What is Intersectionality?

Intersectionality is a term that entered the literature dictionary in 1989 by Kimberly Crenshaw.

She wrote an essay on Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Colour. What Kimberly Crenshaw proposes with intersectionality is that she wants to divide the literary world between races and genders. So, what she suggested and aimed at the idea of intersectionality is that there is no division between races. Her essay on intersectionality tries to explain the oppression of African American women. She mentions that it is a metaphor to explain inequalities between men and women and blacks and whites. It’s not just about race or it’s not just about gender. It is a combination and by using the term intersectionality she wanted to stop the overlapping of the term racist or gender discrimination. She combines two discriminations because it is not only about gender or skin color, but also about being a woman and being an African American. 

In Crenshaw’s essay, she says, “My focus on the intersections of race and gender only highlights the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed”. (Crenshaw, 1991)