Search results for: intersectionality

Authors: Rachel Turney

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American Woman is a discussion of being a woman in American through the lens of intersectionality, critical race theory, Muslim American identities, and social citizenship. The survey design and resulting paper are based on the researcher’s personal experience studying intersectionality and Muslim American identities through National Endowment for the Humanities. The researcher poses three questions to White, African American, and Muslim American women about female identify in America. Results are coded and analyzed in their meaning in the context of American society. Results show the similarities, primarily the idea of motherhood and fighting in society. Results also examine differences like those related to faith and family identifies in responses. The researcher examines the specific overlap in responses in the context of social citizenship.

Keywords: women, Muslim women, intersectionality, feminism

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Authors: Mehena Fedoul

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This paper examines the intersection of race, gender, and disability through a Critical disability race theory and black feminist disability perspective in Keah Brown's memoir, "The Pretty One." The background of the study highlights the significance of intersectionality in understanding the multifaceted experiences of individuals who navigate multiple marginalized identities. The study contributes to the underrepresented field of disability studies from a Critical race and black feminist perspectives, shedding light on the unique challenges and resilience of black disabled women. The study employs a qualitative analysis of Keah Brown's memoir as a primary text. Drawing on intersectionality theory and black feminist disability scholarship, the analysis focuses on how Brown's memoir illuminates the ways in which her race, gender, and disability intersect and shape her lived experiences. The analysis reveals how Brown's memoir challenges traditional notions of disability, beauty, and empowerment through her unapologetic celebration of her blackness, femaleness, and disability. The major findings of the study indicate that Brown's memoir provides a powerful narrative of the complexity, uniqueness and richness of the lived experiences of black disabled women. It demonstrates how the intersectionality of race, gender, and disability shapes Brown's identity, body image, relationships, and societal interactions. The paper also highlights how Brown's memoir emphasizes the importance of inclusivity and intersectionality in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by black disabled women. In conclusion, this study offers a critical analysis of the intersection of race, gender, and disability in Keah Brown's memoir, "The Pretty One," from a black feminist disability perspective. It contributes to the growing body of literature that recognizes the significance of intersectionality in understanding the experiences of marginalized individuals in the disability community. The study underscores the need for more inclusive and intersectional perspectives in disability studies and advocates for greater recognition of the voices and experiences of black disabled women in academic and societal discourse.

Keywords: Intersectionality, black feminism, disability studies, keah brown

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Authors: Mehena Fedoul

Abstract:

This paper examines the intersection of race, gender, and disability through a Critical disability race theory and black feminist disability perspective in Keah Brown's memoir, "The Pretty One." The background of the study highlights the significance of intersectionality in understanding the multifaceted experiences of individuals who navigate multiple marginalized identities. The study contributes to the underrepresented field of disability studies from Critical race and black feminist perspectives, shedding light on the unique challenges and resilience of black disabled women. The study employs a qualitative analysis of Keah Brown's memoir as a primary text. Drawing on intersectionality theory and black feminist disability scholarship, the analysis focuses on how Brown's memoir illuminates the ways in which her race, gender, and disability intersect and shape her lived experiences. The analysis reveals how Brown's memoir challenges traditional notions of disability, beauty, and empowerment through the unapologetic celebration of her blackness, femaleness, and disability. The major findings of the study indicate that Brown's memoir provides a powerful narrative of the complexity, uniqueness and richness of the lived experiences of black disabled women. It demonstrates how the intersectionality of race, gender, and disability shapes Brown's identity, body image, relationships, and societal interactions. The paper also highlights how Brown's memoir emphasizes the importance of inclusivity and intersectionality in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by black disabled women. In conclusion, this study offers a critical analysis of the intersection of race, gender, and disability in Keah Brown's memoir, "The Pretty One," from a black feminist disability perspective. It contributes to the growing body of literature that recognizes the significance of intersectionality in understanding the experiences of marginalized individuals in the disability community. The study underscores the need for more inclusive and intersectional perspectives in disability studies and advocates for greater recognition of the voices and experiences of black disabled women in academic and societal discourse.

Keywords: disability studies, intersectionality, black feminism, Keah Brown

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Authors: Melissa Valle

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This paper draws upon the studies of visual culture and intersectionality to illuminate how visuality can naturalize social hierarchies. Through the use of iconography, it decodes the denotative, connotative and ideological meanings of symbols of ritualistic events in the context of the Colombian Atlantic Coast. An examination of such exceptional moments, i.e. of the spectacle, brings into focus how such performances are imbued with meaning by both the on-looker and the performer. Through an analysis of preexisting visuals (e.g., advertisements, social media) and visual materials produced by the researcher for the purpose of photo-elicitation interviews, this paper provides a contextual analysis of the ways in which three representations, popular during Colombian Atlantic coastal festivals (Negrita Puloy, Las Palenqueras, and El Son de Negro), have been historically, culturally and politically constituted. This work reveals that the visualizations are born out of and reproduce typifications systems heavily based upon race, gender, class, and ethnicity. Understanding the ways these categories are mutually constituted through the cultural practice of visual representation is essential to a more comprehensive understanding of the role such representation plays in the reproduction of social difference.

