Women and Intersectionality Bias
I have a question:
How do you disrupt your biases?
I’ll elaborate.
There are so many important and crucial conversations happening right now during National Women’s History Month about gender bias. Women all over the world are being brought to the table to state their needs, wants, and asks of cisgender men in the workplace and we love to see this representation. However, it is 2022 and we are STILL seeing white women, especially cisgender white women, being centered as representatives of all women.
That has to change.
Why? Because the wants, needs, asks and overall experiences of cisgender white women are NOT representative of all women… by a LONG shot.
Intersectionality is a term originally coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, a Black woman and American lawyer and theorist, to describe violence and bias against Black women. The term has now taken on a life of its own and means different things to different people.
In her own words in an interview with Columbia Law School, Crenshaw said:
Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times, that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things…The other issue is that intersectionality can get used as a blanket term to mean, “Well, it’s complicated.” Sometimes, “It’s complicated” is an excuse not to do anything. At AAPF and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, we want to move beyond that idea.
Intersectionality is complicated in a postmodern context. We have bias and violence against disabled communities, (trans)gender communities including women, socioeconomically disadvantaged people, Black, Indigenous and other people of color communities, and immigrant communities, just to name a few groups. However, the people who find themselves most at risk are people who find themselves with two or more of these identities. That is what I think intersectionality means in today’s context. We have to think about the bias we have, where we believe everything and everyone exists in only one box of marginalization at a time. People are complex and multifaceted, and may face more bias and violence because of multiple marginalized identities.
So, yes, bring white cisgender women to the table to speak. That is important. However, what about Black, disabled women or Indigenous Two-Spirit women? What about transgender women, who are also the children of immigrants and/or socioeconomic upheaval? Think of the possibilities and expand.
Women are not monolithic. We can live in the same society with completely different feelings and experiences of that society. That’s why there’s different “Equal Pay Days'' for women of different backgrounds. That’s why we talk about women during Pride Month, Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, etc. The list goes on.
Lastly, because intersectionality is complicated, disrupting biases to take into account intersectionality requires a lot of learning, unlearning, and critical thinking.
However, that very complexity is why we must address intersectionality rigorously, carefully, holistically, and with aim towards the tenets of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
We cannot rush the process, but we also cannot wait any longer for that process to begin.
The time is now. Let’s begin.
