Intersectionality

Kimberlé Crenshaw's analytical framework (1989) for understanding how multiple systems of oppression (race, gender, class, sexuality, disability) overlap and compound — rather than operating independently.

The traffic intersection metaphor: Crenshaw introduced intersectionality in a 1989 law review article analyzing a case (DeGraffenreid v. General Motors) where Black women's discrimination claim failed because courts analyzed race and sex discrimination separately — missing how the two combined to produce a distinctive form of disadvantage. The analytical contribution: identity categories create overlapping systems of oppression that must be analyzed in their intersection, not separately. A Black woman's experience of racism is different from a white woman's; her experience of sexism is different from a Black man's. The framework has been extended far beyond its legal origins into general social analysis.