Keywords: Colombia, festivals, intersectionality, visual culture

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Authors: Elisa Bertagna

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The aim of the research is to study diversity issues and gender equality in the Finnish and Italian oil and gas companies. Particular attention is given to the effects on the organization’s and employees’ interactions resulting from intersecting social categories. The study is aimed to be settled in companies where social inequalities and diversity management problematics are present. Consequently, ten semi-structured interviews with key managers from the companies and four focus groups composed of culturally diverse employees aim to depict and analyze the situation from both points of view. Social discourse and intersectionality are employed as the analysis methods. Trainings, workshops, and suggestions are to be offered in the required situations.

Keywords: diversity, gender, intersectionality, oil and gas companies, social constructionism

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Authors: Jordan Fallow

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Service and advocacy organisations that serve refugee populations are often staffed by a large percentage of former refugees themselves, and this carries a number of implications for refugee rights, specifically economic and social rights. This paper makes an argument for the importance of introducing an understanding of intersectionality theory into organizations who provide services to and employ, refugee staff. The benefits of this are threefold; on an individual level it reduces the risks of burn out, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue while increasing employee satisfaction and development, at an organizational level services become more effective, and at a systems level it helps reduce structural violence, which may itself have been a contributing factor in the movement of refugee staff from their origin countries. In support of this argument, a case study of an Australian settlement services organization is provided. Mixed methods research, utilising both qualitative and quantitative data, measured the perceived efficacy of diversity management tools at the organization and the impact this had on staff performance, retention and wellbeing. The paper also draws on strategic human resource and reward management, diversity management, international development and intersectionality texts.

Keywords: structural violence, employment, human resource management, intersectionality

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Authors: Kerry Mackereth

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Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality has become immensely influential in the fields of women’s and gender studies. However, intersectionality’s widespread use among feminist scholars and activists has been accompanied by critiques of its reliance upon subject categorization. These critiques are of particular import when connected to Wendy Brown’s characterization of identity politics as static 'wounded attachments'. Together, these critiques show how the gridlock model proposed by intersectionality’s primary metaphor, the traffic accident at the intersection, is useful for identifying discrimination but not for remembering historical injustices or imagining feminist and anti-racist resistance. Through the lens of New Zealand Maori film, focusing upon Once Were Warriors (1994) and Whale Rider (2002), this article examines how wounded histories need not be passively reproduced by contemporaneously oppressed groups. Instead, the metaphor of the traffic intersection should be complemented by the metaphor of the wound. Against Brown’s characterization of wounded attachments as negative, static identities, Gloria Anzaldua’s account of the borderland between the United States and Mexico as “una herida abierta”, an open wound, offers an alternative reading of the wound. Through Anzaldua’s and Hortense Spillers’ political thought, the wound is reconceptualized as not only a site of suffering but also as a regenerative space. The coexistence of deterioration and regeneration at the site of the wound underpins the narrative arc of both Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider. In both films, the respective child protagonists attempt to reconcile the pain of wounded histories with the imagination of cultural regeneration. The metaphor of the wound thus serves as an alternative theoretical resource for mapping experiences of oppression, one that enriches feminist theory by balancing the remembrance of historical grievance with the forging of hopeful political projects.

Keywords: gender theory, historical grievance, intersectionality, New Zealand film, postcolonialism

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Authors: Cheryl Leggon

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Although women in the aggregate are earning more doctorates in science and engineering from U.S. institutions, they continue to concentrate in some fields--e.g., biology--and underrepresented in others--e.g., engineering. Traditionally, most studies of women doctorate recipients in the sciences (including the social, behavioral and economic sciences) or engineering do not report their findings by demographic subgroups. This study extends the literature on these topics by using an intersectional approach to examine decadal trends. Intersectionality suggests that race, gender, and nation are not separate mutually exclusive entities whose impacts are summative, but rather as a confluence of synergistic factors that shape complex social inequities. Drawing on critical aspects of the intersectionality approach is particularly well suited for a more fine-grained analysis of the representation of women doctorate recipients in science and engineering. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of policies and evidence-based programmatic strategies for enhancing women’s participation in fields in which they are especially underrepresented.

