Intersectional Approach Essay

Intersectionality can be better understood as a way in which we use race, class, and gender simultaneously in order to better understand privilege and oppression. Throughout history, our society has tried to separate people based on their race, class, sexual orientation, education, and gender. In doing so, we force these individuals to choose one identity over the other. When using an intersectional approach to understand who we are in an unequal social system, we can better understand ourselves as both the oppressor and the oppressed in regard to privilege (Hill-Collins). Hill-Collins continues to illustrate that our thoughts and actions play a distinct role in determining someone else’s subordination. Personally as a white and Jewish female, using an intersectional approach helps me to recognize situations where I am either privileged or oppressed within society.
Feminist theory
“In the context of violence against women, this elision of difference in identity politics is problematic, fundamentally because the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class” (Crenshaw, 160). When determining levels of oppression, you can’t just look at gender. Incorporating race and class is necessary in order to fully understand the privileges and oppressions a woman faces in a patriarchal society. “Because women of color experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by men of color and sexism in ways not always parallel to experiences of white women, antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms” (Crenshaw, 162). African American women experience oppression differently than White women due to social constructions about race and their political position within