to understand social inequality without considering race, class, and gender in tandem? How do they interact with other categories such as sexuality, citizenship, and ableism? How does an inclusive analysis of domination and privilege move us closer to solutions touching the lives of diverse populations? In this clearly written book, Mary Romero presents intersectionality as a core facet of the sociological imagination. One-dimensional approaches are no longer acceptable. Instead, we must examine all systems of oppression simultaneously and how they integrate and work with or against each other to shape life experiences. Recognizing the dynamics of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy, Romero shows how social inequality is maintained or minimized in various social settings and everyday sites of interaction. Drawing the theoretical threads together, the book demonstrates intersectional approaches in action in relation to the care crisis and wealth divide, to highlight the different understandings of these issues and their solutions arising from a comprehensive, intersectional examination. Offering an overview of scholarly and activist tradition in the development of intersectionality and how to apply intersectionality as a lens to enrich our understandings of social life, this introductory text will be an invaluable and welcome resource for all students of sociology.

Introduction -- Identifying intersectionality -- Where does intersectionality come from? -- Intersectionality in everyday campus life -- Intersectionality and social identities : examining gender -- Exploring interlocking systems of oppression and privilege -- Intersectional approaches to social issues : the wealth gap, the care crisis, and black lives matter -- Conclusion: intersectionality and social justice

A major publishing event, the collected writings of the groundbreaking scholar who "first coined intersectionality as a political framework" (Salon) For more than twenty years, scholars, activists, educators, and lawyers--inside and outside of the United States--have employed the concept of intersectionality both to describe problems of inequality and to fashion concrete solutions. In particular, as the Washington Post reported recently, "the term has been used by social activists as both a rallying cry for more expansive progressive movements and a chastisement for their limitations." Drawing on black feminist and critical legal theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the concept of intersectionality, a term she coined to speak to the multiple social forces, social identities, and ideological instruments through which power and disadvantage are expressed and legitimized. In this comprehensive and accessible introduction to Crenshaw's work, readers will find key essays and articles that have defined the concept of intersectionality, collected together for the first time. The book includes a sweeping new introduction by Crenshaw as well as prefaces that contextualize each of the chapters. For anyone interested in movement politics and advocacy, or in racial justice and gender equity, On Intersectionality will be compulsory reading from one of the most brilliant theorists of our time.

Recipient of a 2022 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Introduction to Intersectional Qualitative Research, by Jennifer Esposito and Venus Evans-Winters, introduces students and new researchers to the basic aspects of qualitative research including research design, data collection, and analysis, in a way that allows intersectional concerns to be infused throughout the research process. Esposito and Evans-Winters infuse their combined forty years of experience conducting and teaching intersectional qualitative research in this landmark book, the first of its kind to address intersectionality and qualitative research jointly for audiences new to both. The book’s premise is that race and gender matter, and that racism and sexism are institutionalized in all aspects of life, including research. Each chapter opens with a vignette about a struggling researcher emphasizing that reflecting on your mistakes is an important part of learning. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter help instructors generate dialogue in class or in groups. Introduction to Intersectional Qualitative Research makes those identities and structures central to the task of qualitative study.

This book explores how intersectionality theory can be applied to social work practice with children and families, older people and mental health service users, and used to engage with diversity and difference in social work education and research. With case-study examples and practice questions throughout, the book provides a model for integrating intersectionality theory into social work practice. It highlights the ways intersectional theory helps us to understand the complexities of working with the interlocking nature of problematised elements such as gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, and other axes of structural inequalities experienced by groups in subjugated social locations. Intersectionality is used to examine multiple forms of inequalities and the complexities and questions they give rise to in social work practice. The emphasis throughout is that intersectional approaches can open up social work practice to new understandings of the complex linkages of multiple and intersecting systems of oppression that shape the lived experiences of diverse groups of service users. Providing an introduction to an intersectional theoretical framework for understanding the lives and experiences of socially disadvantaged service users, Intersectionality for Social Workers will be required reading on all modules on anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice, sociology, and ethics and values in social work.

The concept of intersectionality has become a hot topic in academic and activist circles alike. But what exactly does it mean, and why has it emerged as such a vital lens through which to explore how social inequalities of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability and ethnicity shape one another? In this new book Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge provide a much-needed, introduction to the field of intersectional knowledge and praxis. They analyze the emergence, growth and contours of the concept and show how intersectional frameworks speak to topics as diverse as human rights, neoliberalism, identity politics, immigration, hip hop, global social protest, diversity, digital media, Black feminism in Brazil, violence and World Cup soccer. Accessibly written and drawing on a plethora of lively examples to illustrate its arguments, the book highlights intersectionality's potential for understanding inequality and bringing about social justice oriented change. Intersectionality will be an invaluable resource for anyone grappling with the main ideas, debates and new directions in this field.

Grounded in black feminist scholarship and activism and formally coined in 1989 by black legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, intersectionality has garnered significant attention in the field of public policy and other disciplines/fields of study. The potential of intersectionality, however, has not been fully realized in policy, largely due to the challenges of operationalization. Recently some scholars and activists began to advance conceptual clarity and guidance for intersectionality policy applications; yet a pressing need remains for knowledge development and exchange in relation to empirical work that demonstrates how intersectionality improves public policy. This handbook fills this void by highlighting the key challenges, possibilities and critiques of intersectionality-informed approaches in public policy. It brings together international scholars across a variety of policy sectors and disciplines to consider the state of intersectionality in policy research and analysis. Importantly, it offers a global perspective on the added value and “how-to” of intersectionality-informed policy approaches that aim to advance equity and social justice.