Intersectionality

Intersectionality maintains that people have multifaceted social identities rather than one isolated identity that makes their lived experiences unique. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor and Black feminist, coined the term intersectionality in 1989. The author wrote about how systems of power oppress Black women at work and in their everyday lives.

Jennifer Vardeman-Winter and Natalie T.J. Tindall (2010) argue for a theory of intersectionality in public relations for two reasons:

1) simply explaining diversity and difference through the concept of requisite variety lacked complexity; and 2) as responsible advocates for their clients, public relations practitioners cannot simply reduce publics to psychographics and demographics.

Vardeman-Winter and Tindall (2010) further argue that intersectionality in public relations can be analyzed on nine levels: intra-industrial, organization-publics, publics and community, representational, media, multinational/global, theoretical, and pedagogical.

Finally, the scholars further note that intersectionality operates on various levels that can oppress some groups for the privilege of others.

“For example, research suggests that a lesbian of color working in public relations may be relegated to communicating only with publics from her same race, may not receive the same salary as her heterosexual, white female or male counterparts, and as a public of certain campaigns, may not be communicated with about diseases for which she is at higher risk than are white, female, heterosexual publics” (p. 232).