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RACE, GENDER,
AND CLASS
Theory and Methods of Analys is

BAR T LA N DRY
StudentAid.ed.gov
FUNDING YOUR FUTURE.

PEARSON

Prentice
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Hall
www.prenhall.com
Race, Gender

and Class
 Race, Gender

R ’
|

Methods
and Class

Theory

of Analysis
and

BART LANDRY

University of Maryland

PEARSON

Prentice
Hall
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Landry, Bart.
Race, gender and class : theory and methods of analysis I Bart Landry.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-13-048761-9
1. United States—Social conditions—1980- 2. United States—Race
relations—Study and teaching (Higher) 3. Social classes—Study and
teaching (Higher)—United States. 4. Sex role—Study and teaching
(Higher)—United States. 5. Homosexuality—Study and teaching
(Higher)—United States. 6. Dis<^^i'iimination—Study and teaching
(Higher)—United States. I. Title.
HN59.2.L365 2006
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2006013515

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For Ayo
 i 9, CONTENTS

Foreword xi
Preface xv

PART I: The Theory of Intersectional Analysis I

Introduction I
Interlocking Systems of Oppression and Privilege 2
Race 2
The Social Construction of Race 3
The Social Construction of Gender 4
Class 5
The Language of Intersection Theory 6
Social Locations 9
The Assumptions of Intersection Theory 10
Simultaneity 11
Multiplicative versus Additive Relationships 12
Summary 14
References 14
1. Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black
Feminist Ideology
Deborah K. King 16
2. Theorizing Race, Class, and Gender: The New Scholarship of
Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women s Labor
Rose M. Brewer 38
3. Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis
and Connection
Patricia Hill Collins 45

vii
Vlll Contents

4. Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism

Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill 56
5. Doing Difference
Candace West and Sarah Fenstermaker 63
6. Symposium on West and Fenstermaker’s “Doing Difference”
Patricia Hill Collins, Lionel A. Maldonado, Dana Y. Takagi,
Barrie Thorne, Lynn Weber, and Howard Winant 86
7. Reply (Re)Doing Difference
Candace West and Sarah Fenstermaker 99

PART II: The METHODOLOGy of Intersectional ANALysis:

Qualitative Approaches 105
Introduction 105
Simultaneity 106
Multiplicative Relationships 109
Intersectional Analysis in Qualitative Research 111
Rules for Qualitative Intersectional Research 111
Type I and Type II Articles 113
A Digression on Race, Gender, and Class 113
Critiquing Qualitative Articles 116
The Saturated Model 118
7. An Exploratory Analysis of the Effects of Race, Class, and Gender on
Student and Parent Mobility Aspirations
Daniel G. Solorzano 120
8. Policing Boundaries: Race, Class, and Gender in Cartagena, Colombia
Joel Streicker 131
Intersectional Analysis with Four Social Locctions 153
9. Gender, Race, Class, and the Trend Toward Early Motherhood:
A Feminist Analysis of Teen Mothers in Contemporary Society
Janet L. Jacobs 155
10. Masculinities and Athletic Careers
Michael A. Messner 167
Intersectional Analysis with Two Social Oocations 178
11. Working-Class Women’s Ways of Knowing: Effects of Gender,
Race, and Class
Wendy Luttrell 199
Intersectional Analysis in Historical Studies 194
12. You Have to Have Some
Fun to Go Along with Your Work: The Interplay of Race, Class, Gender,
and Leisure in the Industrial New South
M. Deborah Bialeschki and Kathryn Lynn Walbert 195
 Contents ix

PART III: The Methodology of Intersectional Analysis:

Quantitative Approaches 215
Introduction 215
The Basic Approach 216
Simple Social Locations 218
Complex Social Locations - 219
Type I Cases 219
Type II Cases 219
The Saturated Model 220
Some Issues and Statistical Problems 221
How Many Comparisons? 221
Selection of Comparisons 222
Sample Size 222
Multicollinearity 223
Critiquing Quantitative Articles 223
Quantitative Studies with Four Locations: Separate Group Analysis 224
13. Producing and Reproducing Class and Status DiFFerences:
Racial and Gender Gaps in U.S. Employment and Retirement Income
Richard Hogan and Carolyn C. Perrucci 226
14. Gender and Race DiFFerences in the Predictors oF Daily
Health Practices among Older Adults
Mary P. Gallant and Gail P. Dorn 248
Quantitative Studies with Four Locations: Interaction Analysis 260
15. Relations among Socioeconomic Status Indicators and Health For
AFrican-Americans and Whites
Joan M. Ostrove, Pamela Feldman, and Nancy E. Adler 260
Quantitative Studies with Four Locations: Interactions Combined with
Separate Group Analysis 274
16. Predictors oF Fear oF Criminal Victimization at School among Adolescents
David C. May and Gregory Dunaway 266
17. The Intersection oF Race and Gender among Chemists: Assessing the Impact
oF Double Minority Status on Income
Marina A.. Ad^l^er, Gijsberta J. Koelewijn-Strattner, and Joseph J. Lengermann 288
18. Race- Gender, and Attitudes toward Gender Stratification
Emily W. Kane 002
Quantitative Studies with Eight or More Locations:
Separate Group Analysis 313
19. Parenting in Black and White Families: The Interaction oF Gender with
Race and Class
Shirley A. Hill and Joey Sprague 314
20. When Expectations Work: Race and Socioeconomic DiFFerences
in School Performance
Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, and Samuel D. Bedinger 333
r

X Contents

Quantitative Studies with Six or More Locations: Interaction Analysis 354

21. The Relationship of Race, Class, and Gender with Mathematics
Achievement for Fifth-, Eighth-, and Eleventh-Grade Students in
Pennsylvania Schools
Richard L. Kohr, James R. Masters, J. Robert Coldiron, Ross S. Blust, and
Eugene W Skilfin.gton 355 ■
22. Women’s STD Prevention and Detection Practices:
The Specificity of Social Location
Erika Laine Austin 372
Quantitative Studies Using Separate Group Analysis with /-Tests 391
23. Are There Race and Gender Differences in the Effect of Marital
Dissolution on Depression?
Kei M. NomngucM 394
24. Generalized Expectancies for Control among High-School Students at the
Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender
Brett A. Magill 410
25. Race, Gender, and Class Variation in the Effect of Neighborhood Violence
on Adolescent Use of Violence
Jennifer Castro and Bart Landry 423
Notes on Teaching RGC Methodology to Undergraduates 442
“Doing” RGC Research 442
Study Design and Simultaneity 442
Data Collection 443
Analysis 443
Homogeneous Subsets 449
Conclusion 452
 FOREWORD

