Intersectional Turn in Gender Studies

Abstract

The word ‘intersection’ refers to the image of crossroad where several major highways meet. Intersectional methodology in gender studies investigates the multiplicity and complexity of gender hierarchies produced by the several axis of power. Rejecting gender dichotomy intersectional analysis claims that gender diversity is formed by class, race (ethnicity), age, citizenship, sexuality and other axis of power and social division. We explore intersectional analysis (IA) as one of the current methodologies of gender studies, which have been recognized in academia and widely used in the last decades. We describe the main principles of IA, academic debates on this approach, criticizing stability and universality of gender categories. We present the key dilemmas of IA and advantages of this method for empirical research. Critiques and adherents of this approach debate the concrete dimensions of social divisions and axis of power, the additive and transversal patterns of social divisions’ intersection and the influence of individual and group experiences of multiple oppressions on the social position within matrix of power. IA in gender studies is considered as methodology of analysis of the complex mechanisms of multiple inequalities producing social locations and relevant social positions. We will show the significance of historical and cultural contexts, which produce and reproduce social hierarchies, but also produce the emancipatory agenda in gender studies. We illustrate this approach within the context of Russian empirical research.