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Sociology vocabulary · Class, Stratification and Inequality

Intersectionality

Meaning in sociology, with examples

/ˌɪntəˌsekʃəˈnæləti/nounCommon term

In sociology, intersectionality means: The idea that social categories such as gender, race, class and disability overlap, so that people experience combined and distinct forms of advantage or disadvantage.

In Turkish: kesişimsellik

How it is used

Introduced by the legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the position of Black women in US anti-discrimination law. Today it is widely used in sociology, social policy and research design. The adjective is intersectional.

Example sentences

  1. An intersectionality approach shows that older migrant women face problems that neither age nor gender alone can explain.

  2. The report used intersectionality to analyse pay gaps by gender and ethnicity together.

Common collocations

  • intersectional approach
  • intersectional analysis
  • apply intersectionality
  • genderThe roles, behaviour and identities that a society attaches to being a woman or a man, as distinct from the biological differences described by the word sex.
  • raceA way of classifying people into groups on the basis of perceived physical differences such as skin colour, which sociologists treat as a social rather than a biological category.
  • social classA large group of people who share a similar economic position, such as income, wealth, occupation and education, and often similar life chances.
  • inequalityUnequal access to resources, opportunities, rights and rewards, such as income, education, health or power, between individuals or groups.
  • feminismA range of social theories and movements that study and challenge inequality between women and men and the ways gender shapes social life.

More terms: Class, Stratification and Inequality

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