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‘Intersectional feminism’ is a phase thrown around a lot, but what does it really refer to? Intersectionality is a decades-old term that feminists often use to describe a method of making the feminist movement more diverse and inclusionary. For a long time, the feminist movement has been shunned or disregarded due to the exclusionary, predominantly white, middle-class, cisgender women that have led it for so long. Occasionally, I encounter articles and opinions that make me question whether I align with the feminist movement – for example the painful reminder of how first wave white feminists used ‘black men can vote why can’t I?’ as an argument in the fight for universal suffrage. Many people have had experiences like this, which result in the disillusionment of the very people that feminism should represent. Deep in the flaws of the feminist movement is where intersectionality has sprung into life. If feminism is a movement that advocates against the oppression of women, intersectional feminism is the incorporation of how women's differing identities – factors such as race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation - impact the way they experience that very oppression.

An example to illustrate this idea could be a middle-class, heterosexual white woman who is discriminated against for her gender, but has the advantage of her class and race. A middle-class Latina woman experiences discrimination because of her gender and ethnicity, but still maintains the advantage of her class. A lesbian black woman will experience discrimination because of her gender, her race, and her sexual orientation.

Intersectional feminism tends to the wounds caused by feminist movements of the past, by which claims were made in the name of ‘all’ women, which eventually led to marginalise some of those women by universalising the claims of the privileged women who led them. Along with the inclusion of all people, intersectional feminism seeks to redefine what ‘gender’ or ‘woman’ refers to – being a woman is not a unified concept, inclusive of all women without any exceptions or differences. Intersectional feminists criticise the idea that ‘woman’ is as simple as anyone of the female gender: all women have an ethnicity, a class, a religious stance, a race, a sexual orientation, and all of these differences intersect. A white, heterosexual, Christian middle-class woman’s experience of being a woman will be completely different to that of a transgender, Asian Muslim woman who will face far more discrimination as a result of racism and transphobia. If feminism is going to represent women, it must attend to the differences among them.

In my experience, the term ‘intersectionality’ makes some people feel uneasy, because it is very difficult to examine yourself as a tool in the oppression of others. White feminists must recognise their privilege and examine the ways in which that privilege can be exercised to an extent that makes other women invisible, but also how it can be used to do the opposite.

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