Her article focused on the recurring concepts of intersectionality, and the different opportunities women of color are exposed to (Hofman, 190). I think this article contributes to the conversation, since it plays a major role in the understanding of social inequality. Our conversation consisted of how women and men of color experience a lot of rejection when looking for employment in comparison to white men and women. Hofman made sure to state the extent of inequality within gender and race, complementing all factors of intersectionality, existing in the labor
While defining situations, it is almost inevitable to be misunderstood, and intersectionality assists in setting the bar and explaining the various human rights violations currently facing minority groups in different aspects of
Intersectionality. According to Google, it’s official definition is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Intersectionality was a word I first heard on Instagram. Amandla Steinberg was wishing her friend a happy birthday, and she said she couldn’t wait to hang out with her favourite intersectional feminist. I was confused; why was she an intersectional feminist and not just a regular one?
However, the excerpt of her book lacks clarity, has multiple unfair biases, and is filled with many contradictions. The author completely neglects other social factors such as race, class, and ethnicity and their crucial interplay with gender, and treats gender and sex as unidimensional categories and the most significant features of human lives, even though they are not. The book exhibits poor transition between claims, and makes use of anecdotal material/ information to support these claims. Overall, there is a need for comprehensive research to be conducted in the field of cross-cultural communication. Such research should observe human conversation and be sensitive to social factors such as race, class, and ethnicity.
This is intriguing because it suggests that we as a society are very narrow-minded. When we see a Spanish speaking person we think Hispanic. We do not think mother or woman or man or son. We put people in one box and expect that is this is the only group in which they are a part of, and that is not true. For this reason the idea of intersectionality also confuses me.
This quote shows how oppression is largely universal while demonstrating how uncomfortable topics should not be avoided for fear of said discomfort. The differences that separate us as a people such as race, class, age, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality demonstrate the intermeshed oppressions that both men and women experience uniquely from one another. In “Age, Race, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, author Audre says that racism and sexism is a “belief in the superiority of one race/ sex over all others.” We have all been manipulated into thinking how society wants us to think and this mindset will set up a lifetime pursuit of attempting to decolonize this way of thinking that has been instilled in us for so long. It is almost impossible not to recognize the difference when you know it is there. Race only exists if we allow our consciousness and belief to come
It is impossible to discuss gender and the influences it has on one livelihood without acknowledging the other aspects of one’s identity. Other aspects such as race, class, and sexuality in combination with will always play a major role in one’s life choices and the way they are perceived by others. The term intersectionality as stated by Susanne Hochreiter offers a way to understand the multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed. Intersectionality explains why gender cannot be in isolation from other inequalities in the social world. As a black Haitian woman raised in America, it is clear to see that my identity occupies several spheres.
Something that I’ve learned from this course was the term “intersectionality” and how that plays into equity. While isolating an issue does help in understanding its roots, the next step we should be taking is to understand the interconnecting nature of social identities. This many help us to become a more equitable society. For example, when Chelsea facilitated the workshop where we touched upon intersectionality in the pay gap, we learned how both gender and racial identity can affect an individual’s wage. While white women earn $0.74 to a white man’s dollar, black women only make $0.64.
Coined by feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectional feminism refers to the different ways in which race and gender interact to shape the many intersections of Black women’s experiences (Crenshaw, 1991, p. 1244). Since its conception, intersectional feminist thought has grown to not only include the experiences of Black women, but to also examine how gender expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status (SES), and ability all interact to determine an individual’s privilege or lack thereof (LaMantia, Wagner, and Bohecker, 2015). Within a classroom setting, recognizing the complexities of intersectionality is vital to understanding the needs and experiences of each student. According to LaMantia, Wagner, and Bohecker (2015), “intersectionality is an awareness of difference, oppression, and the consequences of these interactions in terms of power,” (p.) and as such, intersectionality can provide a voice to individuals who are subject to multiple forms of oppression and marginalization within society. Therefore, a classroom that takes an intersectional feminist pedagogical approach is able to empower all students, regardless of identity, to meet their full potential.
Gender as a phenomenon in recent times has become critical in addressing issues in education, politics, economy, philosophy, literature, and there is no subject today without a specific mention to gender. Akujobi (2009) citing Showalter (1989) considered gender ‘as a crucial determinant in the production, circulation and consumption of literacy discourse’ (p. 2458). Forster (1999) conceptualised gender as a social process and an ever-shifting, historical and culturally-contextualized set of social practices that are constituted on manifold levels of social organizations. This means that in everyday social practices, there is a link between the social structure and the production and construction of gender. In contrast, Crawford (1998) suggested