In the last 30 to 35 years, the study of race, class, The very core of the discipline had already
gender, and other dimensions of social inequal­ been structured in ways that could both accom­
ity as simultaneously expressed socially con­ modate and marginalize this new scholarly
structed systems of power relationships has challenge. Questions of gender were easily seg­
grown to a powerful scholarship that has per­ regated and marginalized relative to the more
meated the humanities, the social sciences, and, central social class/stratification studies—on
more recently, the sciences. Forty years ago if we which the focus was the social significance of
had been asked to predict where this new study white men—and even to the long-standing sub­
of race, class, and gender would emerge, sociol­ discipline of race and ethnicity—on which the
ogy would have been the obvious disciplinary focus was the cultural practices and traditions
location. After all, by 1970 sociology had a long of racial and ethnic communities represented in
tradition of social class/stratification and the experiences of men. In that separate space
racial/ethnic studies, and social stratification carved out by gender studies, the limitations to
was seen as the core of the discipline—essential knowledge that accompanied the largely white
education for all sociologists. Yet the study of and middle-class thrust of the scholarship and
the intersections of race, class, and gender did the women who conducted it was not seen as
not emerge as a logical outgrowth of sociology's particularly problematic until the groups who
scholarship in stratification in part because had been left out of the whole structure, who
“race/ethnicity” and “social class/stratification” lived “at the intersections,” got a voice.
had evolved as quite distinct fields of study—as By the 1970s and 1980s, women of color
subdisciplines. In the 1960s and 1970s, when (a large percentage of whom were poor or
the political activity surrounding the women's working class) had entered and risen in the
movement sparked a new scholarship that academy in much greater numbers than ever in
posed gender as a system of oppression and so­ the past, and they were especially vehement in
cial inequality, the disciplinary structure to voicing their opposition to theories of and
accommodate these kinds of questions was perspectives on social reality that focused on a
already in place, and another subdiscipline, “sex single dimension of inequality, most especially
and gender,” was born. on gender but also on race or class, and more

xi
xii Foreword

recently on sexuality. They argued that the mul­ Memphis in 1982, with funding from the Ford
tidimensionality and interconnected nature of Foundation (see Weber, Higginbotham, and
race, class, and gender hierarchies were espe­ Dill 1997). The center, cofounded by Bonnie
cially visible to those who faced oppression Thornton Dill, Elizabeth Higginbotham, and
along more than one dimension of inequality. me—all sociologists—gave us the resources to
The irony of ignoring groups whose expe­ facilitate scholarship and curriculum change at
riences typically reflected the confluence of the intersections of race, class, and gender.
three major dimensions of inequality was cap­ Although there were already 25 centers for
tured in the often-cited title of one of the first research on women all over the country at the
anthologies about black women's studies: All time, none focused on women of color, none
the Women Were White, All the Blacks Were Men, were in the South, and few were led by social
But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Womens Studies scientists. We became the first in the nation to
(Hull, Scott, and Smith 1982). By the mid-1980s focus on women of color and on the intersec­
some notable lesbian authors of color such as tions of race, class, and gender. During the
Gloria Anzaldua (1987a, 1987b) and Audre 1980s and early 1990s, the center sponsored
Lorde (1985) had bridged the gap between de­ many three-day to week-long workshops for
veloping gay and lesbian studies and the writ­ graduate students and faculty from across the
ings of women of color that tended to ignore nation to come together and discuss our
heterosexism. developing efforts to understand race, class, and
When black women began to critique the gender largely through the eyes of women of
emerging gender scholarship for its exclusion­ color. Many of today’s leading race, class, and
ary practices, they focused on conducting gender scholars were deeply involved with the
analyses that began from the experiences of work of the center, serving on the faculty, on the
black women, putting black women at center advisory board, as visiting scholars, and as cur­
stage. The Black Woman (Cade 1970), Ain't I a riculum workshop leaders and participants:
Woman (hooks 1981), The Black Woman Bernice Barnett, Esther Chow, Patricia Hill
(Rodgers-Rose 1980), and “The Dialectics of Collins, Cheryl Gilkes, Evelyn Nakano Glenn,
Black Womanhood” and (1983) “The Prospects Kenneth Goings, Sharon Harley, Elaine Bell
for an All-Inclusive Sisterhood” (Dill 1979) Kaplan, Sandra Morgen, Leith Mullings, Judith
were among the first critical perspectives on Rollins, Mary Romero, Sheryl Ruzek, Denise
black women published in books and major Segura, Kathy Ward, Ruth Zambrana, Maxine
feminist journals. Baca Zinn, and many others.
Thus it was in women’s studies and in the In 1993, for the pioneering research of the
scholarship of women of color in many different center, Bonnie, Elizabeth, and I received the
disciplines that race, class, and gender studies Jessie Bernard Award from the American Socio­
first emerged. Because of its critical stance to­ logical Association, and in the same year we re­
ward knowledge in the traditional disciplines, its ceived the ASA’s Distinguished Contributions
interdisciplinary approach, and its orientation to Teaching Award—a dual honor never be­
toward social change and social betterment, stowed before or since. This honor recognized
women’s studies was more open to self-critique that the work of the center had facilitated the
for its exclusion of multiple oppressed groups growth of an entirely new perspective on social
such as women of color, working-class women, inequality by providing forums for marginal­
and lesbians (see Baca Zinn et al. 1986). ized groups to fully explore and to express their
One of the galvanizing forces behind this social worlds outside the constraints of tradi­
critical perspective was the Center for Research tional disciplinary and institutional structures.
on Women, founded at the University of The interactions among graduate students and
 Foreword xiii

faculty from different disciplines and from across gender (sometimes labeled as multicultural
the country provided the intellectual space and feminism].
social support to foster collaborative, interdisci­ Race, class, gender, and sexuality scholar­
plinary, border-challenging approaches to tradi­ ship has been integrated into graduate and un­
tional scholarships. dergraduate education in a wide range of
Today race, class, gender, and sexuality disciplines. In the fall of 2004 the USC women's
scholarship has permeated virtually every tradi­ studies program advertised an assistant profes­
tional discipline as well as numerous interdisci­ sor position in race, class, gender, and sexuality
plinary fields (American studies, ethnic studies, that was to be a joint appointment with Women's
cultural studies, justice studies, environmental Studies and any other appropriate department.
studies, and women's studies). Scholars con­ We received more than 360 applications for the
ducting research on race, class, gender, and sex­ position from young scholars representing 15
uality have explored these dynamics in every different disciplines and interdisciplinary pro­
social institution—education, economy and grams. These future leaders in the academy
work, family, politics, and religion. They have fo­ were striking for the breadth of their work and
cused attention on the lives and perspectives of the nature of their educations—many had de­
people situated in many different locations in grees in interdisciplinary fields—graduate and
the relations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. undergraduate certificates, BAs, MAs, and PhDs
They use many different methodologies—from in women's studies, feminist studies, cultural
quantitative analyses of large-scale national sur­ studies, ethnic studies, film studies, peace stud­
veys and census data to textual analysis of a cul­ ies, American studies, and area studies. Many
ture's music, and from life history interviews to had combined these interdisciplinary degrees
participatory research. In fact, the body of schol­ with degrees in traditional disciplines, whereas
arship and the university course offerings on others had focused their entire academic lives in
race, class, gender, and sexuality are extensive interdisciplinary fields—an option that has only
enough that we now refer to the field of race, recently become available.
class, and gender studies, and increasingly of This next generation of race, class, gender,
race, class, gender, and sexuality studies. and sexuality scholars is ready to move us for­
The rapid growth and extensive reach of ward into more complex and nuanced analy­
race, class, gender, and sexuality throughout ses, using new theoretical perspectives and
the disciplines in research and in the curricu­ new empirical applications, and developing
lum is nothing short of phenomenal. Today, new activist agendas. These scholars are less
searches of research publication databases will likely to rely on a single research method or to
turn up hundreds of citations on the topic view qualitative and quantitative methods as
across a wide array of disciplines. Curricula oppositions and are more likely to employ
also have been reshaped by this work. For ex­ mixed-methods research that draws from mul­
ample, in 1999 when the women's studies pro­ tiple disciplinary traditions, examines macro
gram that I now direct at the University of as well as micro levels of analysis, attends to
South Carolina decided to implement a new the perspectives of oppressed groups, and inte­
BA degree to accompany our graduate certifi­ grates sexuality more fully into the race, class,
cate degree, we surveyed programs across the and gender paradigm. This new work provides
country to identify the typical core require­ clear evidence that intersectional scholarship
ments in these relatively new degrees. We is neither a fad nor a limited perspective but
found three common courses in almost all instead is a powerful paradigm for under­
degree programs: introduction to women's standing the complexities of life in the twenty
studies, feminist theory’, and race, class, and first century.
XIV Foreword