Keywords: doctorates, engineering, science, women

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Authors: Nicola Bentham

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Drawing on the concept of the Ideal Worker and Intersectionality as a Critical Social theory, this research examines to what extent minority ethnic female workers are excluded from the Ideal Worker concept in non-profits, specifically whilst these organizations undergo change to become more professionalized. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews from 21 workers, including minority ethnic female, male and non-binary workers, who all represent a range of job roles across the non-profit sector (e.g., trustees, consultants, fundraisers, recruiters, Human Resource (HR), Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) professionals, etc.). Organizational literature, which provides the symbolic capital for the Ideal Worker concept within this sector and used by these workers within career development and recruitment practices, was further examined. Non-profits present an interesting context of tensions, given their historical ethos of philanthropic social change, whilst changing their present-day organisational practices to reflect the professionalized for-profit sector. This research aims to examine the technologies of inclusion that are used to validate the Ideal Worker concept and the tensions between the projected organisational rhetoric advocating for societal change and those internalized organizational practices that perpetuate workplace inequalities for minority ethnic females. In doing so, this research will provide an insight into the interplay between inclusion, performativity and underrepresentation; examining whether the latter can improve. This research contributes to the call for action regarding effective inclusion practices within non-profit organizations by advocating the use of a critical framework to be incorporated within organizational equity and inclusion strategies; thereby enabling effective sector-wide representation for minoritized workers.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, professionalization, organizational change, ideal worker, non-profit, third sector, charity, intersectionality, inclusion, minority ethnic female

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Authors: Chantal Maille

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This paper is about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), an intersectional gender policy used in Canada to assess the impact of policies and programs for men and women from different origins. It looks at Canada’s political culture to explain the nature of its gender policies. GBA+ is defined as an analysis method that makes it possible to assess the eventual effects of policies, programs, services, and other initiatives on women and men of different backgrounds because it takes account of gender and other identity factors. The ‘plus’ in the name serves to emphasize that GBA+ goes beyond gender to include an examination of a wide range of other related identity factors, such as age, education, language, geography, culture, and income. The point of departure for GBA+ is that women and men are not homogeneous populations and gender is never the only factor in defining a person’s identity; rather, it interacts with factors such as ethnic origin, age, disabilities, where the person lives, and other aspects of individual and social identity. GBA+ takes account of these factors and thus challenges notions of similarity or homogeneity within populations of women and men. Comparative analysis based on sex and gender may serve as a gateway to studying a given question, but women, men, girls, and boys do not form homogeneous populations. In the 1990s, intersectionality emerged as a new feminist framework. The popularity of the notion of intersectionality corresponds to a time when, in hindsight, the damage done to minoritized groups by state disengagement policies in concert with global intensification of neoliberalism, and vice versa, can be measured. Although GBA+ constitutes a form of intersectionalization of GBA, it must be understood that the two frameworks do not spring from a similar logic. Intersectionality first emerged as a dynamic analysis of differences between women that was oriented toward change and social justice, whereas GBA is a technique developed by state feminists in a context of analyzing governmental policies and aiming to promote equality between men and women. It can nevertheless be assumed that there might be interest in such a policy and program analysis grid that is decentred from gender and offers enough flexibility to take account of a group of inequalities. In terms of methodology, the research is supported by a qualitative analysis of governmental documents about GBA+ in Canada. Research findings identify links between Canadian gender policies and its political culture. In Canada, diversity has been taken into account as an element at the basis of gendered analysis of public policies since 1995. The GBA+ adopted by the government of Canada conveys an opening to intersectionality and a sensitivity to multiculturalism. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, adopted 1988, proposes to recognize the fact that multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian identity and heritage and constitutes an invaluable resource for the future of the country. In conclusion, Canada’s distinct political culture can be associated with the specific nature of its gender policies.

Keywords: Canada, gender-based analysis, gender policies, political culture

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Authors: Yifan Jia

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The Metis is a group of indigenous peoples in Canada. Having experienced centuries of injustices, beginning with colonialism dating back to the 16th century, culminating with military defeats in the 1800s and the establishment of residential schools, and continuing with structural injustices in the 21st century, Metis people have long been, and continue to be marginalized and made invisible in the Canadian society. In particular, Metis women born between 1997 and 2012 face intersectional discrimination based on not only race, but also a multitude of identity factors, including gender, age, geographical location, health, sexual orientation, and lateral violence from First Nations peoples. This paper uncovers the multilayered oppression against young Metis women through a literature review and uses several theories to analyze the invisibility of this discrimination in society, including color-blind racism, collective shame, lack of understanding of intersectionality, and Mauvaise foi (bad faith). To address the invisible, intersectional discrimination against young Metis women, several suggestions and possibilities could be considered. These include amending the education system, fostering group affiliation, bringing structural changes to federal policies and funding systems, and cooperating with other indigenous nations such as First Nations and Inuit.

