What is Intersectionality, and How Can You Leverage Intersectional Analysis?
Understanding intersectionality shouldn’t only be the mission of grassroots activists and scholars. It’s time for companies to embrace intersectionality within their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Leveraging intersectional analysis, companies interested in making real diversity and inclusion progress can promote respect and awareness for all identities. Make your workplace a space where employees feel welcome and heard.
In this article, we’ll explain what intersectionality is. We’ll also explain how to use intersectional analysis for the workplace. By doing so, you’ll foster an inclusive working environment that supports the voices of all identities.
What Is Intersectionality?
Scholar and writer Kimberlé Crenshaw popularized the concept of intersectionality in the 1980s. Her paper, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” explained the specific struggles of Black American women. This struggle stems from their identity’s intersection between race and gender.
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Neither non-Black women nor Black men can understand this experience. They have no way of understanding the specific battles of a person that is both Black and female.
Civil rights activist and writer Audre Lorde (1934-1992) also stated, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own." She also declared, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
That is exactly what intersectionality posits. Activism is ineffective if it does not address specific struggles of intersected identities.
For example, LGBTQ+ activism is ineffectual if it does not also tackle the specific struggles of LGBTQ+ people of color (POC). A victory is a victory for all, not only for a subset of the community.
How Is Intersectionality Different From Diversity?
A simple interpretation of diversity in the workplace can mean hiring more employees of marginalized identities. But it won’t ensure your workplace will welcome these employees and make them feel that they belong.
Making all workers feel included starts with understanding that none of us is one-dimensional. Intersectionality is the idea that we are a composite of identities and experiences. The intersection of those identities can be a recipe for marginalization, bias and unfair treatment. Workplace policies and actions can further that marginalization. Understanding the structural issues behind marginalization will help companies solve for inequality in the workplace.
Here’s how to start:
Learn the histories and frameworks that impact marginalized communities. You’ll understand which ones to not replicate in the workspace.
Learn the efforts and goals of activists from different communities. Doing so will help you realize what measures will improve workplace inclusion.
Don’t treat issues of gender, race, ability, or sexuality as separate struggles.
Elevate the voices of every worker according to their own intersectional identity. For example, broadly addressing the needs of women may not sufficiently address the needs of a woman of color (WOC).
After all, when people say that women gained the right to vote in 1920, they’re only referring to white women. In reality, Indigenous women gained the right in 1947, Asian women in 1952, Black women in 1965, and Latina women in 1975.
How Can I Use Intersectional Analysis for Workplace Inclusion?
Here are some measures that promote intersectionality in D&I efforts. All these methods center on listening and research:
Create an open discussion space
Listen and do not dismiss concerns, especially while in a position of power
Conduct regular D&I training workshops
Seek accommodations for groups that would otherwise be excluded
These are only a few of many ways to foster workplace inclusion. A core understanding of intersectionality will help you facilitate other effective D&I methods.
Get Started With Us to Boost D&I Efforts
Having the motivation to improve your workplace environment is a great start, but it’s only a start. With listening and learning, you’ll have the tools necessary to nurture workplace inclusion.
At HonestCulture, we understand the necessity of an inclusive workspace. That's why we've dedicated our entire mission to promote it. Get started with us to receive an intersectional analysis that works towards inclusivity and equity in the workplace.