References Hull, Gloria, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith,

eds. 1982. All the women are white, all the blacks
Anzaldua, Gloria. 1987a. Borderlands/La Frontera: are men, but some of us are brave: Black women's
The new mestizo. San Francisco: Spinsters/ studies. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press.
AuntLute. hooks, bell. 1981. Ain'tl a woman. Boston: South End
--------- , ed. 1987t>. Making faces, making soul/ Press.
Haciendo caras: Creative and critical perspectives Lorde, Audre. 1985. I am your sister: Black women
by women of color. San Francisco: Spinsters/ organizing across sexualities. New York: Kitchen
AuntLute. Table, Women of Color Press.
Baca Zinn, Maxine, Lynn Weber Cannon, Elizabeth Rodgers-Rose, LaFrances, ed. 1980. The black woman.
Higginbotham, and Bonnie Thornton Dill. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
1986. The costs of exclusionary practices in Weber, Lynn, Elizabeth Higginbotham, and Bonnie
women's studies. Signs: Journal of Women in Thornton Dill. 1997. Sisterhood as collabora­
Culture and Society 11 (Winter): 290-303. tion: Building the Center for Research on
Cade, Toni, ed. 1970. The black woman.. New York: Women at the University of Memphis. In
Signet. Feminist sociology: Life histories of a movement,
Dill, Bonnie Thornton. 1979. The dialectics of black ed. Barbara Laslett and Barrie Thorne, 229-56.
womanhood. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
and Society 4: 543-55.
--------- . 1983. Race, class and gender: Prospects for LYNN WEBER CANNON
an all-inclusive sisterhood. Feminist Studies 9 Womens Studies Department
(Spring): 131-50. University of South Carolina
 PREFACE

The purpose of this volume is to provide a com­ On the graduate level, this volume provides
prehensive methodological text for instructors instructors with a tool to teach courses on the in­
and scholars who wish to teach and/or to adopt tersectional approach as well as with a manual for
the intersectional approach in their own re­ graduate students and faculty who wish to learn
search, whether qualitative or quantitative. Re­ and adopt the RGC approach in their own re­
cently, Patricia Hill Collins recounted that the search. At the University of Maryland, I have used
most frequent query she hears now is: “How do these materials in my own graduate seminar and
you do RGC research?”2 Specifically, my goal is both advised students and participated in MA and
to provide instructors of upper-division under­ PhD committees of graduate students in several
graduate courses on race, gender, and class with departments who were applying the RGC per­
a comprehensive teaching tool—whatever their spective. Finally', this volume can also be used as a
respective discipline. It is hoped, also, that many supplementary text for those instructors who wish
who now teach lower-division undergraduate to include the RGC approach as part of courses in
courses on race, gender, and class will see this as women’s studies, stratification, race/ethnic stud­
an opportunity to expand these courses to the ies, and other studies.
upper-division level. These are students who From my experience teaching a graduate
can be taken a step further and assigned small seminar on race, gender, and class for almost
research projects, at least of a qualitative nature. 10 years, I have become convinced that race,
In undergraduate departments that require sta­ gender, and class studies has reached the point
tistical courses, it may be possible for students where it is now handicapped by the lack of a
to attempt quantitative studies from an inter­ methodology. The need is for a methodology
sectional perspective. An appendix offers some in the strict meaning of the term (including
suggestions employing analysis of variance. statistical approaches) as well as for new ways

lA variety of terms are currently used for this approach, including intersectional analysis, intersectional theory,,
and race, gender, and class (in several versions) studies. In this volume I use these terms interchangeably.
2private communication.

XV
xvI Preface

of empirical thinking to parallel the theoreti­ ing inherently wrong with these comparisons,
cal formulations that have been developed with they are not the type called for when conducting
this new paradigm. The foundation of this new intersectional analysis.
approach has been solidly established by a very Race, gender, and class studies are con­
rich theoretical literature; and although new cerned with experiences at the intersections of
insights will no doubt continue to emerge race, gender, and class. As I shall discuss in
from theorists, the RGC approach needs to be greater detail in later chapters, the intersections
put to the test by empirical studies. It is not of race, gender, and class create complex social lo­
just testing the theory that is needed, however. cations. They push the boundaries beyond
Ultimately, this new paradigm can bear its dichotomous thinking to an examination of our
richest fruit only through research. Theory experiences as complex individuals who are not
and research can be thought of as handmaid­ black, or female, or working class but who may
ens, with each enriching the work of the other. be a working-class white female, or a middle­
New conceptualizations point the way to fresh class Asian male, or a middle-class black female.
approaches for researchers to explore. Re­ These three identities (race, gender, and class)
searchers, on the other hand, test, clarify, and combined create complex social locations. The
sometimes expand the new theoretical formu­ researchers task is to uncover the varied experi­
lations. This is an extended process, dependent ences that occur at these intersections and to
on the cumulative efforts of numerous schol­ compare these experiences across these complex
ars as each explores the meanings and experi­ social locations, not simply across dichotomies.
ences of individuals and groups at the Rather than asking if females earn the same in­
intersections of race, gender, and class. comes as males, the intersectional analyst might
After reviewing a large body of qualitative compare the incomes of middle-class white and
and quantitative articles in the course of teaching black (or Asian or Latino) females with those of
my seminar on race, gender, and class, I realized middle-class white and black (or Asian or Latino)
that although these articles often yielded im­ males. Such a comparison might extend to
portant findings, most fell short of the goals of other social locations such as working-class
intersection theory; At times the problem was Latino females and/or working-class Asian fe­
methodological, at times conceptual, and at males. These comparisons across complex
other times both methodological and concep­ social locations provide more nuanced insights
tual. Conceptually, most researchers have not into the distribution of income or some other
been able to move beyond the traditional ways characteristic or experience, compared with di­
of thinking that we have all learned. As a result, chotomous comparisons.
old ways of thinking and conceptualizing are
for the most part still the tools being used by
those attempting to employ the RGC approach. Organization
Here I’m referring especially to the way compar­
isons between groups have been traditionally I have organized this volume along theoretical
made. For instance, in race, gender, or class and methodological dimensions rather than
studies comparisons have traditionally been by substantive areas of research using the in­
made between what I call simple social locations: tersectional approach. Although articles using
across race, as in black or white, Latino or African the intersectional approach have appeared in
American; across gender, as in female income sociological, gender, ethnic, and even legal and
compared with male income; or across class, as in medical journals, covering a wide variety of
rates of unionization among working-class versus substantive issues, my concern here is not with
middle-class employees. Although there is noth­ any particular substantive issue or issues. My
 Preface xvii

