What is Intersectionality?

First coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality is a term that encompasses and explains the interlocking matrixes of a person’s identity.  Crenshaw, however, was not the first person to tackle the complexities of intersectional identity. Intersectional thinking has been around around for hundreds of years. Sojourner Truth, famously introduced this idea in her speech delivered at the Akron Women’s Right Conference of 1863. Intersectionality, in short, is a framework that helps to describe and analyze social categorization by acknowledging that each category is deeply interlocked with all the others. Intersectionality is generally spoken about in reference to three distinct forms: social, political, and representation.