Disadvantages combine rather than add, so a person at the intersection of two categories faces conditions neither category alone describes.
Crenshaw coined it in 1989 for a specific gap in anti-discrimination law: Black women losing cases that would have succeeded had they been brought on either ground alone. Later use has broadened well past that.
In practice
- Coined for a specific gap in anti-discrimination law: claims brought on either ground alone succeeded where the combined claim failed.
- A part-time employee with caring responsibilities faces a scheduling policy that neither the part-time policy nor the carers' policy addresses.
- Standing
- Coined to name a specific gap in anti-discrimination law; later use has broadened well past that.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change