concern is the degree to which these articles analysis. The articles selected are among the
can be said to reflect “sound” intersectional best that my students and I have found in the
methodology. The articles themselves, there­ literatures of a variety of disciplines. From a
fore, are only of interest methodologically. methodological point of view—the methodol­
Thus, I have divided this volume into three ogy of intersectional analysis—the articles are
parts. The first contains the major articles mixed in their reflection of the intersectional
written by black feminist theorists on intersec- approach. This is the state of the field at this
tionality; the second and third parts present a point.
smorgasbord of qualitative and quantitative In no way do I consider this text the final
articles that use the intersectional approach. word. It is, rather, the beginning of a much-
The qualitative and quantitative sections are needed addition to the intersectional approach.
further subdivided by the number of social lo­ My own reading and class discussions of articles
cations represented in articles. Research using purporting to apply the intersectional approach
race, gender, and class as dichotomous vari­ left me with the firm conviction that both qual­
ables will have eight possible social locations itative and quantitative researchers have been
(2 X 2 X 2). If race or class has more than two groping in the dark. Without clear methodolog­
groups, or if one of the three identities is ex­ ical (and statistical) guidelines, otherwise fine
cluded, the result will be more or fewer social articles often fall short from an intersectional
locations. As will become clear, grouping arti­ perspective. It is hoped that this volume will
cles by the number of social locations is a use­ prove useful to instructors and helpful to the
ful device for exploring intersectional analysis. many scholars in a large variety of disciplines
Each of the three parts opens with an intro­ who see the value of the intersectional approach
duction. In the introduction to the first part I and wish to incorporate it in their work. I firmly
attempt to synthesize the theory of intersec­ hope that others will add to this beginning.
tional analysis, based on a careful reading of the As with every effort of this kind, many peo­
theoretical articles. The second and third intro­ ple have contributed to its realization. First of all
ductions, preceding the qualitative and quanti­ I wish to acknowledge my students over many
tative sections, offer methodological rules and semesters, who struggled together during count­
strategies for the researcher. These two intro­ less hours of discussion to gain a better under­
ductions also provide methodological critiques standing of intersectionaliy. These discussions
of the articles included in this volume. In doing sharpened my own thinking as well as provided
so, I do not replicate the canons of sound qual­ me with valuable insights. I am especially grate­
itative and quantitative research that should in­ ful for the support of my editor, Nancy Roberts,
form any research endeavor. Rather, I attempt to who remained interested in this project in spite
present what I believe to be principles and of a number of lengthy delay's. As always, I take
practices that are unique to intersectional full responsibility for its content.
Race, Gender

and Class
 PART I

JHpr The Theory of

"intersectional Analysis

INTRODUCTION upper, middle, or working class. White (R) upper­

middle-class (C) females (G), although expe­
Social science research has historically focused riencing some disadvantages based on their
on race, gender, or class separately. Collectively gender, lead privileged lives because of their
from this research we have learned a great deal class position compared with white working­
about race and gender in the United States, and class females. Additionally, their race gives them
somewhat less about class. Nevertheless, some further advantages over Latino and African
recent scholars have criticized the race, gender, American females of all classes (Glenn 1992).
or class approach. These theorists, mainly black Gender studies of white middle-class women or
female academics (Brewer 1993; Collins 1993; of all women together fail to provide an under­
King 1988; Zinn and Dill 1996), have champi­ standing of these different experiences. Simi­
oned an approach variously referred to as int­ larly, although there is justification for speaking
ersection theory or intersectional analysis. They of a historical “black experience” of slavery, dis­
argue that instead of conducting research sepa­ crimination, and racism, blacks, like whites, dif­
rately on race, gender, or class we should focus fer by gender and class. Although a black (R)
on the social locations created by the intersec­ upper-middle-class (C) male (G) and a black
tion of these three identities. Research on race, (R) working-class (C) male (G) both may expe­
gender, or class ignores the multifaceted nature rience discrimination in the housing and labor
of individual experiences, capturing only part markets owing to their race, the black upper­
of a more complex whole. middle-class male has greater resources with
To ignore someone's race and class while which to fight this discrimination and enjoys a
studying his or her gender experience, for ex­ more affluent living standard. Among blacks, a
ample, runs the risk of missing variations in black woman may be more successful in hailing
gender experience due to that individual's race a cab than a black male, regardless of their class.
or class. in addition to being white, an indi­ Although some Asians have achieved notable'
vidual is male or female and a member of the success as entrepreneurs and professionals, others

I
2 ■ Part I

have been able to find only unskilled working­ Interlocking Systems

class jobs (Kwong 1987; Ong, Bonacich, and of Oppression and Privilege
Cheng 1994; Zhou 1992).
In reality our identities are constructed Corresponding to our race, gender, and class
from many layers. Whether we start from the identities we are confronted on the macro level
most micro or the most macro, we are at the of society with the systems of racism, patri­
same time citizens of a particular nation; resi­ archy, and capitalism. Historically these systems
dents of a state, city, and neighborhood; mem­ have stood out as three of the most powerful
bers of a family, an ethnic or racial group, as well forces in our society. Intersectional theorists re­
as of a social class; and a particular gender. fer to them as “interlocking” systems of oppres­
Although all these characteristics are important sion (Collins 1993,558). Just as we interact with
parts of us, some are more significant than oth­ one another as members of a particular race,
ers. In the United States an individual’s race, gender, and class, so do the systems of racism,
gender, and class have historically been particu­ patriarchy, and capitalism function in tandem.
larly salient. Although many call for and others And although some writers Debate the relative
yearn for a “color-blind” society, we have not importance of each, it is probably more fruitful
been so historically and are not so today. As in to understand how these systems interact with
other societies, we have always classified and and reinforce each other. Additionally, it is in­
still separate individuals by their gender and creasingly becoming recognized that racism,
treat them differently; and class distinctions pat^iia^i^c^E^y^, and capitalism are both systems of
have become more rather than less important in oppression and systems of privilege (Domhoff
recent years.1 1983; Hurtado 1999; Johnson 2006; Leonardo
Other characteristics like age, disability, and 2004; Rothenberg 2002). To some individuals
sexual orientation have also become contentious they provide advantages, to others handicaps.
issues in the United States and very salient as­
pects of many individuals’ lives. Nevertheless,
Race
because the purpose of this book is to contribute
to the further development of the theory and The concept of race has its origin in the notion
methodology of intersectionality as originally that Different and distinct gene pools exist among
espoused, I will confine myself to the original humans spread across the globe. European ex­
characteristics of race, gender, and class. Race, pansion promoted the notion of inherent racial
gender, and class, although not exhaustive of our inequality as these nations colonized Africa,
identity, have historically been the three most India, and the Americas, appropriated land, and
important characteristics shaping lives and soci­ exacted forced labor (Harrison 1995). Accord­
ety in the United States. In other countries one ing to Foner and Fredrickson (2004, 3), “The
may have to substitute ethnicity, caste, or even concept of race entered American history in the
religion for race, but in the United States race is seventeenth century, when the colonists began
indisputably one of the most salient characteris­ to identify themselves as ‘white’ in Distinction
tics of everyone’s identity. Not only is the saliency from the Indians whose land they were appro­
of race deeply rooted in our collective history, it priating and the blacks they were enslaving.”
continues to influence almost every aspect of Thus racism early on became entwined with
our lives (Fears 2004; Joyce 2004; Masters 2004; the anthropological concept of race. The “sci­
Mayer 2004; Merle 2004). entific” concept of race itself became hotly

1 Witness, for instance, the intense debate between presidential candidates over the recipients of tax cuts.
 The Theory of Intersections! Analysis 3

