How do you operate through an intersectional lens?

It’s important that we all have a chance for our voices to be heard, our experiences and culture reflected in our places of work. We are in danger of leaving segments of our communities behind if businesses fail to include an intersectional approach into their everyday policies and procedures.

Intersectionality describes how different elements of a person’s identity can be discriminated against, with negative outcomes.

It’s been 30 years since Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term ‘intersectionality’, which recognises that certain individuals face multiple and intersecting forms of structural discrimination, and how discrimination against different facets of a person’s identity can overlap and impact their lives.

In many workplaces, the term intersectionality is becoming more popular in discussions of diversity and inclusion. But many employers aren’t sure what it means, or why it matters in their workplace.

What’s intersectionality?

In a nutshell, intersectionality is the idea that people have more than one identity, and those identities are inherently combined.

Understanding intersectionality in the workplace is crucial to any kind of inclusion program . To support all of your employees effectively, your inclusion efforts need to be intersectional.

Many HR approaches to building equality tend to focus on one type of discrimination at a time, but people themselves aren’t one-dimensional.

So how can you create an intersectional approach in your organisation?