Keywords: discrimination, Metis Women, indigenous rights, intersectionality

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Authors: Clifford Lewis

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This paper aims to advance the conversation of an alternative view of leadership, namely ‘leadership as the management of meaning’. Here, leadership is considered as a social process of the management of meaning within an employment context, as opposed to a psychological trait, set of behaviours or relational consequence as seen in mainstream leadership research. Specifically, this study explores the relationship between intersectional identities and the management of meaning. Design: Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with women and men of colour working in the South African private sector organisations in various leadership positions. Employing an intersectional approach using gender and race, participants were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling concurrently. Thematic and Axial coding was used to identify dominant themes. Findings: Findings suggest that, both gender and race shape how leaders manage meaning. Findings also confirm that intersectionality is an appropriate approach when studying the leadership experiences of those groups who are underrepresented in organisational leadership structures. The findings points to the need for further research into the differential effects of intersecting identities on organisational leadership experiences and that ‘leadership as the management of meaning’ is an appropriate approach for addressing this knowledge gap. Theoretical Contribution: There is a large body of literature on the complex challenges faced by women and people of colour in leadership but there is relatively little empirical work on how identity influences the management of meaning. This study contributes to the leadership literature by providing insight into how intersectional identities influence the management of meaning at work and how this impacts the leadership experiences of largely marginalised groups. Practical Implications: Understanding the leadership experiences of underrepresented groups is important because of both legal mandates and for building diverse talent for organisations and societies. Such an understanding assists practitioners in being sensitive to simplistic notions of challenges individuals might face in accessing and practicing leadership in organisations. Advancing the conversation on leadership as the management of meaning allows for a better understanding of complex challenges faced by women and people of colour and an opportunity for organisations to systematically remove unfair structural obstacles and develop their diverse leadership capacity.

Keywords: intersectionality, diversity, leadership, sensemaking

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Authors: Maria Tsouroufli, Andrea Mondokova, Subashini Suresh

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Background: The under-representation of women and consequent failure to fulfil their potential contribution to Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medicine (STEMM) subjects in the UK is an issue that the Higher Education sector is being encouraged to address. Focus: The aim of this research is to investigate the barriers, facilitators, and incentives that influence diverse groups of women who have embarked upon a related career in STEMM subjects. The project will address a number of interconnected research questions: 1. How do participants perceive the barriers, facilitators and incentives for women in terms of research, teaching and management/leadership at each stage of their development towards forging a career in STEMM? 2. How might gender intersect with ethnicity, pregnancy/maternity and academic grade in the career experiences of women in STEMM? 3. How do participants perceive the example of female role models in emulating them as a career model? 4. How do successful females in STEMM see themselves as role models and what strategies do they employ to promote their careers? 5. How does institutional culture manifest itself as a barrier or facilitator for women in STEMM subjects in the institution? Methodology and Theoretical framework: A mixed-methodology will be employed in a case study of one university. The study will draw on extant quantitative data for context and involve conducting a qualitative inquiry to discover the perceptions of staff and students around the key concepts under study (career progression, sense of belonging and tenure, role-models, personal satisfaction, perceived gender in/equality, institutional culture). The analysis will be informed by an intersectionality framework, feminist and gender theory, and organisational psychology and human resource management perspectives. Implications: Preliminary findings will be collected in 2017. Conclusions will be drawn and used to inform recruitment and retention, and the development and implementation of initiatives to enhance the experiences and outcomes of women working and studying in STEMM subjects in Higher Education.

Keywords: under-representation, women, STEMM subjects, intersectionality

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Authors: Elif N. Coban

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With the political instability that has prevailed in Lebanon since October 2019, followed by a global pandemic and a deepening concurrent economic crisis after the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020, Syrian refugees in Lebanon have struggled to survive what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic crises in decades. This study aims to assess the vulnerability of Syrian refugee women. It will present a comparative analysis of refugee and Lebanese households using data from Lebanon’s Labour Force and Household Conditions Survey (LFHLCS) and from VASyr surveys, which are comprehensive annual surveys conducted jointly by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The study adopts an intersectionality-based method, which deals with gender and marginalized communities from many different perspectives, to put forward a gender-oriented approach. Examining the distribution of socioeconomic status among Syrian and Lebanese households might help to understand the disproportionate burdens borne by women. In this context, multidimensional poverty (MP) helps depict fragile communities’ socioeconomic status and allows a fuller grasp the multiple aspects of deprivation. Finally, this understanding may pave the way to more inclusive policy for decision-makers and practitioners working on refugee issues.

