Until recently, intersectionality has been, to a large degree, left out of public health discourse. McGibbon & McPherson in their 2011 article “Applying Intersectionality & Complexity Theory to Address the Social Determinants of Women’s Health,” as well as Bowleg in her 2012 article “The Problem with the Phrase Women and Minorities: Intersectionality–an Important Theoretical Framework for Public Health,” acknowledge this glaring absence while seeking to incorporate intersectionality within their work. While both articles strive to inspire discussion and debate about the practical application of intersectionality within the field of public health policy, the authors accomplish this in different, uniquely nuanced, ways. Bowleg (2012) advocates …show more content…
McGibbon & McPherson (2011) advocate for further debate about the application of intersectionality in public health discourse by examining the ways feminist intersectionality can be combined with other existing theories including complexity theory and political economy in order to create a thorough understanding of what they call “Synergies of Oppression” in relation to social determinants of health (SDH). Though McGibbon & McPherson (2011) and Bowleg (2012) are making a critical intervention in public health discourse, their articles frame intersectionality as beneficial to scholars and researchers in the field of public health, rather than emphasizing the benefits of intersectional public health policy on disadvantaged …show more content…
Where their work falls short, however, is in the create of intersectional public policy solutions that would ameliorate some of the health disparities that marginalized groups, particularly poor Black women, face. How can we have a discourse about the need for intersectionality in public health without understanding that the Black feminist scholars who founded intersectionality intended for it to be used as both a theory and a practice? Additionally, what do we gain or lose by emphasizing the need for the centering of the multiply marginalized without explicitly centering them in our
In many contemporary spaces, intersectionality is taught and consumed as a static concept of merely listing identities carried by one person simultaneously. It’s used more often as a checklist than a place of analysis or resistance. However, the use of intersectionality as just an apolitical tool, rather than a theory born from the knowledge of Black women experiencing a “triple jeopardy” of oppression and seeking liberation by deconstructing the institutions that bind them, is reductionist at best. In “Intersectionality is Not Neutral”May communicates that intersectionality pushes us to question and challenge the relatively mundane or acceptable norms in society that lend themselves to a continuous legacy of systemic inequality.
This essay will be unpacking and analysing the different elements that create my own intersectionality in my life. This essay will be discussing how class, gender/sex and race have influenced who I am and the experiences I have had throughout my life, and how various structures impact these experiences, with reference to the Crenshaw and Dill and Zambara articles, I will connect their thoughts and ideas to the intersectionality of my own life.
Health Disparities and Racism is an ongoing problem that is reflected among society. Health is when an individual is physically, mentally and social well being is complete. However health disparities seems to be a social injustice within various ethnicities. Health disparities range from age, race, income, education and many other things. Even though we realize health disparities are more noticeable depending on the region of country where they live in. Racism is one of the most popular factors, for why it’s known that people struggle with health.
In the opening chapter of their book, Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge examine the meaning of intersectionality as they apply it to three distinct examples: the FIFA World Cup, a World Congress of Sociology, and the Brazilian festival of Latinidades. Intersectionality, as defined by the authors, refers to “a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity in the world, in people, and in human experiences.” Intersectionality is often used as an analytic tool to better understand the social and political needs of those whose lives are influenced by multiple intersecting identities (i.e. Black feminism is used to call attention to the specific needs of Black women). The idea of structural power is another key component of intersectionality discussed by Hill Collins and Bilge in the chapter. They argue that power is organized in four distinct, interconnected domains (interpersonal, disciplinary, cultural, and structural), and “operates by disciplining people in ways that put people’s lives on paths that makes some options seems viable and others out of reach.” This idea is outlined in the World Cup example as the authors discuss the “pay to play” ideology in soccer that disadvantages those with lower socioeconomic status. At the conclusion of their chapter, Hill Collins and Bilge outline six core ideas that tend to come up when using intersectionality as an analytic
The identities have tended to be divided into some different categories, such as gender, race, and class, and these sources have been judged in the different ways. In other words, the different determinant factors of the individuality have been considered separately, and these components have been regarded as a unrelated simple category. Under these points of view, however, it is hard to recognize the problems of interrelated individual component of the identity. Thus, to solve the disregarding crossover point, the new theory of the “intersectionality” are essential. This essay explores the key definition of the “intersectionality” from the viewpoint of gender studies, and how the concept is connected with the social system and individual identity
According to feminist Victoria L. Bromley, if feminism is about combating all forms of inequalities, including oppression, towards all social groups, then feminists must study how masculinity oppresses both men and women. Patriarchy, men’s powers and dominance, hegemonic masculinity, the idea that the “dominant group” in society is most powerful, and hyper masculinity, the exaggeration of the emphasis on male characteristics, all lead to oppression through multiple forms: privileges and unearned privileges, hierarchies of power and exclusion. Bromley argues that the feminist approach towards eliminating oppression, is to use an intersectional analysis, a theoretical tool used for understanding how multiple identities are connected and how systems
