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Intersectionality: an approach to empower women at the Crossroads, Bello, B, G., (2008)
Barbara G. Bello is a PHD candidate at the University of Statale Milano. Intersectionality: an approach to
empower women at the crossroads is a previously unpublished paper. The author has given her permission for its
inclusion in this publication.
Introduction. 1. One identity vs. multiple identity: the intersectional approach. 2.
Multiple discriminations. 3. Final Remarks and Tips for NGOs working with ethnic
minority women.
Introduction
After describing the origins of the concept of intersectionality, this contribution focuses on
women who suffer from multiple discriminations as well as on the response to this situation in
recent European documents. Finally it suggests that the intersectional approach provides
effective instruments for the analysis of the marginalising racial, ethnic, class and sexual
aspects of gender discrimination which NGOs should take into account while working with
minority women.
1. One identity vs. multiple identity: the intersectional approach
For a long time the concept of personal selfi has been understood “as unitary, stable and
transparent” and as existing prior to experience. This approach, known as the “essentialist
construction” of identityii, assumes that the “self” has an essence which is rather
unchangeable.
In the twentieth century, the aforesaid notion of unitary self has been increasingly refused and
deconstructed primarily within the Critical Race Theoryiii discourses and by American black
feministsiv. They argued that women live multiple layered identities that derive from social
relationships because sexism, class and race are inextricably bound together and therefore
black women experience oppression in a different way to “white middle class women”v.
Black women were later joined by women with disabilities, poor women and women from
ethnic and cultural backgrounds all demanding their rights to equal treatment.
The relevant contribution of the black feminist movement is the idea of “re-constructing” the
concept of identity around the intersection of various domination/oppression categories such
as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability, etc. According to this theory “in all
cultures, people can be observed to project multiple, inconsistent self-representations that are
context-dependent and may shift rapidly”vi.
Professor Kimberle Crenshaw found out a neologism for this idea: Intersectionality. This
notion can be easily understood through the effective “Traffic Intersection Metaphor” which
she developedvii.
In this metaphor, race, gender, class and other categories are the roads that determines the
social, economic or political empowered or disempowered position of each person in the
society. The overlapping of two or more of these avenues generates complex intersections, at
the crossroads of which marginalised groups of women are located because of their specific
intersectional identities.
In this case women “must negotiate the traffic that flows through these intersections to avoid
injury and to obtain resources for the normal activities of life. This can be dangerous when the
traffic flows simultaneously from many directions. Injuries are sometimes created when the
impact from one direction throws victims into the path of oncoming traffic, while on other
occasions, injuries occur from simultaneous collisions. These are the contexts in which
intersectional injuries occur - when multiple disadvantages or collisions interact to create a
distinct and compound dimension of disempowerment”viii.
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The intersectional approach helps us understand how the convergence of multiple factors in
women's lives takes place and, more specifically, how racism, sex, patriarchy, class and other
grounds contribute to create layers of inequality that structures the positions of human beings.
In doing that it challenges both monolithic constructions of specific groups and stigmatisation
or homogenisation of them.
The intersectional self can be used to describe each person as a dynamic combination of
categories (sex, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, health, language, economic and social
status, affiliations, education). In this short paper I would like to focus only on women who
suffer from multiple systems of exclusion and on the legal response to this situation in
contemporary Europe.
2. Multiple discriminations in Europe
Compared to the American and to the international discourse, intersectionality gained
prominence throughout Europe more recently above all as a consequence of the massive
streams of migrants establishing there. As Marsha Darling underlined “intersectionality is
conceptually inseparable from the anti-discrimination and women's human rights legal
standards established by the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights”ix.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Conference on
Women in September 1995, are considered the first documents in which multiple
discrimination was addressed on such a high level. Even if there is no explicit mention of
concepts as “multiple or intersectional discrimination”, they refer to “multiple barriers” and to
specific situations of minority womenx. The concept of multiple discrimination was given a
new impetus at the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, during which was
adopted the Declaration and the Programme of Action, which often addresses explicitly the
concept of multiple discrimination.xi
It became clear that racial and ethnic discrimination does not affect women and men in the
same way and that, on the other hand, gender discrimination has a different impact on black
and white women, both in their public and private lives.
In spite of this increased awareness at the international level, minority women are still
invisible in official policies which aim at fighting separately against gender discrimination
and racial prejudice and this renders minority women vulnerable to further discrimination.
