This chapter will explore how intersectionality – identities of gender, race and class – operate to exclude and privilege certain groups. The chapter will argue that class and gender play a key role in the positioning of black and minority ethnic groups in society and discuss the experiences of black and Asian groups in relation to how stereotypes operate to marginalise and exclude certain groups. While I argue in this book that whiteness and white identities operate as a form of privilege in society to maintain and perpetuate the position of white elites, I also suggest that a certain type of whiteness advantages some over others. Intersecting and competing identities – particularly class – play a major role in the positioning of individuals. In this chapter I explore the concept of intersectionality and use it to examine how race, gender and class impact on the experiences of non-white groups working in universities in the UK and the US.

What is intersectionality?

Intersectionality is an approach which explores how overlapping or intersecting identities affect the experiences of individuals in society. Discourses of inequality cannot simply be explained by one single factor (such as race), other competing factors operate to produce different outcomes of social and power relations. Intersectionality enables us to explore how experiences are affected by different competing identities and how these impact to exclude individuals in society.

The concept of intersectionality was first introduced by the scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Crenshaw critically addressed the essentialist model and argued that one single identity or axis such as race or gender alone is not enough to explain and interrogate individual experiences. Crenshaw suggested that rather than having a one-dimensional approach, multiple dimensions which intersect and interweave provide a better understanding of the experiences of individuals, particularly in relation to exploring inequalities in society. Crenshaw argues that her ‘focus on the intersections of race and gender only highlights the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed’. Through a legal framework, Crenshaw stressed the need to explore how intersectionality affected unequal experiences in society, particularly those of black women.