Keywords: multidimensional poverty, gender studies, intersectionality, Syrian refugees, Lebanon

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Authors: Olatawura O. Ladipo-Ajayi

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The concept of gender equality is not new, nor are the efforts and movements toward achieving this concept. The idea of gender equality originates from the early feminist movements of the 1880s and its subsequent waves, all fighting to promote gender rights and equality focused on varying aspects and groups. Nonetheless, the progress and achievement of gender equality are not progressing at similar rates across the world and groups. This uneven progress is often due to varying social, cultural, political, and economic factors- some of which underpin intersectional identities and influence the perceptions of gender and associated gender roles that create gender inequality. In assessing perceptions of gender and assigned roles or expectations that cause inequalities, intersectionality provides a framework to interrogate how these perceptions are molded and reinforced to create marginalization. Intersectionality is increasingly becoming a lens and approach to understanding better inequalities and oppression, gender rights and equality, the challenges towards its achievement, and how best to move forward in the fight for gender rights, inclusion, and equality. In light of this, this paper looks at intersectional representations of gender in the media within cultural/social contexts -particularly entertainment media- and how this influences perceptions of gender and impacts progress toward achieving gender equality and advocacy. Furthermore, the paper explores how various identities and, to an extent, personal experiences play a role in the perceptions of and representations of gender, as well as influence the development of policies that promote gender equality in general. Finally, the paper applies qualitative and auto-ethnographic research methods building on intersectional and social construction frameworks to analyze gender representation in media using a literature review of scholarly works, news items, and cultural/social sources like Nigerian movies. It concludes that media influences ideas and perceptions of gender, gender equality, and rights; there isn’t enough being done in the media in the global south in general to challenge the hegemonic patriarchal and binary concepts of gender. As such, the growth of feminism and the attainment of gender equality is slow, and the concepts are often misunderstood. There is a need to leverage media outlets to influence perceptions and start informed conversations on gender equality and feminism; build collective consciousness locally to improve advocacy for equal gender rights. Changing the gender narrative in everyday media, including entertainment media, is one way to influence public perceptions of gender, promote the concept of gender equality, and advocate for policies that support equality.

Keywords: gender equality, gender roles/socialization, intersectionality, representation of gender in media

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Authors: Gyozo Molnar, Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere

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Research in the area of physical activity and sport, while becoming multidisciplinary, is still dominated by post-positivist approaches that have the tendency to position the researcher as an expert and the participant as subordinate thereby perpetuating an unequal balance of power. Despite physical activity’s and sport’s universal appeal, their historic practices have excluded particular groups of people who assumed lesser forms of human capital. Adapted physical activity (APA) is a field that has responded to those segregations with specific application and relevance to people with impairments. Nevertheless, to date, similar to physical activity and sport, research in APA is still dominated by post-positivist epistemology. Stemming from this, there is gradually growing criticism within the field related to the abundance of research ‘on’ people with impairments and lack of research ‘with’ and ‘by’ people with impairments. Furthermore, research questions in the field are most often pursued from a single axis of analysis and constructed by non-disabled researchers. Concurrently, while calls for interdisciplinary approaches to understanding disability are growing in popularity, there is also a clear need to take an intersectionality-informed research methodology to understanding physical activity and sport and power (im)balances therein. In other words, impairment needs to be considered in conjunction with other socially and politically constructed and historically embedded differences such as gender, race, class, etc. when analyzing physical activity and sport experiences for people with impairments. Moreover, it is reasonable to argue that non-disabled researchers must recognize and theorize ableism in its complicated intersectional manifestation to show the structural constraints that disabled scholars face in the field. Consequently, this presentation will offer an alternative approach that acknowledges and prioritizes the perspectives and experiences of people with impairments to expand the field of APA. As such, the importance of broadening epistemologies in APA and prioritizing an appreciation for multiple bits of knowledge of people with impairments through intersections of social locations (e.g., gender, race, class) will be considered.

Keywords: adapted physical activity, disability, intersectionality, post-positivist, power imbalances

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Authors: Maelle Noir

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International Human rights norms prescribe the obligation to protect refugee women against violence which requires, inter alia, state provision of justiciable, accessible, affordable and non-discriminatory access to justice. However, the interpretation and application of the law still lack gender sensitivity, intersectionality and a trauma-informed approach. Consequently, many refugee survivors face important structural obstacles preventing access to justice and often experience secondary traumatisation when navigating the legal system. This paper argues that the unique nature of the experiences of refugees with gender-based violence against women exacerbated throughout the migration journey calls for a tailored practice of the law to ensure adequate access to justice. The argument developed here is that the obligation to provide survivors with justiciable, accessible, affordable and non-discriminatory access to justice implies radically transforming the practice of the law altogether. This paper, therefore, proposes feminist lawyering as an alternative approach to the practice of the law when addressing gender-based violence against women refugees. First, this paper discusses the specific nature of gender-based violence against refugees with a particular focus on two aspects of the power-violence nexus: the analysis of the shift in gender roles and expectations following displacement as one of the causes of gender-based violence against women refugees and the argument that the asylum situation itself constitutes a form of state-sponsored and institutional violence. Second, the re-traumatising and re-victimising nature of the legal system is explored with the objective to demonstrate States’ failure to comply with their legal obligation to provide refugee women with effective access to justice. Third, this paper discusses some key practical strategies that have been proposed and implemented to transform the practice of the law when dealing with gender-based violence outside of the refugee context. Lastly, this analysis is applied to the specificities of the experiences of refugee survivors of gender-based violence.

