A meaningful display of intersectionality took place during the women’s NCAA basketball finals and WNBA draft. Commentators discussed gender wage gaps in professional sports with stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese making about $75,000 per year as rookies, a fraction of the pay for average NBA players. CNN came under scrutiny for initially posting a photo of Caitlin Clark and her Iowa teammates instead of featuring the actual winners of the NCAA finals, the predominantly Black South Carolina team. Of additional note, in a predominately Black league, the only three WNBA players with signature shoes are white. Not surprisingly, America has a race and gender problem. It not only disproportionately impacts female athletes of color but all women of marginalized identities.
White supremacy is the foundation for many political movements. Essential to white supremacy is the maintenance of the ideal of white femininity and fragility. The weaponization of white femininity is often deadly for Black and Brown communities. For instance, our communities still mourn the death of Emmett Till in 1955. Till, a 14 year old Black child was brutally tortured to death when Carol Bryant, a White woman, falsely claimed that he whistled at her and made a sexual advance. Mrs. Bryant eventually retracted her false statement but died last year before ever being held responsible for Mr. Till’s murder. White femininity and feminism is a force to be reckoned with each election year as well. In the 2016 presidential election, 53% of white women voted for Trump while 94% of Black women and 68% of Latinx women voted for Hillary Clinton. With the election just 12 days away, this begs the question, can Vice President Kamala Harris win over white female voters? With issues such as reproductive rights, immigration, and the principles of DEI on the line, this country needs its feminism with a healthy dose of intersectionality.
Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, cofounder of the African American Policy Forum and Columbia Law Professor, coined the term intersectionality in 1989. The term explores how identities such as race, gender, and class intersect and impact one’s lived experiences. Much of the criticism of the feminist movement stems from its lack of inclusivity. The face of feminism, and thus its programmatic thrusts, center cisgendered able-bodied white women. This oversight will likely persist in politics and academia as the attack on DEI continues. For instance, McKinsey & Company released a Women in the Workplace report last year. The data reveals that 19% of all C-suite positions are held by white women while minorities hold only 4%. Much like affirmative action, white women have disproportionately benefited from the $8 billion US corporations spend per year on DEI initiatives.
Inequities within feminist movements are also reflected in continued wage gaps. According to the Pew Research Center, Hispanic and Black women earn 65% and 70%, respectively, as much as White men. White and Asian women earn 83% and 93% as much, respectively, as their White male counterparts. DEI initiatives provide the tools that assist individuals with marginalized identities to gain equitable access to education, healthcare, and financial success, especially women of color. For example, affirmative action fosters holistic review of applicants for higher learning institutions and careers leading to a more diverse workforce with improved outcomes. Unfortunately, right-wing conservatives are hard at work deconstructing many of the civil rights gains made over the last several decades. For example, Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC) introduced the EDUCATE Act this year prohibiting medical schools who adopt DEI policies from receiving federal funding. Florida’s Gov DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law curtailing classroom speech pertaining to sexual orientation, and Texas Senate Bill 17 forced public universities to close their DEI offices. Women may be one poor election turnout away from having to have men cosign for our credit cards again.
Perhaps one of the most pressing issues requiring an intersectional lens of feminism on election day is reproductive rights. While reproductive rights affect all Americans, women of color are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to abortion as a form of health care. For instance, 54% of Black women, trans, and nonbinary people live in states banning abortion. Almost 5 million Black women, mostly in the South, live in areas where the nearest abortion access is hundreds of miles away. For many white female Republicans, former president Trump’s stance on abortion makes it difficult to vote along party lines. The inequitable impact of restricted reproductive health care on BIPOC women’s health must be one of the many factors pushing them to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The intersectionality of our identities contributes to the diversity of our lived experiences. Anti-inclusive legislation attempts to detract from this diversity and will weaken the fight for all women’s rights. At your next women’s group meeting or within your own group chats, ask yourselves: whose voices are being celebrated and centered? Who’s setting the agenda and whose achievements matter? How will Black and Brown women be disproportionately harmed by laws restricting reproductive rights? What role do gender and race/ethnicity play in perpetuating pay gaps? Which presidential candidate’s agenda helps the feminist movement? Do you like your feminism straight up or with a side of intersectionality?
