Intersectionality in Third Wave Feminism

Intersectionality is a term commonly used when discussing third wave feminism. It is a "concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another (www.geekfeminism.wikia.com)." This term was first coined by the legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 in an effort to redefine feminism as inclusive. In particular, she was using it to discuss how racial oppression and gender oppression in black women's lives. Crenshaw believed that women of color, lesbians, and working white women's became invisible as privileged, white women defined "gender discrimination" and "gender oppression" based on their own experiences. 

They then overgeneralized those experiences and claimed they were shared by all women. The problem was (and is) that although women of color, lesbians, and working class women were always active in feminism in the US and Canada, feminism became dominated by white upper class women who retained identifications with men and white male power (www.kickaction.ca). They weren’t willing to trade in the power they got from being wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters to powerful white men in order to forge true unity with women of colour and with working class white women. In other words, they weren’t willing to give up on the small privileges they gained through loyalty to white men and to whiteness in order to work for the liberation of all women (Adrienne Rich, [1978] 1979.) 

In the past, feminism hasn't been inclusive of all races, social classes, backgrounds, etc. but third wave feminism seeks to change that. A feminism that isn’t as actively inclusive of all races, sexual expressions, gender identities, and lifestyles is inherently hypocritical based on its identity as a movement for equality. That’s why feminism today is a movement of intersectional solidarity, discourse regarding the struggles of all marginalized groups, made possible only by carefully listening to all feminists of all backgrounds and identities in pursuit of this final goal of feminism (www.everydayfeminism.com).