as they should, perhaps because they lack a common language. If such is the case, then our book needs to speak to these different constituencies in ways that are not mutually exclusive, in a language that is audible and makes sense for them.
Consider this book an invitation for entering the complexities of intersectionality. We provide some navigational tools for moving through intersectionality’s vast terrain. The book is a road map for discovery and not a portrait of a finished product. We simply could not include everything in one volume. You may find that some of your favorite authors are barely mentioned and that authors of whom you have never heard are discussed at length. We mention many areas of intersectionality, but could not include an extensive discussion of public health, epistemology, environmental issues, the arts, and many other areas where people have taken up the ideas of intersectionality. Just as we brought different areas of expertise and interest to the process of writing the book, yet learned to listen to one another and translate along the way, we encourage you to do the same as you pursue these areas.
Just as our collaboration was crucial for the book, so we value the support of others who helped us along the way. We both thank the team at Polity for shepherding this project through unexpected delays. Thanks to Louise Knight, our editor, who brought the idea for this book to us and trusted our ability to get it done; to Evie Deavall, production editor at Polity; editorial assistant Inès Boxman; and copyeditor Sarah Dancy. We also appreciate the comments of the two anonymous reviewers whose critical eye greatly strengthened this text, as well as anonymous scholars who have used the first volume of our book in their teaching and who gave Polity feedback.
First and foremost, Sirma wishes to thank her partner Philippe Allard, who always stood by her through the ups and downs of all her writing projects, and her sister Gönenç Bilge-Sökmen and her mother Figen Bilge for their unfailing love and support, despite the great physical distance that separates her from them. Sirma thanks graduate students who attended her past and present seminars at the Université de Montréal for being a constant reminder of the utter necessity of pursuing critical work, and for making her feel intellectually and emotionally less out of place. They are far too many to list here. Their reception and critical engagement with the first edition of this book in Sirma’s graduate seminar on intersectionality have been invaluable. Her appreciation also goes to colleagues in the sociology department at the Université de Montréal, with special thanks for their support to Anne Calvès, Christopher McCall, and Marianne Kempeneers, the department’s head, and librarian Catherine Fortier. Sirma expresses heartfelt gratitude for the friendship and solidarity of some amazing scholars and activists, for many impassioned conversations: thanks especially to Sara Ahmed, Paola Bacchetta, Leila Bdeir, Leila Ben Hadjoudja, Karma Chávez, João Gabriell, Eve Haque, Jin Haritaworn, Suhraiya Jivraj, Yasmin Jiwani, Délice Mugabo, Jen Petzen, Julianne Pidduck, Malinda Smith, Michèle Spieler, and Rinaldo Walcott. Arashi needs to be thanked for bringing feline grace and mandatory playtime to her life. Last but not least, Sirma wishes she could thank her father, Ugur Bilge, for his constant support, for never failing to ask, “Isn’t it finished yet?” and for prompting her to translate it into Turkish. Ugur Bilge, who planted the passion for reading in Sirma’s life first through the children’s books of Iranian Marxist Samed Behrengi, suddenly passed away in 2014; Sirma dedicates this book to his memory.
Patricia would like to thank Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz, whose strong leadership of the department of sociology at the University of Maryland provided a welcome backdrop for this project. She also is indebted to the many graduate students who contributed to this work: Les Andrist, Melissa Brown, Kathryn Buford, Rod Carey, Nihal Celik, Valerie Chepp, Michelle Corbin, Paul Dean, Rachel Guo, Tony Hatch, Nazneen Kane, Wendy Laybourn, Chang Won Lee, Angel Miles, Allissa Richardson, Jillet Sam, Dina Shafey, Michelle Smirnova, Margaret Austin Smith, Danny Swann, Kristi Tredway, Kevin Winstead, Laura Yee, and Sojin Yu. Patricia extends special thanks to Ana Claudia Pereira and her many new colleagues and friends in Brazil for numerous wonderful conversations about intersectionality and black feminism. She also thanks her many colleagues who, over the past several decades, have contributed to the success of this book. She wishes she could thank them all, but she particularly thanks Margaret Andersen, Juan Battle, Cathy Cohen, Brittney Cooper, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Jessie Daniels, Angela Y. Davis, Kristi Dotson, Michael Eric Dyson, Joe Feagin, Cheryl Gilkes, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Sandra Harding, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Dorothy Roberts, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Catherine Knight Steele, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Lynn Weber, and Nira Yuval-Davis. Finally, Patricia could not have finished this project without the support of her family and friends: Roger, Valerie, Lauren, and Patrice. Her amazing grandsons Harrison and Grant are the light of her life, and she dedicates this book to their generation.
1 What Is Intersectionality?
In the early twenty-first century, the term “intersectionality” has been widely taken up by scholars, policy advocates, practitioners, and activists in many places and locations. College students and faculty in interdisciplinary fields such as women’s studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, American studies, and media studies, as well as those within sociology, political science, and history and other traditional disciplines, encounter intersectionality in courses, books, and scholarly articles. Human rights activists and government officials have also made intersectionality part of ongoing global public policy discussions. Grassroots organizers look to varying dimensions of intersectionality to inform their work on reproductive justice, antiviolence initiatives, workers’ rights, and similar social issues. Bloggers use digital and social media to influence public opinion. Teachers, social workers, high-school students, parents, university support staff, and school personnel have taken up the ideas of intersectionality with an eye toward transforming schools of all sorts. Across these different venues, people increasingly claim and use the term “intersectionality” for their diverse intellectual and political projects.
If we were to ask them, “What is intersectionality?” we would get varied and sometimes contradictory answers. Most, however, would probably accept the following general description:
Intersectionality investigates how intersecting power relations influence social relations across diverse societies as well as individual experiences in everyday life. As an analytic tool, intersectionality views categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, class, nation, ability, ethnicity, and age – among others – as interrelated and mutually shaping one another. Intersectionality is a way of understanding and explaining complexity in the world, in people, and in human experiences.
This working definition describes intersectionality’s core insight: namely, that in a given society at a given time, power relations of race, class, and gender, for example, are not discrete and mutually exclusive entities, but rather build on each other and work together; and that, while often invisible, these intersecting power relations affect all aspects of the social world.
We begin this book by recognizing the tremendous heterogeneity that currently characterizes how people understand and use intersectionality. Despite debates about the meaning of this term, or even whether it is the right term to use at all, intersectionality is the term that has stuck. It is the term that is increasingly used by stakeholders who put their understandings of intersectionality to a variety of uses. Despite these differences, this broad description points toward a general consensus about how people understand intersectionality.
Using Intersectionality as an Analytic Tool
People generally use intersectionality as an analytic tool to solve problems that they or others around them face. Most colleges and universities in North America, for example, face the challenge of building more inclusive and fair campus communities. The social divisions created by power relations of class, race, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, and ability are especially evident within higher education. Colleges and universities now include more college students who formerly had no way to pay for college (class), or students who historically faced discriminatory barriers to enrolment (race, gender, ethnicity, indigeneity, citizenship