Prof. Crenshaw describes the problems emerging form a separated analysis of different
grounds as “the twin problems of over-inclusion and under-inclusion”. The notion of overinclusion refers to situations where the racial dimension of an experience is subsumed within
a gender perspective. The consequence is that only the gender aspect of the discrimination is
addressed and the racialised aspect of discrimination is ignored.
The notion of under-inclusion refers to situations where a gender analysis is ignored in what is
perceived to be a problem of racial/ethnic discrimination. For example, the forced sterilisation
of Roma women or other marginalized women has been conceived as an ethnic discrimination
rather than a gender related onexii, while it can easily be approached as a discrimination
against women belonging to a specific community.
In the European scenario it has been increasingly recognised since 2000 that different grounds
may interact in a context in which there is a conflict of rights or in a way in which there is
multiple disadvantage. Apart from Recital 14 of the Race Directive (2000/43/EC)xiii, which
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recognizes that “women are often the victims of multiple discrimination”, the European
Parliament steps efforts to foster minority women’s inclusion addressing, in particular, the
situation of migrant women, Roma women and disabled womenxiv.
The enhancement of migrant women, of females with a background in migration and of
females belonging to an ethnic minority is also one of the priorities within the “Roadmap to
equality between women and men 2006/2010”xv.
Lacking a definition of multiple discrimination in the legal documents, its conceptualisation is
at the centre of the scholars´ legal discourse and comparative studies. In this contribution it is
not possible to examine exhaustively the interesting developments regarding multiple
discrimination, but it is worth underlining two relevant aspects of the concept.
In primis, there is still no consensus on the terminology to be used referring to a situation of
discrimination based on more than one groundxvi. None the less most of the scholars agree to
distinguish three situations: multiple discrimination, occurring when a person is subjected to
discrimination on more than one ground; compound discrimination, describing a situation
where a person suffers discrimination on the basis of two or more grounds at the same time
and where one ground adds to discrimination on another ground; intersectional
discrimination, which are based on a combination of grounds, interacting with each other at
the same time in such a way that they are inseparablexvii.
In secundis, women are victim both of out-group discriminations and in- group
discriminationsxviii. The first concerns migrant women’s vulnerability in comparison with
majority society. Examples of this form of discrimination are the conditions of cheap and
unorganised labour force in host countries, exclusion from education and lifelong learning,
violence perpetrated against women in armed conflict, trafficking of girls and women. On the
contrary in- group discriminations refers to discriminatory practice taking place within the
minorityxix. Some examples are harmful cultural and traditional practices such as forced
marriages, female mutilations, honour killings, witch hunting.
More discussion is required on in-group discrimination, which is a big challenge for the
multicultural society and stimulate ongoing querelles between “multiculturalists” and
“feminists”xx.
The fact that a (racial, ethnic, religious, national, etc…) group is a minority in a given country
and that the members of that certain group are discriminated against by the “majority group”,
does not exclude that many discriminatory practices can take place against the minority
existing in the group (e.g. against disables, homosexuals, women, dissentients).
In spite of this risk, many multicultural theories assume that the most practicable way for the
emancipation of minority peoples in a State dominated by people from a different culture
implies the importance and recognition of collective (cultural) rights as well as of the right to
cultural integrity. xxi On the other hand, feminists mainly argue that women within minority
groups lose out in terms of power and rights: in this perspective cultural rights may undermine
their individual rights and perpetrate a monolithic idea of culture.
These considerations show that, in terms of women's rights, the intersectional approach can be
a powerful tool for rendering visible different specific forms of discrimination faced by
marginalised women and, at the same time, for providing national and international
governments with an effective instrument to adequately manage all experiences of
intersectional discrimination within and out minority women’s community.
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3. Final Remarks and Tips for NGOs working with women from ethnic (or national,
racial, religious, etc…) minority.
As suggested in the previous paragraphs, the intersectional approach is an effective tool to
render visible the multiple layered and intersecting identities that women experience as well
as to build the conceptual framework of the specific discriminations they suffer from.
In this last part of the contribution I would like to draft some remarks on the usefulness of the
intersectional approach for NGO practitioners working with marginalised women from an
ethnic (or national, racial, religious, etc…) minority.
Assuming that women’s personal self is no longer unanimously conceived as “unitary, stable
and transparent” has a direct consequence on the work of NGOs, which need to take into
consideration the overlapping aspects of complex identity when planning activities, services
or projects for “minority women”. For example, projects aiming at empowering women to
access opportunities, fundamental rights, and resources might not impact all women in the
same way. This means that what empowers “white middle class women” not necessarily
works to foster emancipation of marginalised, excluded women from minorities. Therefore
aims, objectives, methodologies, projects and policies need to be tailored to the needs of the
peculiar target group.
