WGS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Intersectionality

• School: University of Oregon
• Department: Women's and Gender Studies
• Course: WGS 101
• Professor: Bufalino, Jamie

Document Summary

Identity is fluid and changing over time in response to experience. Sex, gender, sexuality, race, nationality, citizenship, class, ability, appearance, education, relationship status, religion. Person"s place in history and society defined by their identity. Gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, geographic location. Places us in particular relationships to others and dominant culture, determines what kind of power and privilege we have, changes depending on relative power of persons/institutions involved. Operates at multiple levels to small groups (micro) to large groups (meso) to interactions between social structures, institutions and societies (macro) Concept that individuals and groups experience varying kinds and degrees of discrimination based on the intersection or overlap of social categories such as gender, sexuality, race and class. Term coined in the late 1980s by activist and legal scholar, Kimberl williams crenshaw, as a critique of both feminist and antiracist activism and legal practice. Structural intersectionality: material consequences of institutionalized hierarchies.