• DOI:10.1177/0891243211426722
• Corpus ID: 145233506

Intersectionality and Global Gender Inequality

@article{Bose2012IntersectionalityAG,
  title={Intersectionality and Global Gender Inequality},
  author={Christine E. Bose},
  journal={Gender \& Society},
  year={2012},
  volume={26},
  pages={67 - 72}
}

• Christine E. Bose
• Published 23 January 2012
• Sociology
• Gender & Society

P atricia Hill Collins’s cutting edge scholarship on intersectionality and interlocking systems of oppression has had an enormous impact on the sociology of gender; on studies of race, racism, and ethnicity; and on inequality research in the 20-plus years since Black Feminist Thought (1990) was first published, surpassing the intellectual influence most scholars will have over our entire lifetimes. Indicators of her influence are found in the vast number of “Google Scholar” hits generated by her name, or by her name in combination with “intersectionality,” as well as by the fact that her work is cited by virtually every graduate student on sociology comprehensive exams in gender, race and ethnicity, or stratification. The development of intersectional theory significantly advanced research on women of color and about others who experience multiple forms of oppression in society (McCall 2005). Indeed, few contemporary scholars have been so adept or successful at instigating a paradigmatic change in how we understand our world. This shift is especially visible in work by U.S. scholars who focus on various types of inequality, with somewhat more muted ripple effects in other sub-fields such as demography or political sociology. Furthermore, since their introduction, the concepts of intersectionality and matrices of domination have not remained static. Scholars have applied this approach to dimensions beyond the original foci on race, ethnicity, gender, and class to incorporate citizenship, sexuality, religion, age, and other dimensions of subordination, across many different social settings. Indeed, the concept has found a place in the intellectual toolkit of scholars around the world, whether they live in their home countries or in national diasporas, and is used to interrogate problems and policy issues in their national or regional settings. My contribution to this symposium is to examine some of these global applications with which U.S. readers may be less familiar.