contested in the twentieth century, culminating of African versus European descent, resulting
in the late 1970s with its rejection as a useful largely from the failure to accept freedmen fully
tool for classifying humans (Littlefield, Lieber­ into the life of the community following the
man, and Reynolds 1982). The term has never­ Civil War (Steinberg 1981). Southern whites
theless lived on in both popular and scholarly and many northerners had developed a stake in
discourse. preserving the distinction, partly prompted by
Social Darwinists (Claeys 2000; Dennis the need to maintain a eheap labor force to
1995; Oakes 1985) of the late nineteenth and rebuild the cotton industry of the South in the
early twentieth centuries appropriated the con­ nineteenth century and partly stemming from
cept, using it in a somewhat related yet different negative stereotypes and prejudices against
way from that used by anthropologists. For blacks that had become part of white culture
them each nationality represented a different (Landry 1991).
“race” of people: Italian immigrants were a Unlike in Brazil, which also has a slave his­
race, Polish immigrants were a race, African tory and where race is viewed in “graduated”
Americans were a race, and those of Anglo tones, race in the United States was defined in
Saxon heritage were still another race. Today we absolute terms of black or white. Laws passed by
use terms such as ethnicity or ethnic group Southern states, defining racial identity in terms
rather than race to distinguish individuals with of percentage of racial ancestry, further institu­
different national and cultural heritages. In the tionalized this racial dichotomy. Eventually re­
late nineteenth century, however, social Darwinist ferred to as the “one drop rule,” these laws
theorists argued that immigrants from south­ designated a person legally black who had even
ern and eastern Europe were “races” lower on the minutest percentage of black ancestry
the evolutionary scale than Anglo Saxons, who (Davis 1991). In Louisiana this definition of
had earlier immigrated to the United States. black led to the practice of “passing” by some
These ideas became the basis for severe discrim­ mulattoes with such light skin that they were in­
ination of these immigrants in every aspect of distinguishable from those individuals who
daily life, including schools (Oakes 1985). Here were legally white. Sueh an individual might
social Darwinist ideas prevailed in motivating have migrated to California and lived as a white
the development of a tracking system that pro­ person but had to revert to black status when
vided an inferior education to immigrant chil­ visiting relatives in Louisiana. Southern states
dren deemed inferior to the native born. further created legal and social barriers against
Eventually, social Darwinist ideas lost their black participation in the eivie, social, and
eogeney, and after several generations, immi­ economic life of the community. It was a segre­
grants from Europe intermarried and became gated system maintained by Jim Crow laws,
part of the white population in the United custom, and violence (Myrdal [1944] 1972).
States (Roediger 2005). National origin distinc­ Thus the concept of race lived on in the United
tions persisted in the more benign form of ethn­ States primarily as a term separating blacks and
icity, preserved in cuisines and festivities that whites.
everyone enjoyed. The Saint Patrick's Day Parade
in New York City, for instance, is enjoyed by
The social construction of race
New Yorkers of all backgrounds. Today other
heritages are also celebrated in events such as a Today sociologists think of the concept of race as
Puerto Rican Day parade or Caribbean festivals. socially constructed. By this they mean that its
Although ethnicity replaced race as a desig­ content or meaning is not absolute, nor is its
nation for those of different European origins, meaning derived from any facts such as biology.
it lived on as a distinction between Americans Rather, its meaning springs from its use by a
4 ■ Part I

particular group of people; it is a social concept was a radical challenge to current thinking
rather than a biological one. For instance, the about the position of women in society. Written
term race means different things in the United about the position of women in France, the
States, BrazH, and Cotamlna.2 In the Umted book was perceived as equally applicable to
States individuals of African descent with brown women in the United States. The feminist
or black skin are all seen as “black.” Brazil has movement of the late 1960s and 1970s gave fur­
distinct terms for such individuals (Fears 2002). ther impetus to the scrutiny of the experiences
A brown-skinned individual is referred to by the and position of women in society. One of the
term moreno, whereas a very dark-skinned per­ gains of the feminist movement was an increase
son is called negro (black). On a trip to Brazil in in the number of women entering college and a
1990 I had the experience of meeting the friend significant growth in the number of female col­
of an American acquaintance who was brown lege and university professors. Many of these
skinned. Sitting across from her over coffee was academics focused their research on the condi­
a strange, almost surreal, experience. As she ex­ tion of women, just as black academics had
plained that in Brazil she was not black but focused earlier on race. Gender studies and
moreno (brown), I nevertheless saw before me a women’s studies followed the earlier path of
“black” woman. I could not easily adjust to the black studies and Afro-American studies. A rich
idea that the brown-skinned woman sitting be­ tapestry of books and articles poured from the
fore me was not black here in Brazil, because she pens of women scholars in the academy.
would certainly have been seen as black in the It may be surprising to learn that one of the
United States. I was further confused as I lis­ conclusions of women scholars is that gender-,
tened to her account of her family. Married to a like race, is socially constructed.. But unlike race,
white man, she was accused by some friends, she doesn't gender have a biological foundation?
said, of attempting to whiten her offsprings. After all, males and females are different biolog­
Such a notion of whitening one's offspring is en­ ically. That is true, sociologists contend, but we
tirely foreign to the United States context. In must distinguish between the concepts of
Brazil if one is light skinned enough, one is con­ gender and sex. An individual’s sex is biological,
sidered white; in the United States the whitest but what it means to be male or female is so­
mulatto is still black. Clearly “race” is constructed cially constructed. It is this area of gender that is
differently/ in these two countries. contested. When a society assigns roles based on
an individual’s sex, it has moved from biology
to culture. Here we encounter vast differences in
The social construction of gender
a society’s beliefs about women’s roles across
Whereas there are thousands of books and arti­ nations (Lindsey 1994). Whether a women
cles about race in the United States, social sci­ should be employed or remain at home is a
ence interest in gender is more recent. Although question of gender rather than sex; whether she
some attention was given to gender by feminists should take the initiative in dating, whether she
in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, should wear a dress or slacks, whether she should
for all practical purposes interest in gender by wear a veil are also part of the social construc­
social scientists can be dated to the publication tion of gender in a particular society at a partic­
of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir in ular time. The issue of subordinate or egalitarian
1957. Along with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine relationships between men and women con­
Mystique, published in 1963, The Second Sex cerns a society’s views about gender. In short,

2See the article by Joel Streicker among the qualitative articles in this volume.
 The Theory of Interstcrional Analysis ■ 5

gender refers to a particular society’s views of 1972, 1899, [18??] 1974) promoting the idea of
the proper place and roles of women and men. upward mobility were enormously popular in the
For example, views about the proper attire early twentieth century. “Rags to riches” became
for women have varied tremendously in the the goal of every immigrant or working-class
United States between the nineteenth and early American. In America, at least, class position was
twentieth centuries and today. Everyone has not fixed, as in Europe.
seen pictures of early-twentieth-century beaches Nineteenth-century Americans spoke of the
with women wading in bathing suits that cov­ “middling class” or “middling classes” (Blumin
ered most of their body, or wearing long dresses 1989). These were individuals with the “good
and carrying umbrellas. Today the burka or veil jobs,” professionals, managers, workers in sales
worn by Muslim women stands in sharp con­ and even clerical jobs: in short, white-collar
trast to the sleeveless tank tops and short skirts workers whose lives stood in sharp contrast to
of Western women. Gender, far from being bio­ those of factory and domestic workers. Sister
logical, refers to the meaning a society gives to Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser published
the roles and position of Members of each sex. in 1900, took for granted class differences of the
Gender, like race, is socially constructed. time. The heroine, Sister Carrie, is a young
white girl who leaves a small town in Illinois to
seek her fortune in Chicago. Her initial at­
Class
tempts to land a respectable, pleasant job as a
In the 2001 PBS Documentary People Like Us: dtpartMtnt store clerk are frustrated by her lack
Social Class in America the Moderator says: “It’s of experience. In desperation she turns to fac­
basically against the American principal to belong tory employment but finds the work tedious
to a class. So naturally Americans have a really and the coarse behavior and humor of the
hard time talking about the class system, because working-class girls offensive. Rather than dis­
they really don’t want to admit that a class system cussing turn-of-the-ctntury class differences,
exists. But the reality is it does.” Perhaps the most Dreiser simply reveals them in his description
significant thing about the documentary was that of life in Chicago, seen through the eyes of Sis­
it was made. Twentieth-century Americans (and ter Carrie. The lesson: class differences were
to a lesser extent those of the twenty-first cen­ part of the fabric of everyday life in America.
tury) have often thought that ours is a classless Class differences were not eliminated or
society, yet the idea of a classless U.S. society even diMinished in the later twentieth century.
would have struck nineteenth-century Americans In an economy progressively dominated by
as a strange notion (Blumin 1989). Immigrants large corporations, wealth became increasingly
who came to the United States by the millions in concentrated in the hands of a relatively small
search of economic opportunity had no illusions number of families in the upper class. The mid­
about the existence of classes. Class differences dle class continued to grow, fed by the demand
were obvious in everyday life. The urban tene­ for accounts, lawyers, engineers, clerks, sales
ments of working-class families contrasted workers, and countless others needed to run the
sharply with the more affluent homes of the mid­ growing corporations. At the same time, Amer­
dle and upper classes. In a period before designer ican industry absorbed a steady flow of manual
labels, class differences were further visible in the workers to turn out the goods consumed here
clothes worn by the Member of different classes. and abroad. There were, therefore, three clearly
Rather than deny the existence of classes, iMMi­ distinct classes: an upper class, which owned the
grants aspired to climb the class ladder or at least corporate wealth of the nation; a middle class of
prepare their children for movement into the white-collar employees; and a working class of
middle class. The novels of Horatio Alger ([1872] manual or blue-collar workers. These three classes
6 Part I

