Making sense of ‘intersectionality’: A manual for lovers of people and forests

Abstract

This manual has been prompted by several factors: primary among them is the discovery among forestry professionals that research on gender and equity has relevance for their own work. But gender specialists have also come to realize that analyses of gender and equity in forests have sometimes been overly static, stereotypical and superficial. Although studies of the division of labor, norms about gender roles, access to land and other assets, and forest use abound, we have not yet adequately addressed the power relations1 and institutional structures that (a) inhibit certain women’s (and others’) ability to lead productive and satisfying lives and (b) on a broader scale, often interfere with good and equitable forest management.