Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that posits that multiple social categories (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status) intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism). Public health's commitment to social justice makes it a natural fit with intersectionality's focus on multiple historically oppressed populations. Yet despite a plethora of research focused on these populations, public health studies that reflect intersectionality in their theoretical frameworks, designs, analyses, or interpretations are rare. Accordingly, I describe the history and central tenets of intersectionality, address some theoretical and methodological challenges, and highlight the benefits of intersectionality for public health theory, research, and policy.

The notion that social identities and social inequality based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex/ gender are intersectional rather than additive poses a variety of thorny methodological challenges. Using research with Black lesbians (Bowleg, manuscripts in preparation; Bowleg et al.

No abstract

SUMMARY This qualitative study explored the experiences of multiple minority stress and resilience among interviewees at a retreat for Black lesbians. Participants were a predominantly middle-class, highly educated sample of Black women (N= 19) between the ages of 26 and 68. The multicultural model of stress (Slavin, Rainer, McCreary, & Gowda, 1991) and the transactional model of resilience (Kumpfer, 1999) were theoretical frameworks for the study. Most of the participants discussed racism as a mundane and significant stressor, and contextualized their experiences of sexism and heterosexism through the prism of racism. Study findings provide empirical support for the "triple jeopardy" experience of Black lesbians (Greene, 1995), as well as the six predictors of resilience in Kumpfer's (1999) transactional model of resilience.

No abstract