along with small entrepreneurs are the basic propositions linking other variables (some of
classes of an industrial, capitalist society and form them conditional). How are occupations linked
one of the rnportant baekdrops of everyday life. to income? What is the impact of job experience
The PBS documentary was important for its on income?? All these relationships and others
eandid and matter-of-fact porti*a^yal of class in must be explored to construct a theory of in­
America. At the same time it revealed a level of come attainment. Once sufficient research has
confusion among Americans about the differ­ been conducted to test the many hypotheses in­
ence between class and status. Class, as the pre­ volved, a theory may emerge ... or may not.
ceding discussion indicates, is an objective fact of We often speak of a theory when in fact we
life. It indicates an individual’s place within the are using a set of assumptions or hypotheses
economy, as the possessor and controller of great that have yet to be verified through empirical
economic wealth and power, as the holder of a research. Or we may use the term theory when
position (occupation) in one of the two broad we are really referring to a hypothesis. With this
groups of occupations in the labor market, or as distinction in mind we would have to say that
a small entrepreneur. Class position determines intersection theory is not yet a theory but a set
one’s economic resources, which in turn deter­ of assumptions or hypotheses that are being
mine one’s living standard. In contrast status tested through the efforts of many researchers.
refers to how other people think of us. It is their However, for simplicity, I shall continue speak­
evaluation of us as persons based on such things ing of intersection theory throughout this and
as our family background, our character, our oc­ the following discussions.
cupation, and residence. Status is therefore sub­ A theory involves new ideas, often new ways
jective rather than objective like class. of looking at familiar issues and experiences. To
express these new ways of looking at society, the­
orists often invent new terms or use existing ones
* The Language in different ways. Thus there is a language of in­
of Intersection Theory tersection theory along with a set of assumptions.
All the concepts of intersection theory are not
Social scientists often use the term theory rather at the same l*evel, th°ugh. Tliere are maero-
loosely. Strictly speaking, a theory is a set of level coneepts such as racism, patriarchy, and
propositions that taken together form an expla­ capitalism. Others, like sexism, racism, privilege,
nation. A proposition (or hypothesis) is a state­ simultaneity, and multiplicative are used at the
ment of the expected relationship between two messo or micro (individual) level.
variables, usually expressed as more or less, At the macro level intersection theorists see a
higher or lower, or in some other wording signi­ society in which racism, patiiar^c^h^y^, and capital­
fying a direct or indirect relationship. Thus we ism function from the top down, as systems of
may say that the higher an individual’s educa­ oppression (Baron 1971; Domhoff 1983; Fredrick­
tion, the higher his or her income. Of course, son l988; Hartman 1981 ).3 Existing at the sode­
the perceptive student will immediately recog­ tal or macro level these systems represent power
nize that additional factors influence income relationships between whites and blacks, men and
attainment. To develop a theory of income' at­ women, and capitalists and workers. Essentially,
tainment, therefore, one must include other patriarchy, racism, and capitalism are systems of

•'Heidi Hartmann’s ( 1981,2) definition of patriarchy is often cited: “We can usefully define patriarchy as a set of
social relations between men, which have a material base, and which, though hierarchical, establish or create
interdependence and solidarity among men that enable them to dominate women.”
 The Theory of Intersectional Analysis * 7

beliefs and values as well as systems of relation­ We do not think that whites should be slaves
ships. Racism and patriarchy are sets of beliefs either by law or necessity. Our slaves are black,
and values about blacks and whites, and about of another, inferior race. The status in which we
men and women, respectively. Often, it is the have placed them is an elevation. They are ele­
stereotypes of blacks, of women, and of workers vated from the condition in which God first cre­
as different, as other, and as inferior that support ated them by being made our slaves.
unequal and unjust power relationships between
blacks and whites, males and females, and capi­ Racism, patriarchy, and capitalism also
talists and workers. (The notion in nineteenth­ represent expected behaviors and relationships.
century America that women had smaller In the cases of racism and patriarchy these belief
brains than men, and therefore could not bear systems are often acted out in face-to-face inter­
the stress of higher education, contributed to so­ actions as whites and men attempt to coerce
ciety’s opposition to their admission to colleges.) blacks and women into conforming to these be­
In their book For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the liefs (West and Fenstermaker 2002). Likewise, in
Experts’ Advice to Women Ehrenreich and English our capitalist system—a system of relationships
(1978, 100) provide the following quote from among individuals in the marketplace—certain
nineteenth-century England: behaviors are sanctioned. Workers are expected
to accept the economic dominance of capitalists
Women beware. You are on the brink of destruc­ and to conform to their rules for achieving eco­
tion. You have hitherto been engaged in crushing nomic success.
your waists, now you are attempting to cultivate Because these “systems” operate in tandem—
your mind. You have been merely dancing all white upper-class males may use their command
night in the foul air of the ball room; now you over the economy to control women and mi­
are beginning to spend your mornings in study. norities, whites may use their superior numbers
You have been incessantly stimulating your emo­ and positions of authority to discriminate
tions with concerts and operas; now you are ex­ against minorities, and capitalists may use their
erting your understanding to learn Greek, and ownership of economic resources to control
solve propositions in Euclid. Beware!! Science workers—intersection theorists view these sys­
pronounces that the woman who studies is lost. tems as interlocking systems of oppression. In
the preceding examples we see that a group of
The “science” referred to was probably from males may use their position as capitalists to op­
Freud and Darwin, both of whom encouraged press women (patriarchy). In other instances
this idea of the intellectual inferiority of women, they may also identify as white and use their
an idea that also became popular in the United combined resources to oppress blacks and other
States during the Victorian period of the late minorities (racism). These are shifting alliances
nineteenth-century. that may operate alone or together. Capitalists
African Americans, no less than white (both males and females) may join together to
women, were the objects of negative stereo­ oppose legislation benefiting workers, such as
types. Slaveholders invented Sambo, the happy- proposed legislation for redesigning machinery
go-lucky but simple-minded male slave. Other to limit incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome;
images of black slaves as somewhat less than or the males among them may invoke their
human, or lacking souls or virtue, were all used maleness or their whiteness in opposition to
to justify their subordination. Senator James gender or racial issues.
Henry Hammond, the planter-intellectual and The messo level refers to the institutions
senator for the state of South Carolina, argued on and organizations of society such as educa­
the Senate floor in 1858 (Frederickson 1988, 23): tion, the health care system, and state and local
8 Part I

