Intersectionality

Before I get started with writing about mujeres in México I would like to explain an important concept called intersectionality. As an international relations major I feel the need to tell people about my favorite theory.

Identity is crucial in learning about international relations (IR) because it paints a picture of an individual. We constantly judge or perceive people by their national, ethnic, racial, gender, class, sexual ,or religious identity. An important theory of identity in IR for women of color is intersectionality. Intersectionality is the intersections of identity in race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping systems of oppression (Figure 1.) Some of the questions that we may be thinking is why should women of color care about the theory of intersectionality  and what is the history behind this? How does this theory relate to IR?

Figure 1. A Diagram of Intersectionalty intersecting an individual. Please note that these are not all the identities out there that can cross an individual.

The caption in the bottom says:
Feminism is worthless without
intersectionality and inclusion.

The theory of intersectionality existed during the 19th century but it was a theory without a name. In 1989, Kimberle Crenshaw was the first to coined the term in order to explained why black and immigrant women's experiences ended up being ignored by both feminism and the anti-racist movement. Betty Friden's Feminie Mystique (1963) was believed to have started the second wave of feminism in the United States. The book was very influential about the ideas of how all women were confined in the roles of housewife and mother that led to the forsaking of their education and career aspirations.  The second wave of feminism had a major problem, which was that the women who were the part of the movement assumed that their experiences were the same as those of all women. That the oppression they were facing at the moment were experience by all women. It could be that they were bias because their identity as white, middle class women have not been challenged.

The second wave feminism marginalized poor women and women of color. Chicana, Black, Lesbian, and Third World feminist of second wave feminism stated that the wave of feminism that they had experienced had a huge error on identity politics. The second wave of feminism created the illusion that their is one fixed identity. Intersectionality is important because it shows how a problem that a white, straight, middle class women have might not be the same as a Chicana, queer, low income women. It is okay to have these differences in intersections but one can not assumed anything of it. As human beings we have more than one identity. No one is fixed in stone and thus assumptions of countries should be look at more than their identity one has given them. Women of color in international relations should value these intersections of identity and challenge those who oppressed the intersections.

Sources:

Global Politics: A New Introduction Textbook in Chapter Five (Who do we think we are?) by Annick T.R. Wibben

Mapping the Margins by Kimberle Crenshaw