may fall into multiple categories that could
be used to oppress, discriminate against, or
otherwise disadvantage someone. This includes race, gender, class, sexual orientation, economic status, age and religion,
among others. Intersectionality recognizes
that each of these groups (for example,
women, black people, LGBT+ 1 people) is
not homogeneous, but rather multidimensional. It also recognizes that, because we
are simultaneously members of different
groups, we might experience bias and discrimination in different ways.
The experiences of intersectional people are important to our social structure, as
Crenshaw illustrates using several discrimination cases. When integrating black people
and women into employment at factories,
white women were given jobs at the front
desks and black men were given jobs in
manufacturing. However, black women
were still not getting jobs. They were excluded from the front-office jobs because
they were black and from the manual labor
jobs because they were women. But not
only did the courts not see the discrimination (because they are hiring both women
and black people), but the advocacy groups
for blacks and women were also satisfied,
and no one was left as allies of these black
women, even though they had been allies
to and members of both groups. 2
While in some instances black women
have different experiences, sometimes their
experiences can embody the current issues
of those movements and move our society
forward when they gain ground on those
issues. 3 Therefore, we cannot say that black
women, or other intersectional people,
should necessarily be treated as a distinct
group. 4 Our discussion of intersectionality
must be more nuanced. Crenshaw encour-
ages us to “account for multiple grounds
of identity when considering how the
social world is structured.” 5 And because
these identities exist in the “social world,”
we also should recognize that the experi-
ences of people with various identities will
not be the same in all social contexts.
Why Is Intersectionality
Important for the
Legal Profession?
Intersectionality comes from the legal profession. It was named by a legal scholar and
evolved out of various movements embedded in our profession, taken on by individuals in our profession, and brought to the
public by those individuals. Crenshaw herself was very involved in the critical race
theory movement, another movement
started in the legal profession on campuses
of various law schools. 6 Her involvement
in the development of critical race theory
and her commitment to antiracism throughout her career is part of the history of intersectionality as an articulated idea. However, it’s not the only place we find the
roots of intersectionality in the legal profession.
Pauli Murray was also a key figure in
the history of intersectionality, although
the term did not exist in her lifetime. Murray was an intersectional lawyer as she was
Negro, 7 a woman, questioned her gender
and sexuality, and was poor for much of
her life. 8 She describes in her autobiography that it was sometimes difficult to determine if she was being discriminated against because she was Negro, because she
was a woman, or because she was a Negro
woman. 9
Murray was one of many women of
color throughout history who worked
within and around the intersections of
the antiracism and feminism movements.
She saw the ways in which race, class and
gender intersected in both her personal life
and society. While working for the Works
Progress Administration, she listened to
the stories from white, poor workers and
“heard echoes of the black experience.” 10
She saw connections and similarities be-
tween anti-union actions and the lynch-
As I sit and talk with my mom
about my experience at the Women’s March
in Phoenix, I realize I hadn’t talked to a
single person about intersectionality. I had
gone to the march ready to talk about my
thoughts and ask people about theirs on a
variety of topics, but intersectionality had
been at the front of my mind. But once I
got to the Senate lawn, I was overwhelmed
by the number of people and how many
different types of signs there were. The va-
riety of messages, wording, and imagery
used was staggering. So instead of talking,
I mostly watched and listened.
I saw lots of intersectional people. Men
of color who were gay. Women of color.
One of the performers was a woman of col-
or and identified as queer whose parents
were immigrants. I saw mixed-race couples,
both gay and straight, and people of all ages.
That was just the intersectionality that was
readily apparent to me. The most touching
thing I saw was how many people were car-
rying signs for groups they didn’t appear
to belong to. A straight couple were wear-
ing rainbows. Men carried feminist signs.
White people carried Black Lives Matter
signs. Many signs included as many causes
as possible. One older white man shouted
to us from the side of the road “You are
what democracy looks like!”
But is that what the legal profession
looks like?
What Is
Intersectionality?
Intersectionality, coined by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, is the idea that an individual
Intersectionality, Diversity and the Legal Profession
Because we are simultaneously members of
different groups, we might experience bias and
discrimination in different ways.