government agencies, to name btrt a few. Sociol­ at the macro level and have them translated into
ogists customarily use’ the term institutions for institutions and organizations at the messo level.
those organizations that provide essential serv­ To eliminate barriers to education, women and
ices to society such as health care and educa­ blacks have had to appeal to the federal govern­
tion. Organizations are groups of people united ment to enact policies outlawing these practices.
around some common purpose. The purpose Once such policies were promulgated, women
may be recreational (Lions or Elks Clubs), reli­ and blacks had to continue struggling at the
gious (Knights of Columbus), social (Jack and messo level to gain compliance from schools in
Jill), offensive (a paramilitary group), economic their admission policies. Likewise, workers have
(a local chamber of commerce), or dominative had to continue their struggle to preserve the
(the Ku Klux Klan). Institutions and organiza­ right to collective bargaining with capitalists.
tions, although composed of individuals, take Regardless of our gender, race, or class each
on a life of their own that represents the collec­ of us lives our life at the individual or micro level
tive. Through rules and customs they “act” on (Goffman 1961, 1963). The Micro level of face-
behalf of their members or their mandate. to-face interactions is operative in the chance en­
Because they are embodied in rules and cus­ counters of everydaY life—on the street, in
toms, voluntary organizations persist as long as elevators, in stores, in introductions. When ap­
there are any members, even though individual plying for a job we function as individuals at the
members come and go. micro level, within a messo-level organization.
Institutions and organizations exist be­ Our social lives are lived at the micro level. We go
tween the macro or societal level and the indi­ out on dates as individuals, we take classes as in­
vidual level. They translate or reflect the beliefs dividuals, and we graduate as individuals (al­
and values of the macro systems of society. though we probably had the backing of family,
Their effects are felt by individuals or groups in friends, and teachers). It is at this level that we are
a particular social location—African American perceived—and perceive others—as male or fe­
male workers, poor white women, or the male, African American, Asian, Latino or white,
broader categories Of women, African Ameri­ upper class, middle class, or working class.
cans, Asians, Latinos, or Native Americans. For Face-to-face contact also occurs in the more
instance, during the nineteenth and first half of structured encounters of organizational and in­
the twentieth centuries blacks were refused en­ stitutional settings: purchasing an item in stores,
trance into the colleges of the South because of talking to a professor after class, applying for a
the racist belief that blacks were inferior to driver’s license, or visiting a doctor’s office. The
whites. Nineteenth-century capitalists sought distinction between the micro and messo levels
and received help from the federal government May at times be difficult to untangle. I suggest
to deny workers the right to organize in unions that when an encounter occurs with members of
for self-protection and to improve working an organization or institution as representatives
conditions and pay (Edwards 1979). of ffiat organization or mstftudon ft fs a messo-
Many nineteenth-century discriminatory level encounter. Wortars nt the orgamzation or
practices extended into the twentieth century. In­ institution have the presumptive authority and
deed, women did not win the right to vote until power of the organization or institution in their
1920, workers did not gain the legal right to fiv’r and pcrcrivc thcMsdves <js aiforom of/or
unionize until 1935, and blacks were legally segre­ functioning withut the ridcs of thc o^arnzauon;
gated until 1964. Having won these legal rights, but this organiz.ational encounter takes pkto.*
women, blacks, and workers have had to continue within the larger setting of the society. Thus both
to struggle for their implementation. Part of their macro-level and mcsso-lcvcl norms arc brought
struggle has been to alter values, beliefs, and laws to bear in thc encounter. A white store clerk may
 The Theory of Intersectional Analysis ■ 9

follow a black customer because she or he ad­ that each of us “lives in” a unique social location.
heres to the societal stereotype that blacks are Into two of these identities—gender and race—
dishonest and feels free to do so because she or he we are born and there live out our lives with only
perceives her- or himself as representing the au­ rare exception. As Patricia Hill Collins (1998)
thority of the store. Conversely, if a black and a notes, these social locations usually set the stage
white customer meet by chance in the same for the rest of our lives. The mulatto who moved
store, or male and female patients sit in adjacent from Louisiana to California and there lived as a
chairs in a doctor’s waiting room, they experi­ white person was attempting to change from a
ence a micro-level, personal encounter. In such disadvantaged to an advantaged social location.
encounters the more “powerful” individual may Even extreme measures like a sex change can be
attempt to hold the less powerful accountable to interpreted as an attempt by an individual to
the race, gender, and class norms and stereotypes modify his or her social location.
they hold. At the same time, the less powerful in­ We are also born into a class—the class of
dividual may acquiesce, feign acquiescence, or our parents. Although the majority of children
overtly resist these attempts. remain in the class of their parents, a significant
The notion of oppression in race, gender, percentage of working-class children move into
and class relationship is useful and reflects real the middle class by virtue of obtaining a college
experiences; however, race, gender, and class education. A smaller percentage of those born
analysis can also accommodate more “neutral” middle class experience downward mobility into
experiences of differences or variations in expe­ the working class by failing to attend college to
riences across social locations that are not inher­ earn a bachelor’s degree or by failing to secure a
ently oppressive. For intersection theory to middle-class job. Practically no child from the
realize its full potential in social research it must upper class experiences downward mobility.
incorporate these other types of relationships. A Onee we have completed our education and
number of articles in this book fall into the latter moved into the labor force as adults we assume
category. Rather than detracting from the in­ our own class position, a position that we are
tersectional approach, the inclusion of nonop- rarely able to change. From that point on, there­
pressive experiences encourages the adoption fore, we are likely to live the remainder of our
of this perspective over a broader range of soci­ lives in a single social location. We are a Puerto
etal experiences. Rican middle-class male, or a black middle-class
female, or a white upper-class female. If, for sim­
plicity’s sake, we omit the upper class in this dis­
Social locations cussion, then the three identities yield eight
Yet, it is not as Latino or female or working class distinct social locations: (1) black4 middle-class
that we are perceived or that we perceive others. female, (2) white middle-class female, (3) black
Each of us is met and meets others with a poten­ middle-class male, (4) white middle-elass male,
tial recognition of all three characteristics of our (5) black working-class female, (6) white working­
identity. The person you meet may be white, fe­ class female, (7) black working-class male (8), and
male, and working class; or the individual seek­ wMte working-dass femate.4 5 From the poim of
ing a job or an apartment may be seen as Asian, view of importance to the individual, we cannot
male, and middle class. Taken together these rank these social locations. Each individual’s so­
three characteristics of our identity define a cial location is important to him or to her, it is
social location. Thus it is immediately evident the “house” in which the person lives out life.

4We can, of course, substitute another racial group for black.

5Adding upper dass wodd yied four addin^a1 socid kjc^kms.
IO Part I

We may also evaluate these social locations of his race. Whether all three of these identities
in terms of their experiences in life. Social scien­ affect the outcome of an encounter depends on
tists have moved from the position of focusing the particular situation and the individuals in­
only on the disadvantages that some individuals volved. The strength of the intersectional ap­
experienced to acknowledging that for every proach is its recognition that as individuals we
disadvantage suffered there is often some ad­ enter life situations with our race, gender, and
vantage to others (Hurtado 1999; Leonardo class identities. To focus on just one is poten­
2004; McKinney 2005; Rothenberg 2002). I do tially to misinterpret the experience or to fail to
not mean to imply that life is a zero-sum game. understand it fully. In later chapters I will ad­
Zero-sum games exist only when the “good” in­ dress methods that can be used to apply the in­
volved is fixed. Although that may be the case in sights of intersection theory in research.
some instances, it is by no means always the
case. If there are only 100 taxis on the street but
110 individuals competing for rides, then 10 per­ The Assumptions
sons will be losers in this zero-sum game. If 90 of Intersection Theory
are white males and 20 are black males, the game
is skewed if 5 of the black males are refused ser­ As noted previously, new approaches or new
vice because of their race, thus increasing the like­ theories in the physical and social sciences are
lihood that proportionally more black than white accompanied by new concepts or terminologies
males will fail to secure a ride home. that become the tools for expressing novel
Being white priv'Heges an individual in situ­ ideas. This is the stage at which race, gender, and
ations where race is salient. Being male likewise class analysis finds itself today. This stage neces­
conveys privileges over females; and those in the sarily involves debates, disagreements, criti­
upper class have the advantages of power and cisms, and revisions. The eventual goal is to
wealth relative to individuals of all other classes. arrive at a consensus about the “best” terminol­
In general, it should be obvious that white ogy to use, the “most accurate” way to concep­
upper-class males are in the most privileged tualize relationships, and new ways of thinking
social location, followed by white upper-class about social relations. Debate fosters this
females. Conversely, the most disadvantaged are process by pushing theorists and researchers to
minority working-class males and females. examine their ideas more closely and critically
Given that being male trumps being female in than they would otherwise. It is a process in
our society, minority working-class females are which no one commands the “truth.” It is hoped
probably in the most disadvantaged of all social that over time new insights are achieved, and
locations. eventually consensus is reached. Collins (1995,
Although we carry our race, gender, and 491) summarizes this challenge:
class identities into every situation, all three may
not always be salient in a particular encounter The area of race, class, gender studies struggles
(Collins 1993; King 1988). When girls are called with the complex question of how to think
on less frequently than boys in class, it is their about intersections of systems of oppression
gender that is salient rather than their race or race, class, and gender. We clearly need new
class. A working-class black couple searching for models that will assist us in seeing how struc­
an apartment may be turned away because of tures of power organized around intersecting
their race and class position. A white upper­ relations of race, class, and gender frame the
middle-class male may receive preferential treat­ social positions occupied by individuals; work
ment by his bank because of his connections as a explaining how interlocking systems of oppres­
member of the upper middle class and because sion produce social locations for us all.
 The Theory of Interscctional Analysis ■ II