Keywords: feminist lawyering, feminist legal theory, gender-based violence, human rights law, intersectionality, refugee protection

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Authors: Sara Bonetti

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The use of quantitative data to support policies and justify investments has become imperative in many fields including the field of education. However, the topic of data literacy has only marginally touched the early care and education (ECE) field. In California, within the ECE workforce, there is a group of professionals working in policy and advocacy that use quantitative data regularly and whose educational and professional experiences have been neglected by existing research. This study aimed at analyzing these experiences in accessing, using, and producing quantitative data. This study utilized semi-structured interviews to capture the differences in educational and professional backgrounds, policy contexts, and power relations. The participants were three key professionals from county-level organizations and one working at a State Department to allow for a broader perspective at systems level. The study followed Núñez’s multilevel model of intersectionality. The key in Núñez’s model is the intersection of multiple levels of analysis and influence, from the individual to the system level, and the identification of institutional power dynamics that perpetuate the marginalization of certain groups within society. In a similar manner, this study looked at the dynamic interaction of different influences at individual, organizational, and system levels that might intersect and affect ECE professionals’ experiences with quantitative data. At the individual level, an important element identified was the participants’ educational background, as it was possible to observe a relationship between that and their positionality, both with respect to working with data and also with respect to their power within an organization and at the policy table. For example, those with a background in child development were aware of how their formal education failed to train them in the skills that are necessary to work in policy and advocacy, and especially to work with quantitative data, compared to those with a background in administration and/or business. At the organizational level, the interviews showed a connection between the participants’ position within the organization and their organization’s position with respect to others and their degree of access to quantitative data. This in turn affected their sense of empowerment and agency in dealing with data, such as shaping what data is collected and available. These differences reflected on the interviewees’ perceptions and expectations for the ECE workforce. For example, one of the interviewees pointed out that many ECE professionals happen to use data out of the necessity of the moment. This lack of intentionality is a cause for, and at the same time translates into missed training opportunities. Another interviewee pointed out issues related to the professionalism of the ECE workforce by remarking the inadequacy of ECE students’ training in working with data. In conclusion, Núñez’s model helped understand the different elements that affect ECE professionals’ experiences with quantitative data. In particular, what was clear is that these professionals are not being provided with the necessary support and that we are not being intentional in creating data literacy skills for them, despite what is asked of them and their work.

Keywords: data literacy, early childhood professionals, intersectionality, quantitative data

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Authors: Hagar Wahba

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In an attempt to bridge a literature gap, the study explores the different gendered consequences of economic globalization on Egyptian women in informal employment. Under the intersectionality theory, the study highlights issues related to equal economic opportunities among women in different segments of informal employment during Covid-19. Accordingly, this study explores the different vulnerabilities of women in lower segments of the informal sector in Egypt, which intersected with inequalities brought by the pandemic. Therefore, through collecting primary data, the study was able to gain a more intersectional understanding of women’s experiences in informal employment during Covid-19. In women in technology-based work in Egypt were proven to be in a more advantaged position than other women whose jobs depended on face-to-face interactions during the pandemic.

Keywords: economic globalisation, informal employment, women, egypt, intersectional feminism, decent work, Covid-19

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Authors: Shillah Memusi

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Underrepresentation of women in governance structures is a global phenomenon, with patriarchal considerations being among the main, if not the top, reason for this in Sub Saharan Africa. This paper demonstrates that gender norms and informal rules have perpetuated a culture of stereotypical gender roles that have limited women’s public participation and leadership in society. To achieve this, the paper explores barriers to women’s political engagement, and how these are navigated in the face of gender equality laws. Situated in Kenya’s Maasai community, the paper investigates the influence of set laws on the increased involvement of women from the patriarchal community in the political economy. It gives special attention to the intersectionality of formal and informal laws and the subsequent interpretation and implementation of gender equality. The paper then concludes by demonstrating the benefits of exploring alternative gender equality pathways, as informed by contextual realities of settings such as patriarchal communities.

Keywords: equality, Kenya, patriarchy, public participation, women

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Authors: Amy Matharu

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Existing literature on older athletes in competitive sports is often male-dominated and limited. This study explores how age and gender impact the experiences of older female bodybuilders in Canada using the social theories of deviance and intersectionality. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 Canadian female bodybuilders over the age of 45. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and thematically analysed. This study was approached from a phenomenological perspective. The participants deviated from their perceived social norms of women their age. They exhibited deviance with their actions, such as prioritising themselves and following extreme dieting practices, and with their aesthetics, such as maintaining a muscular appearance. Participants received both positive and negative reactions from society resulting in both admiration and stigmatisation. These reactions varied based on the environment, audience, and context of the situation. Overall, the intersection of age and gender results in a unique position for older female bodybuilders within society and within the sport.

