Intersectional Feminism: Why Gender Alone Isn't the Full Picture

Society is composed of different social groups based on gender, class, caste, race, sexual orientation, and other identities. The first wave of liberal feminism in the 18th to 19th century and the second wave of radical feminism in the 1960s were dominated by middle class white women. This resulted in the exclusion of women from other groups whose experiences and struggles differed significantly.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar, coined the term "intersectionality" in 1989. Intersectional feminism asks a simple but powerful question - what happens when gender meets caste, class, or race? The answer reveals how oppression is rarely singular. A key understanding of intersectionality is that a woman from a privileged group faces sexism in ways different from a Black woman, a laborer woman, a Dalit woman, and so on. The plight of Dalit women in manual scavenging or Black women facing wage gaps in the U.S. labor market reflects how gender inequality interacts with deeper systemic biases. Many feminists think intersectional feminism is the need of the hour, arguing that without it, feminism remains incomplete. Let us understand the different intersectional elements of society.

Class

Class is a form of social stratification based on shared economic and social status, determined by factors like wealth, occupation, and education. Looking at the big picture, capitalism creates a divide between the bourgeois class, the wealthy or ruling class, and the proletariat class, the working class, as articulated by Karl Marx. The rich exploit the poor through low wages and high working hours to maximize profit. Poor physical working conditions increase the risk of disease. Even today, workers face the risk of job loss due to advancing technology and AI automation. They are also victims of police brutality.

The poor suffer disproportionately, and women face more burden, becoming the worst sufferers. They shoulder childcare and household chores, which constitute unpaid labor, along with low paid labor in the formal economy. Marxists argue that capitalism requires women to give birth to more children in the name of traditional values, essentially treating them as commodities and the ruling class.

Caste

Just as class creates economic hierarchies, caste imposes another layer of social inequality. The caste system is a rigid hierarchical structure rooted in religion, particularly in Hinduism - India. From top to bottom, it consists of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Dalits, who exist outside the traditional hierarchy. Shudras, being at the bottom, and Dalits were the worst victims. Dalits were treated as untouchables, isolated from the main societies, and denied education. They were forced to wear identification marks like earthen pots around their necks. If compared, Dalits under Brahminism were very much equivalent to Jews in Nazi Germany. Women were often victims of sexual violence by upper caste men.

Since independence, the caste system has been legally banned in India, with measures like reservation implemented. However, the poison of casteism remains in the collective mind. SC and ST women remain victims of sexual violence even today, with 4,241 cases registered by SC women and 1,347 by ST women in 2022. There has been a 90% increase in such crimes between 2014 and 2022. The actual numbers might be higher due to under-reporting. Women from lower castes are trafficked and pushed into sex work more often, facing systemic exploitation.

Race

Race is a social construct which categorises people on the basis of perceived physical traits, and is broadly categorized into white and Black. Races like Asian, Arab, Latin-American and native American also exist. Black people discriminated against just for their skin color. They were victims of slavery from medieval to modern Europe and the USA. The slave trade from Africa was widespread, with enslaved people often forced into roles as domestic servants, agricultural workers, and galley slaves. Even the first president of the USA, George Washington, owned slaves. Women were victims of sexual exploitation by men during this era.

Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery after the American Civil War, and European countries began to ban it slowly too. However, racism still existed in the form of legal racial segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights movement, bringing significant improvements. Definitely, progress has been made, but racism is still alive. Black feminist movements exist therefore to address the unique intersection of racism and sexism.

Moreover, the details of native American genocide and racism against Arabs and Asians are not hidden. It is, therefore, of no doubt, that women experience sexism in worse ways as a result of their race. 

Sexual Orientation

LGBTQ individuals are victims of misogyny and discrimination. Attitudes are changing slowly, however, but they are still often seen as unnatural and immoral despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Lesbian women and gay men primarily face various slurs and social stigma. Trans people face exclusion because of the belief that "a man cannot be a woman", even in some radical feminist spheres. TERFs, or trans exclusionary radical feminists, think trans identities reinforce gender roles rather than challenge them.

Climate

Climate is not a social construct, so then why discuss it here? From what we have discussed, everything becomes a threat multiplier for women. While factors like class and caste are social constructs, even natural forces like climate amplify gendered vulnerabilities. 

Climate change is associated with child marriages in drought affected African regions, where women are seen as burden. In Indian villages, women are forced to walk miles to fetch water due to scarcity, as this is seen as a woman's job. Climate change brings changes in temperatures and other environmental cycles, increasing the risk of diseases that primarily affect women, such as upper respiratory tract infections, influenza during reproductive years, asthma after puberty, cystic fibrosis, and other conditions. Historically, research on women's bodies has received low funding due to sexism in medical and scientific fields.

Final Thoughts

Everything is entangled within society, and oppression manifests differently across various social structures. This is clearly evident when examining intersectionality. Mainstream feminism unintentionally prioritizes privileged sections due to media and social media algorithm bias that amplifies certain voices over others. If you can, raise others' voices and bring attention to the issues of all social groups. Without intersectional awareness, there is a risk of reinforcement of patriarchy, as feminism that serves only the privileged cannot dismantle oppressive systems for all.