The way humans look externally and feel internally has been a barrier and the kernel to many of America’s social conflicts. Audre Lorde’s essay, “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” attempts to answer why Black women feel contempt among one another. It resonates that Black women, in lieu of their hatred for each other, should replace it by bonding together because they share the same experiences of being women and Black. In the essay titled, “Colorblind Intersectionality,” penned by, Devon W. Carbado seeks to expand the definition of “intersectionality,” which is a theory Professor Crenshaw initially introduced as a, “Drawing explicitly on Black feminist criticism,” (Carbado 811). Carbado is able to provide other forms of intersections by
It is often challenging to have health care services that meet the needs of Canada’s diverse population and the needs of both men and women. Gender influences access to care and women in particular are at risk for face difficulties to care (Ontario Women`s Health Equity Report, 2010 p.1). Women are more likely to be poor and have greater caregiver responsibilities in contrast to men. These both factors are barriers to accessing health services. The way the health care system is organized creates barriers to accessing effective care for women because it has failed to take into account that men and women use the health care system very differently. Canada’s health care system reinforces gender inequity rather than eliminating it. For instance, drug research bias favour males and epistemological bias assume that women’s health is only about reproductive health. As a result of these biases, women are often excluded and their health needs are not fully addressed. The Romanow Report (2002) and the Accord on Health Care Renewal (2003) has made a strong commitment to understanding the importance of the non-medical determinants of health, such as income and social status; employment; education; social environments; physical environments; healthy child development; personal health practices and coping skills; health services; social support networks; gender; and culture (Health Canada, 2001). They have also committed to gender based analysis and women’s health but, this is not visible in its work to date on Canada’s health care reform. This paper will address how the Romanow Report, the Accord on Health Care Renewal and current health policies have failed to address the health needs of women in regards to support for family ...
Williams, D. R., & Jackson, P. (2014, April 1). Health Affairs. Social Sources Of Racial Disparities In Health. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/2/325.short
Elsa Barkley Brown focuses on the intersectionality of being a black woman in America, in “What Has Happened Here?”. Black women experience different forms of oppression simultaneously. Indeed, racism, sexism, classism, as well as heterosexism, intertwine and form layers of oppression.
...ity, as well as inequalities in education, employment, and housing, all contribute to health discrepencies. Health care reform, as envisioned within the ACA, should be viewed as treatment of the symptoms of an unequal system, not treatment of the cause. To speak metaphorically, America has a pre-existing condition of institutional racism. Capitalist structure, political climate and discourse, and notions of imperialism, deny treatment. The Affordable Care Act addresses this condition as a localized disease, rather than a systemic one, that’s cause is rooted in the hegemonic reproduction of ideological superstructures. Only when health care is treated as a basic right, rather than an economic commodity, and health disparites are recognized in a greater political context, can health reform offer an opportunity to overcome racial disparities and achieve health equity.
Feminist research is concerned with exposing and changing the oppressive structures and ideologies that women must experience in everyday life. When feminist philosophy categorizes oppression into singular terms, it fails to acknowledge that privilege and oppression is experienced in different ways by every individual. Without an intersectional lens, it becomes impossible to understand the ways in which varying forms of privilege and oppression work to mitigate or aggravate the systemic disadvantages experienced by the oppressed. Individual’s desires and intentions emerge from structurally defined differences of social categories and power differential, which thus impacts women’s ability to fluidly navigate through their abortion process (Fegan,
This week we explored the health care through a feminist lens, which analyses race, gender, and power. The first piece by Murphy gave a background on protocol feminism and the history of "feminist self-help clinics" (Murphy). Such clinics were understood as a "mobile set of practices" (Murphy 25) that challenged the politicization of medical practice, their power dynamics, and worked to help women reclaim bodily autonomy. If my reading is correct protocol feminism and feminist protocols were the lessons and guidelines created and dispersed across the country to aid women, of all races, on how to take control of their own health care. Moreover, Murphy emphasizes the connection between feminism and technoscience, but I did not understand what technoscience was in the terms of her article. Finally, due to the way that many of these clinics appeared to be "unraced" because they were White run, racial issues that plague health care were not adequately addressed and once again the white people became the foundation for the understanding of human health. The second piece by Roberts discussed the racial implications of the neoliberal influences on
Among the many subjects covered in this book are the three classes of oppression: gender, race and class in addition to the ways in which they intersect. As well as the importance of the movement being all-inclusive, advocating the idea that feminism is in fact for everybody. The author also touches upon education, parenting and violence. She begins her book with her key argument, stating that feminist theory and the movement are mainly led by high class white women who disregarded the circumstances of underprivileged non-white women.
Feminist epistemology involves the study the theory of knowledge i.e. epistemology from q feminist standpoint; the disadvantage faced by women through knowledge and justification. It is usually said to be concerned with how our knowledge is influenced by gender through justification and inquiry. Feminist’s epistemology is ideally based on the fact that by the perspective of a certain theory is affected upon by the knowledge pertaining the theory. The themes which characterize feminist epistemology are not unique it on only, since the themes are also found in the filed science studies and social epistemology. However, feminist epistemology is distinct from both science studies and social epistemology in that, for reconstructing and analysis, gender is characterize used. However, feminists have always argued gender rather than being determined