One of the barriers which NGOs need to overcome when working with minority women is
that very often NGO actors do not belong to the same minority group and therefore they may
have a very different “intersectional identity” to the minority woman’s one. This “otherness”
may create diffidence in the relationship between the NGO and the target group, therefore a
main role is played by “gatekeepers” of the NGO and by “cultural mediators” between the
NGO and the minority.
The intersectional approach has an impact also on the different steps in the risk management
process. For example, NGOs should bear in mind that marginalised minority women run
multiple risks when they decide to react to practices and statements of their tradition: the risk
of being excluded both from their own community because of their rebellion and, at the same
time, from the majority society because of their membership of a discriminated minority
group.
It goes without saying that it is extremely important to recognise the multiple discrimination
against minority women, to assess their real opportunities and access to rights and to enhance
the active participation of stakeholders to the development of the project, in order to release
“women at the crossroad of discrimination grounds” from the traffic jam of prejudices and
exclusion. xxii
Endnotes
i
For a deeper insight into the contraposition between the social and personal self, see Powel John A. (1996) The Multiple
Self: Exploring Between and Beyond Modernity and Postmodernity, Minn. L. Rev., 81, pp. 1481-1499.
ii
Gosine Kevin, Essentialism Versus Complexity: Conceptions of Racial Identity Construction in Educational Scholarship,
pp. 99, http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE27-1/CJE27-1-06Gosine.pdf.
iii
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a movement started during the Seventies by African American lawyers, activists and legal
scholars which emphasizes the socially constructed nature of race, considers judicial conclusions to be the result of the
workings of power, and opposes the continuation of all forms of subordination. Kimberlé Crenshaw, who will be soon
mntioned in the paper, is an eminent representative of this movement. Crenshaw Kimberlé, Critical Race Theory: The Key
Writings that Formed the Movement. New York: New Press, 1995.
ivAmong
v
the most relevant voices in this movement are Kimberle Crenshaw, Bell Hooks, Trina Grillo, Angela Harris.
Bell Hooks (1984) Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, South End Press, pp. 167.
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vi
Powel John A. (1996) The Multiple Self: Exploring Between and Beyond Modernity and Postmodernity, Minn. L. Rev., 81,
pp. 1481-1499.
vii
Crenshaw Kimberle (2003) Traffic at the Crossroads: Multiple Oppressions in Robin Morgan Sisterhood is Forever: The
Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, Washington Square Press, 512 pages.
viii
Patel Pragna (2001) Notes on Gender and Racial Discrimination: an urgent need to integrate an intersectional
perspective to the examination and development of policies, strategies and remedies for gender and racial equality, United
Nations
Commission
on
the
Status
of
Women,
Forty-fifth
Session,
6-16
March.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/Patel45.htm.
Marsha Darling (2002) Human Rights for all: Understanding and applying “intersectionality” to confront globalization,
http://www.awid.org/forum2002/plenaries/day3marsha.html.
viiii
xArticle
32 of the Beijing Declaration states that Countries should “intensify efforts to ensure equal enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms for all women and girls who face multiple barriers to their empowerment and advancement
because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, or disability, or because they are indigenous
people”.
xi
Art. 14. Urges States to recognize the particularly severe problems of religious prejudice and intolerance that many people
of African descent experience and to implement policies and measures that are designed to prevent and eliminate all such
discrimination on the basis of religion and belief, which, when combined with certain other forms of discrimination,
constitutes a form of multiple discrimination; Art. 49. Urges States to take, where applicable, appropriate measures to prevent
racial discrimination against persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in respect of
employment, health care, housing, social services and education, and in this context forms of multiple discrimination should
be taken into account; Art. 79. Calls upon States to promote and protect the exercise of the rights set out in the Declaration on
the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, proclaimed by the General
Assembly in its resolution 36/55 of 25 November 1981, in order to obviate religious discrimination which, when combined
with certain other forms of discrimination, constitutes a form of multiple discrimination; Art. 104 (c) To improve the
prospects of targeted groups facing, inter alia, the greatest obstacles in finding, keeping or regaining work, including skilled
employment. Particular attention should be paid to persons subject to multiple discrimination; Art.172. Urges States to
protect the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and to
develop appropriate legislative and other measures to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity, in order to
protect them from any form of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In this context, forms of
multiple discrimination should be fully taken into account; Art. 212. Urges States to establish and strengthen effective
partnerships with and provide support, as appropriate, to all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental
organizations working to promote gender equality and the advancement of women, particularly women subject to multiple
discrimination, and to promote an integrated and holistic approach to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women and girls. For an overall view on the subject, see Makkonen Timo (2002) Multiple Compound and Intersectional
Discrimination: Bringing the Experiences of the Most Marginalized to the Fore, Institute For Human Rights, Åbo Akademi
University, pp-67.
