Intersectionality

Abstract

In this chapter we review a concept that has become fundamental to understanding societal inequalities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: intersectionality. We identify four key tenets shared across the variety of intersectional models: intersectionality is about perspectives of people shaped by the multiplicity of categories to which they belong, some marginalized, some privileged; it is more than the sum of its parts, a transformation of unidimensional systems of inequalities; it is not simply a statistical phenomenon, but merges micro and macro levels of analysis; it reveals the simultaneous experience of oppression and privilege. We argue that three social psychological theoretical perspectives—social cognition, social exchange, and symbolic interaction—have much to gain from more sustained engagement with intersectionality and offer examples to illustrate these advantages. We also review methodological implications and opportunities. We conclude that intersectionality can forward social psychological analyses of inequalities well beyond normative models currently limited to the experiences of unmarked, typically hegemonic, categories.