Since the Women’s March on Washington, many people have become more and more interested in the idea of being an intersectional feminist and recognizing barriers on every side of the fight for women’s rights. This is a basic overview that will teach you about feminism, intersectionality and privilege.

The idea of feminism is distorted on multiple platforms. Even though feminism is one label, many feminists have a different idea of what it means to be one. The most common conception of feminism, however, is the idea that women are equal to men, and it seeks to empower women to create a more equal social, political and personal climate of existence. The idea is not about “hating men” like some people believe--that is actually known as misandry. It is actually about not being oppressed by men and being able to live as freely as men do, without having consequences for existing outside of social norms. There are different types of feminism, such as womanism, radical feminism, liberal feminism, white feminism, and of course, intersectional feminism, to name a few.

Intersectionality is recognizing the identities, the privileges or disadvantages associated with that identity, and how multiple aspects of an identity can shape the human experience. Intersectionality understands how each identity plays into one another and how that can impact a person’s quality of life or life experience. For example, a straight, white, cisgender, Christian male has a much different experience than a bisexual, Latino, transgender, Jewish woman. Society within the United States has accepted being a straight white man as the default, and anyone that exists outside that norm can be punished for being different than what society dictates they should be. Likewise, a Christian has a much easier time practicing their holidays with time off of school because school gives winter break off, whereas some religions have to take off days from school in order to fulfill their religious traditions and practices. Intersectionality recognizes the aspects and expectations of both the Christian identity and the non-normative religion within in the U.S., and thus, how it affects their lives as a whole. Privilege, in essence, is the concept of a label’s advantages or disadvantages at a societal, personal and political level. Simply put, privilege is acknowledging that because of an ascribed or prescribed status, some people have more to worry about or work around due to their experiences or existence as a whole, which affects the way they live.

For example, wealthier schools don’t have to worry about whether they can afford textbooks or not because they already know that they can afford them, while poorer schools have to make do with what they are given. Therefore, in this scenario, the wealthier school is more likely to have more educated children simply because they have more opportunities to succeed and have the materials necessary to grow as a student. Some people would say, “But maybe the kids at the wealthier school were smarter!” The problem with this statement is that it assumes the children are the main difference is these two scenarios, when in fact the biggest difference are the amount of materials. This is not an accurate reflection of the children at all, and this cannot be attributed them.

Examples of identities that do have privilege:

• white
• male
• cisgender, use “normal pronouns”
• speaking native language in country
• Christian
• able-bodied
• neurotypical (thinking in a typical way compared to other people in your society)
• educated
• having an abundance of money

Examples of identities that do not have privilege:

• Non-normative religions for the United States, such as Muslims and Jewish people
• transgender folks
• neurodivergent (thinking in a way different than other people in your society)
• disabled people, such as being physically disabled, mentally ill, having a speech impediment or birth defect, being chronically ill and/or fatigued
• women
• people of color
• being poor
• non-educated
• LGBT folks (asexuals, aromantics, bisexuals, polysexuals, pansexuals, nonbinary/trans people, polyamorous people)

Using the two concepts of feminism and intersectionality together means viewing the world through the lens that all people are people and are equal to one another, despite the fact that they are not given the same opportunities or the same ways to live.

The difference between white feminism and intersectional feminism is that white feminism disregards color and focuses mainly on problems that only affects white people. For example, what do you think of when you think of women in the 1950s-1960s? If you said “being domestic, doing housework, a lady’s work," then you have just described what white women did in the 1950s-60s. Women of color specifically had jobs during this time period in order to provide for their families. White women during this time felt that the main problem was being bored as a domestic housewife while black women especially didn’t have the same access to birth control or even drinking water. However, the white women’s problems got solved first because even though feminism is supposed to be all inclusive, this brand of feminism made white women superior. This priority was based on race and separated feminism as a whole. This excluded black women as their priorities and experiences.

Intersectionality hopes to speak on the front of all genders and all races, abilities and experiences with the same amount of respect and priority, thus differing from a brand of white feminism. Not only this, intersectional feminism hopes to be more inclusive than any other brand of feminism before by recognizing oneself and other people, thereby determining how people’s lives are shaped by social conditions.