Joint purpose? Intersectionality in the hands of anti-racist and gender equality activists in Europe

Abstract

Taking as a start Crenshaw's point that anti-racism often fails to interrogate patriarchy and that feminism often reproduces racist practices (1991: 1252), this paper asks what are the theoretical reasons for believing that feminism and anti-racism can be regarded as fighting for the joint purpose of anti-discrimination in Europe today? And what empirical evidence may be found for such a joint approach? The paper discusses how the contemporary EU context differs from the American context, which is what prompted Crenshaw to raise the point about intersectionality, and it analyses documents and interviews from each of the two European umbrella organisations (the European Women's Lobby and the European Network against Racism), as well as a number of their national member organisations from across Europe, within both EU and non-EU member states.Crenshaw wrote in 1991 that:The failure of feminism to interrogate race means that resistance strategies of feminism will often replicate and reinforce the subordination of people of color, and the Ethnicities 13(3) 276-294

Relations of difference: Power and inequality in intersectional and postcolonial feminist theories

“…6. It must be noted that within recent years, a number of articles have been published that build on Kimberlé Crenshaw's notion of 'political intersectionality' (Crenshaw, 1995: 358) in order to provide us with intersectional interpretations of political activism and organizations (Carastathis, 2013b;Pristed Nielsen, 2012;Roberts and Jesudason, 2013). These are very insightful case studies that point the way ahead.…”

The politics and practices of intersectional prefiguration in social movements: The case of Sisters Uncut

“…Finally, recognising that social relations are manifested in different historical configurations (Nielsen, 2012; B. Roth, 2017) we note that while intersectionality has increasingly gained prominence in US academic and activist circles, it has not been widely embraced by anti-austerity activists in Britain (Bassel & Emejulu, 2014).…”

“…While feminist scholarship has examined how intersectionality is manifested in movements (Chun et al, 2013; Gökarıksel & Smith, 2017; Moss & Maddrell, 2017; Rose-Redwood & Rose-Redwood, 2017) and in advocacy organisations (Nielsen, 2012; Verloo, 2013), there has been far less focus on intersectional praxis in prefigurative groups (Laperrière & Lépinard, 2016). In prefigurative groups, such as SU, while the processes of organising are interconnected with the ends, challenging hierarchies and privileges in the group are seen as equally if not more important than achieving wider political and policy goals.…”

“…Specifically, by examining how activists develop a collective identity and enact intersectionality as a social movement strategy, we aim to contribute to our understanding of how normative ideas, in this case intersectionality, are translated into practice and the ways in which emotions, norms and cultural understandings shape social relations and political action. While intersectionality has become a core concern in feminist studies (Bygnes, 2013; Chun et al, 2013; Nielsen, 2012; Verloo, 2013; Waites, 2017) and an area of sociological enquiry (Choo & Ferree, 2010; Degnen & Tyler, 2017; B. Roth, 2017), it as yet remains on the margins of social movement studies (Laperrière & Lépinard, 2016).…”

‘Nimble’ intersectionality in employment research: a way to resolve methodological dilemmas

“…A brief reminder of intersectionality's roots will help ground the discussion. Crenshaw (1991) introduced the term 'intersectionality' in 1989 when she explored the discrimination and oppression experienced by black women in the United States (Nielsen, 2013;Walby et al, 2012). Feminist academics, for example, Collins (1998) and Nkomo (1991), continued the debate she ignited, arguing that how women (and men) experience inequalities is shaped not only by gender but also by the interconnection of gender with other social categories of difference.…”