xii
Makkonen Timo, Ibid
xiii
Recital 14 of the Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between
persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin: “In implementing the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or
ethnic origin, the Community should, in accordance with Article 3(2) of the EC Treaty, aim to eliminate inequalities, and to
promote equality between men and women, especially since women are often the victims of multiple discrimination”.
xiv
European Parliament resolution on the situation of women from minority groups in the European Union (2003/2109(INI).
xv
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions - A Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010 [COM(2006)
92 final.
xvi
For example, the phenomenon has been addressed as multiple discrimination, double discrimination, intersectional
discrimination, compound discrimination. For further readings dealing with the legal concept of multiple discrimination, see
Moon Gay (2006) Multiple discrimination – problems compounded or solutions found?, Justice Journal, pp.86-102; Fredman
Sandra (2005) Double Trouble: Multiple Discrimination and EU law, European Anti-Discrimination Law Review, Issue no.
2. p. 14; Hannett Sarah (2003) Equality at the Intersections: the Legislative and Judicial Failure to tackle Multiple
Discrimination, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 23, N.1 pp. 65-86; Makkonen Timo (2002) Multiple, Compound and
Intersectional Discrimination: Bringing the Experiences of the Most Marginalized to the Fore, Institute for Human Rights,
Åbo Akademi University. Earlier research on the intersection of grounds is by Shoben W. Elaine (1980) Compound
Discrimination: The interaction of Race and Sex in Employment Discrimination, N.Y.U.L Rev. pp. 793-835.
xvii
European Commission (2007) Tackling Multiple Discrimination. Practices, policies and law, Luxembourg: Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities, pp.70.
xviiiMakkonen
xix
Timo, Ibid.
Makkonen Timo, Ibid.
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xx
For a reading on the state of the art of the debate, see Okin Susan Moller (1999) Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?,
Princeton University Press, pp. 146.
xxi
The worldwide prominent scholar theorizing this kind of Multiculturalism is Will Kimlicka. See his Kimlicka Will.,
Multiculturalism citizenship: A liberal Theory of minorità rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
xxii
Busch Noël Bridget, Valentine Deborah (2000). Empowerment Practice: A Focus on Battered Women. Affilia, 15(1), p.
82-95; Gutierrez, Lorraine M., Parsons, Ruth J., Cox Enid Opal (1998) Empowerment in Social Work Practice: A
Sourcebook. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Making Change Happen: Power., Just Associates, (2006)
Sources and Expressions of Power
Power is categorized in many ways, often as economic, political, social, or cultural. Women’s
rights advocates and feminists have developed other categories that clarify the diverse sources
and expressions of power – both positive and negative. These include the most common
controlling forms of power – power over – and more life-affirming and transformational
forms – power with, power to, and power within. Naming such dynamics can be liberating
and mind-expanding. By using these types of analytical categories, people can better
understand how forces of subordination and inequity operate in their own lives and envision
alternative strategies and visions of power through which they can challenge injustice.
Power Over
The most commonly recognized form of power, power over, has many negative associations
for people, such as repression, force, coercion, discrimination, corruption, and abuse. At its
most basic, it operates to privilege certain people while marginalizing others. In politics, those
who control resources and decision-making have power over those without and exclude others
from access and participation. When people are denied access to important resources like
land, healthcare, and jobs, power over perpetuates inequality, injustice and poverty.
In the absence of alternative models and relationships, people repeat the power over pattern in
their personal interaction, values, communities, and institutions.
For example, to maintain emotional relationships with men that are crucial to their family
stability and economic survival, women often feel they must give up much of their own power
or use it in a manipulative way.
When women or people from marginalized or “powerless” groups gain power in leadership
positions, they sometimes “imitate the oppressor.” For this reason, activists cannot expect that
the experience of being excluded prepares people to become democratic leaders. New forms
of leadership and decision-making must be explicitly defined, taught, and rewarded in order to
promote democratic forms of power. As part of this process, values need to be challenged,
reclaiming those that support justice, equity and compassion.