Keywords: age, bodybuilding, gender, females

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Authors: Lara Góes Da Costa

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This paper analyzes the social dimension of the empowerment of women in Brazil, following the principles of human development of the UN WOMEN, in particular the sixth principle, which establishes the promotion of gender equality through social policy initiatives and activism in general aimed at community. In Brazil, women's empowerment has taken social networks through the creation of avatars and pages of dissemination and promotion of gender equality, as well as denunciations and educational posts such as 'Observe Gender', 'Empower Two Women', 'Black Intellectual Women', among others. At the same time, women's social inclusion bills in various sectors are trailing in the legislative apparatus, with little or no relation to the current discussion of gender diversity and intersectionality. In this sense, this article establishes an analytical parallel between the media manifestations of social networks and the social distance of the representatives of the legislative power. This parallelly shows the political failing to meet the social demands of inclusion, as to multiply the creation of laws and the effectiveness of the principle of promoting gender equality.

Keywords: gender, rights, justice, social networks

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Authors: Henry Lee, Daniel Shiu

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Educational organizations are currently exploring ways to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and this is now evident within the K-12 school system, universities, and teacher unions. These organizations have been creating and implementing new EDI specific policies. Their goal is to provide the framework and supports needed to establish EDI into the organizational culture. However, the implementation of EDI policies does not always lead to the intended outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore some factors regarding why the implementation of EDI policies within educational organizations can be problematic. This includes how Whiteness is replicated, promoted, and celebrated in educational leadership. How Whiteness and White supremacy are operationalized by BIPOC leaders within educational spaces, and how EDI specific training fails to understand the different training needed for both IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour) and non-IBPOC leaders. This paper also addresses the model minority myth and how this informs and guides IBPOC identity and leadership within a predominately White dominant leadership in education.

Keywords: critical race theory, equity & diversity & inclusion, educational leadership, intersectionality

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Authors: A. K. O'Loughlin

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In Simone de Beauvoir’s climatic 1959 meditation, The Second Sex, she avows that 'On ne naît pas femme; on le devient,' translated most recently in the unabridged text (2010) as 'One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.' The signifier ‘woman’ in this context, signifies Beauvoir’s contemplation of the institution, the concept of woman(ness) defined in relation to the binary and hegemonic man(ness.) She is 'the other.' This paper is a theoretical contemplation of (1) how we actively teach 'othering' in the institution of schooling and (2) new considerations of pluralism for self-reflection and subversion that teachers, in particular, are faced with. How, in schooling, do we learn one’s options for racialized, classed and sexualized gender identification and the hierarchical signification that define these signifiers? Just like the myth of apolitical schooling, we cannot escape teaching social organization in the classroom. Yet, we do have a choice. How do we as educators learn about our own embodied intersectionalities? How do we unlearn our own binaries? How do we teach about intersectional gender? How do we teach 'the other'? We posit the processes of these reflections by educators may move our classrooms beyond binaries, engage pluralism and queer alterity itself.

Keywords: othering, alterity, education, schooling, identity, racialization, gender, intersectionality, pluralism

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Authors: Helio Arthur Reis Irigaray, Fabricio Stocker

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This study aims to discover the extent to which affinity groups effectively act to combat inequalities, promote diversity, and contribute to the inclusion of non-hegemonic groups in the work environment. To this end, we have built empirical research, in which we interviewed 36 leaders and members of the collectives of non-hegemonic groups, namely women, blacks, and LGBTQ. With the proper authorization of the participants, their interviews were transcribed and submitted for critical analysis of the discourse. The field revealed that collectives are the result of the articulation of non-hegemonic groups, which create and participate in legitimate and institutional spaces to promote diversity. We also identified that diversity actions have happened as a market trend and reproduced mimetically. As the largest companies implement these actions, they become benchmarking and thus create a flow that is reproduced by other companies. However, there is no effective change in the structures that could promote inclusion and belonging. We state that a diverse group of employees are not enough to claim that the organization is diverse and inclusive. There remains much more to discuss and delve into deeply, including gender, diversity, and intersectionality.

Keywords: diversity, inclusion, collectives, affinity groups, employee resource groups

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Authors: Ryo Sato

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The United States and many other countries witness alarmingly low voting rates among youths, skewing democratic representation. Many scholars and pundits have ascribed to this trend young voters' laziness, indifference, and self-centeredness and placed blame on them. However, a growing body of research is focusing on structural barriers to voting, which are defined as built-in obstacles lying in electoral laws and procedures. Drawing on national survey data from 891 young adults in 2020 and extant literature on structural barriers to voting, the project aims to develop a framework for analyzing systematic obstacles to voting experienced by young people and offer tangible policy recommendations. The preliminary findings presented at this conference include an intersectional analysis of the survey data, focusing on how different social categories — race, gender, socioeconomic status, immigration status, and others — in combination create unique voting experiences and barriers. This project offers a critical framework to combat the individualized understanding of low voting rates among youths and inform pathways to functional democracy.

