The image is in two parts. On the left is the black and white “Make the Right Real in Malaysia” logo of The OKU Rights Matter website. To the right of the logo is a photo: Beatrice Leong, Malaysian woman documentary filmmaker, stands in front of her community at the Autistic Pride Day Get-Together, Taman Tugu, June 2023. Beatrice, with a neat black fringe over her eyes and hair swept up in a top curl, is dressed in a black polo shirt and khaki pants. Beatrice holds a white placard with handwritten text (black font): I AM AUTISTIC (Very large font size) ALSO A WOMAN (the remaining text in large font) A FEMINIST AN ACTIVIST A HUMAN

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is framework to understand how different aspects of a person's identities interact and create multiple forms of oppression or privilege. In short, intersectionality is "a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power." (Crenshaw, 2015)

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is framework to understand how different aspects of a person’s identities interact and create multiple forms of oppression or privilege. In short, intersectionality is “a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power.” (Crenshaw, 2015)

Intersectionality, as a term and concept, informs “the work of activists and policymakers alike engaged in the fight for equity.” (El Gharib, 2002)

Yet this critical framework is often misunderstood. Even within progressive circles that embrace intersectional thinking, there are countless encounters with “intersectionality” used as a vague description for the simple fact of being a member of more than one social group whose voice deserves to be heard.

Intersectionality runs much deeper, and it offers a powerful lens to help us understand — and overcome — deep-seated inequity.

Sarah El Gharib, 17 February 2022

Gender

Ageing

Resources

Articles and Toolkits

Why intersectionality can’t wait by Kimberlé Crenshaw in The Washington Post, 24 September 2015

Intersectionality of Disability and Other Identities & Implicit Bias by Growing Inclusivity by Vibrant Engagement (GIVE)

She Coined the Term ‘Intersectionality’ Over 30 Years Ago. Here’s What It Means to Her Today by Katy Steinmetz in TIME, 20 February 2020

Kyriarchy: Understanding the Complex Social Order of Intersectional Oppression by Martin Cole in Pretty Progressive, 1 July 2023

Kyriarchy 101: We’re Not Just Fighting the Patriarchy Anymore by Sian Ferguson in Everyday Feminism, 23 April 2014

What is The Kyriarchy? by Rebekah Shallcross in The Feminist Therapy Centre, 19 February 2024

Toolkit and Policy Brief


Intersectionality Resource Guide and Toolkit: An Intersectional Approach to Leave No One Behind, UN Women and UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2021

  • This Resource Guide and Toolkit has been developed to help organizations and individual practitioners to address intersectionality in policies and in programmes. Through self-reflection and assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practice, it is hoped that users of this Resource Guide and Toolkit will learn to embrace ‘the messiness of difference’.
  • Available in epub, pdf, DAISY, easy-to-read and large print versions.

Addressing exclusion through intersectionality in rule of law, peace, and security context, UN Women, 2020

  • This publication is part of UN Women’s “Briefs on women and girls with disabilities series.” It discusses the global context for intersectionality in conflict or crisis and transition settings, and considers specific barriers faced. It provides recommendations to overcome these barriers, to ensure that policies and programmes are inclusive and accessible for all.

Videos

What is Intersectionality? Intersectional Analysis Explained in Five Minutes, YouTube, 28 February 2022

Webinar: Intersectionality & Mental Health, Drs. Jioni Lewis & David Rivera, YouTube, 16 May 2021

What is Intersectionality? (Kimberlé Crenshaw, Applying it to Environmentalism, + the Start of IE) ,YouTube, 23 December 2020

Intersectionality and health explained, YouTube, 8 October 2020

Intersectionality & disability, ft Keri Gray, by the Keri Gray Group, YouTube, 24 July 2020

Kimberlé Crenshaw | The 2020 MAKERS Conference, YouTube, 15 February 2020. Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law, UCLA & Columbia Law School, Executive Director of African American Policy Forum, breaks down the pivotal role of intersectionality in the workplace.

Kimberlé Crenshaw #WomenFunded 2017 Keynote, YouTube, 18 October 2017 (on what intersectionality is and is not and the frames to see or not see social problems)

What Intersectionality Really Means for Movements: Prof Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, YouTube, 22 March 2017

The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED, YouTube, 8 December, 2016

Kimberlé Crenshaw: Intersectionality and Gender Equality, YouTube, 14 March 2016

What is intersectionality?, YouTube, Commissioned and Produced by Professor Peter Hopkins, Newcastle University, U.K., 22 April 2018

Intro to Intersectionality, YouTube,  2 August 2016