Practitioners and academics have searched for more collaborative ways of exercising and
using power. Drawing on their own positive and negative experiences with power, feminists
use the notion of vital or life-affirming power. They see this form of power as a way to focus
on building alternatives that emphasize the affirmation and development of life, based on the
responsibilities involved in caring for life in all its forms. The parameters and ethics for using
such power come from a focus on both rights and responsibilities and an emphasis on the
renewal and regeneration of life with all its energies, forces, creativity and chaos. It envisions
multiple forms and hubs of leadership emerging from different places according to needs,
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events, moments and language. This quest for alternatives is ongoing and offers new insights
on how we can express and use power as seen in the three visions presented below.
These alternatives offer positive ways of expressing power that create the possibility of
forming more equitable relationships and structures and transforming power over. By
affirming people’s capacity to act creatively and collectively, they provide some basic
principles for constructing empowering strategies.
Vision 1: Power With
Power with has to do with finding common ground among different interests in order to build
collective strength. Based on mutual support, solidarity, collaboration and recognition and
respect for differences, power with multiplies individual talents, knowledge and resources to
make a larger impact. Power with can help build bridges across differences by openly
acknowledging conflicts and seeking to transform or reduce them for a larger aim. Power with
can generate a larger impact but can also provide a grounding sense of community and
spiritual connection. At this moment when social justice efforts feel over-institutionalized and
fragmented, deliberate strategies to construct and promote power with are vital, including
alliances and movement-building. All of these require processes to acknowledge diversity and
disagreement while seeking common ground around values and vision.
Vision 2: Power To
Power to refers to the unique potential of every person to shape his or her life and world.
Education, training and leadership development for social justice are based on the belief that
each individual has the power to make a difference, which can be multiplied by new skills,
knowledge, awareness and confidence.
When based on mutual support, it opens up the possibilities of joint action, or power with
others. For organizing and advocacy efforts to succeed, they must tap into and nurture
people’s power to potential. This is especially critical coming on the heels of an era that
emphasizes top-down expertise and technical solutions. These have tended to undermine
people’s sense of power to – deepening withdrawal from public life and producing a sense of
resignation.
Vision 3: Power Within
Power within has to do with a person’s sense of self-worth and self-knowledge. It is grounded
in an ethical value base that fosters a vision of human rights and responsibilities and an ability
to recognize individual differences while respecting others. Power within is the capacity to
imagine and have hope; it affirms the shared human search for dignity and fulfilment and is
strengthened by an understanding of power and the common good, and a constant practice of
questioning and challenging assumptions. Spirituality, story telling, music, dancing and
critical reflection can affirm people’s power within, which can serve as a nourishing force,
energizing the tireless efforts of social justice activists. Effective grassroots organizing efforts
use such methods to help people affirm personal worth, tap into their dreams and hope, and
recognize their power to and power with.
All these expressions of life-affirming power are fundamental to the concept referred to as
agency – the creative human capacity to act and change the world – a term used by scholars
writing about social change and development. The notion of agency draws on sources of
power implicit in these different expressions such as the power of numbers, confidence,
experience, critical thinking, knowledge, organization, vision, humour, persistence,
commitment, solidarity, song, poetry, spoken word, rap, and story. Seemingly simple, these
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positive ways of thinking about people’s power can lead to more effective and integrated
movement-building strategies. They help to ensure that strategies for change aren’t reduced to
lobbying or a mechanical formula, but consider and account for the ways people feel
empowered, fired up and connected.
In tapping into power to, power within and power with, strategies must deal with the
psychological and social dimensions of oppression and subordination that – because of race,
ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation and other factors – leave people feeling inferior,
isolated, cynical and often angry.
Power can be defined as the degree of control over material, human,
intellectual and financial resources exercised by different sections of society.
The control of these resources becomes a source of individual and social power
… The extent of power of an individual or group is correlated to how many
different kinds of resources they can access and control. Different degrees of
power are sustained and perpetuated through social divisions such as gender,
age, caste, class, ethnicity, race, north-south; and through institutions such as
the family, religion, education, media, the law, etc … There is a continuous
process of resistance and challenge by the less powerful and marginalised
sections of society, resulting in various degrees of change in the structures of
power. When these challenges become strong and extensive enough, they can
result in the total transformation of a power structure.
(Srilatha Batliwala 1995)
Extract from: Making Change Happen: Power. You can download the full document at:
http://www.justassociates.org/publications_files/MCH3.pdf
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