Keywords: youth voting behavior, structural barriers, intersectionality, democratic participation, S

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Authors: C. Morris, W. Ashall, K. Telling, L. Kadiwal, J. Kirby, S. Mwale

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This paper addresses experiences of liminality in the early career phase of academia. Liminality is understood as a process moving from one state (in this case of being non-academic) to another (of being academic), caught between or moving in and out these modes of being. Drawing on life-history methods, a group of academics jointly reflected on experiences of the early career. Primarily focused on the theme of imposter syndrome at this career stage, the authors identified feelings of non-belonging and lack of fit with the academy, tracing the biographical, political, and affective dimensions of such responses. Uncertainty around status within seemingly impermeable hierarchies and barriers to progression in combination with our intersectional positionings shaped by sexism, racism, ableism, and classism, led to experiences of liminality, having not yet fully achieved the desired and potentially illusionary status of established academic. Findings are contextualised within the authors’ contrasting disciplinary, departmental, and institutional settings against a backdrop of neoliberalised academia. The paper thereby contributes nuanced understandings of early-career academic identities at a time when this career stage is ever more ill-defined, extended, precarious and uncertain, exposing ongoing impacts of inequities in the contemporary academic milieu.

Keywords: early career, identities, intersectionality, liminality

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Authors: Boadi Agyekum

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In this study, a social location perspective is used to explore the challenges of creating opportunities that will foster lifelong education, inclusion, and equity for residents of rural communities in Ghana. The differentiated experiences of rural adults are under-researched and often unacknowledged in lifelong education literature and distance education policy. There is a need to examine carefully the structural inequalities that create disadvantages for residents of rural communities and women in pursuing distance education in designated cities in Ghana. The paper uses in-depth interviews to explore participants’ experiences of learning at a distance and to scrutinise the narratives of lifelong education. The paper reflects on the implications of the framework employed for educators and social justice in lifelong education. It further recommends the need to provide IT laboratories and fully online programs that would require stable and regular internet and access to ICT equipment for potential learning in rural communities. The social location approach presented a number of axes of diversity as comparatively more important than others; these included gender, age, education, work commitment, geography, and degree of social connectedness. This can inform lifelong education policy and programs to sustain quality education.

Keywords: equity, distance education, lifelong learning, social location, intersectionality, rural communities

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Authors: Areej Al-Hamad, Cheryl Forchuk, Abe Oudshoorn, Gerald Patrick Mckinley

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Syrian refugee women face many obstacles when accessing health services in host countries that are influenced by various cultural, structural, and practical factors. This paper is based on critical ethnographic research undertaken in Canada to explore Syrian refugee women's migration experiences. Also, we aim to critically examine how the intersection of gender, trauma, violence and the political and economic conditions of Syrian refugee women shapes their everyday lives and health. The study also investigates the strategies and practices by which Syrian refugee women are currently addressing their healthcare needs and the models of care that are suggested for meeting their physical and mental health needs. Findings show that these women experienced constant worries, hardship, vulnerability, and intrusion of dignity. These experiences and challenges were aggravated by the structure of the Canadian social and health care system. This study offers a better understanding of the impact of migration and trauma on Syrian refugee women's roles, responsibilities, gender dynamics, and interaction with Ontario's healthcare system to improve interaction and outcomes. Health care models should address these challenges among Syrian refugee families in Canada.

Keywords: Syrian refugee women, intersectionality, critical ethnography, migration

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Authors: Rishmidevi Kirtie Algoe

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Advocating for gender equality in sports is a global struggle but a greater challenge for small nations with weak economies like Suriname, a Dutch-speaking country in the Caribbean. This paper presents the experience of the Suriname Olympic Committee (SOC) in addressing gender inequality in sports in the global context of the policies implemented by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The case of Suriname is interesting because it shows the results of a small nation in creating protective measures. The SOC has succeeded in developing a code of conduct for sports and is now taking steps to establish a sports justice institute. All of this is happening in a situation where there are few women leaders in sport: only three of the seventeen national member federations are led by women, and there are two women on SOC's 9-member board. Three arguments are made. First, gender inequality in sports in Suriname is a reflection of national power structures and cultural barriers to women in sports. Second, IOC policies and resources to reduce gender inequality in sports, while important, do not guarantee national change. Third, and more importantly, the SOC has addressed gender inequality with an approach based on the principles of "walk the talk" and "trial and error." All three arguments are elaborated on using the framework of intersectionality. The study draws empirically on data collected during and on SOC Gender and Sport Commission seminars and workshops, including two surveys, transcripts, and newspaper articles.

Keywords: Caribbean, gender inequality, safeguarding, Suriname Olympic Committee

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