JSimultaneity situation with the assumption that race, gender,

and class are all relevant, this assumption is open
Black feminists who introduced the notion of
to the test of empirical analysis. In some in­
simultaneity argue that race, gender, and class
stances this assumption may prove valid; in oth­
cannot be separated. Although sociologists have
ers the researcher may discover that only two of
historically examined the experiences of race,
the three characteristics are relevant.
gender, and class separately, this gives the false
A further nuance of the simultaneity as­
impression that they function independently of
sumption is voiced by Zinn and Dill (1996,
one another. Rather, these black feminists assert
326-27):
that race, gender, and class represent “distinc­
tive yet interlocking structures of oppression”
People experience race, class, gender, and sexu­
(Collins 1993, 558). Race, gender, and class are
ality differently depending upon their social lo­
salient characteristics of each individual that
cation in the structures of race, gender, and
“accompany” the individual into every interac­
sexuality. For example, people of the same race
tion or experience.
will experience race differently depending upon
At the same time it is acknowledged that al­
their location in the class structure as working
though all three characteristics of an individ­
class, professional managerial class, or unem­
ual's identity are always present, they are not
ployed; in the gender structure as female or
necessarily all relevant in every situation. As
male; and in structures of sexuality as hetero­
King (1988,48) emphasizes:
sexual, homosexual, or bisexual (italics added).

The importance of any one factor in explaining Thus we have some variation in the con­
black women’s circumstances thus varies de­ ceptualization of simultaneity. Collins empha­
pending on the particular aspect of our lives un­ sizes the “theoretical importance” of assuming
der consideration and the reference groups to that all three characteristics are present and ac­
whom we are compared. In some cases, race tive. King suggests that one of the three charac­
may be the more significant predictor of black teristics may be “more significant” in a given
women’s status; in others gender or class may be situation; and Zinn and Dill propose that one of
more influential (italics added). the three characteristics may be experienced
“differently” depending on the individual’s so­
Still, Collins (1993,560-61) cautions against los­ cial location. It is only by juxtaposing these
ing sight of at least the potential presence of all three different expressions of the idea of simul­
three characteristics: taneity that these nuances are revealed. Com­
mon to all three expressions is the notion that
Race, class and gender may all structure a situation race, gender, and class are all present and that
but may not be equally visible and/or important we should approach each situation with the as­
in people’s self-definitions. . .. This recognition sumption that all three may be active; however,
that one category may have salience over another this may not be the case. One or two of the three
for a given time and place does not minimize the characteristics may be more salient, more sig­
theoretical importance of assuming that race, class nificant, or experienced differently. The answer
and gender as categories of analysis structure all becomes a question that can be resolved only
relationships (italics added). through empirical research. For example, in the
case of racial profiling it is probably typically
Perhaps the most important word in the preced­ the individual’s race and gender (black male)
ing quote is assuming. Although it may be ar­ that prompts a police officer to pull him over.
gued that the researcher should approach each If, however, the individual is observed from
12 Part I

embedded in locations created by these cross­

neaiby, the assumed working-ctass position of
cutting hierarchies. As a result, women and men
the black male may also come into play. Perhaps
throughout the social order experience different
the most important conclusion to draw from
forms of privilege and subordm^mrn depend­
this assumption of simuhanerty is that the oM
ing on their race, dass, gender, and sexuahty. In
approach of studying race or gender or class in­
other words, intersecting forms of domination
dividually should be replaced with attention to
produce both oppression and opportunity.
all three in a given project.

These and other statements by intersec­

Multiplicative versus tional theorists appear to focus on experiences,
additive relationships experiences in which an individual s race, gen­
The term simultaneity is dynamic, suggesting der, and class are all implicated.
how social processes operate—not one at a time Zinn and Dill (1996, 327) write:
but together, in tandem. Closely linked to the
notion of simultaneity is the idea of multiplica­ Race, class, gender, and sexuality are not re­
tive relationships. This concept suggests the form ducible to individual attributes to be measured
of social processes that involves race, gender, and assessed for their separate contribution in
and class, and intersection theorists express this explaining given social outcomes, an approach
notion in various ways. Brewer (1993), King that Elizabeth Spelman calls “popbead meta­
(1988), and others eschew the idea that the form physics,” where a woman's identity consists of
is additive. Race, gender, and class effects are the sum of parts neatly divisible from one
not added one to another, they maintain. King another. The matrix of domination seeks to
(1988,47) argues that “most applications of the account for the multiple ways that women exp­
concepts of double and triple jeopardy have erience themselves as gendered, raced, classed,
been overly simplistic in assuming that the rela­ and sexualized (italics added).
tionships among the various discriminations are
merely additive.” Brewer (1993,16) writes of the Terms like matrix of domination, intersectional, or
“embeddedness and relationality of race, class intersectionality all seem to be reaching for con­
and gender and the multiplicative nature of cepts that express unique forms of experiences
these relationships: race x class x gender” rather and outcomes. At times, however, some writers,
than “race + class + gender.” Collins (1995, 492) while eschewing additive concepts, use language
and Zinn and Dill (1996, 327) all use “inter­ that is additive. Deborah King (1988, 47), after
sectional” or “intersectionality” to convey the noting, “The modifier ‘muft^e’ refers not only
notion of nonadditive relationships. For Collins to severak dmuk^eous oppresskins but to the
(1995, 492 “the notion of intersectionality multiplicative relationships among ttam as
describes micro-level processes—namely, how weB. . . . the equivalent formutation is racism
each individual and group occupies a social multiplied by sexism multiplied by dasskm”
position within interlocking structures of op­ proceeds to give examples from blaek wmtcNs
pression described by the metaphor of intersec­ slave experience. While black women workers
tionality.” For Zinn and Dili (1996,327), suffered the same demandmg physical lab°r
and brutal pumshments as black mc^ as fe-
multiracial feminism emphasizes the inter­ male*s, we were also subject to forms of subjuga­
sectional nature of hierarchies at all levels of tion only apphcabte to women (itulics adckdh”
social life. Class, race, gender, and sexuality are She then quotes from Angela Davis’s (1983, 47)
components of both social structure and social Women, Race and Cla^s^s: “If tile* most violent
interaction. Women and men are differently pumslimans of men conshted in floggings
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