Links between different equality struggles, general anti-discrimination frameworks vs specific strategies: Concepts, Issues and challenges for the women’s movement Mieke Verloo Radboud University Nijmegen and IWM Vienna EWL SEMINAR Brussels, 26 January 2009 Filling the Gender Equality Gap in European Legislation And Tackling Multiple Discrimination

2 Intersectionality? How to understand the links between the struggles for equality or justice? Thinking about inequalities Thinking about strategies to abolish them

3 Inequalities Our societies are ridden with inequalities along many different axes or dimensions Our societies differ in whether and how they see these inequalities to be important, problematic, in need of action Civil society, social movements and politics engage in various activities towards abolishing various inequalities The strength of these political actors varies tremendously

4 How inequalities relate to each other in society The discussion what is the most important/ encompassing inequality in a certain context is inevitably political How the relation between different inequalities is conceptualized is crucial Some of the most important ways of conceptualizing the relation between inequalities are: singling out one as the most important, additive, and intersectionality

5 Thinking about gender & …. The history of the women’s movement shows that there have always been internal struggles on how to see and what to do with other inequalities than gender: Class: first wave divide between bourgeois and socialist women Sexual orientation: the expulsion of lesbians from some of the second wave organisations and the emergence of the lesbian movement Race/ethnicity: exposing racism within the women’s movement And others: disability, age, citizenship

6 Thinking about gender & …. Feminist theory has developed the concept of intersectionality to enable debates and the development of political practices that are acknowledging that different inequalities are constitutive of each other. This means that we should think about gender as made by and shaping class, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, disability….

7 Intersectionality Crenshaw’s useful distinction between structural and political intersectionality Structural intersectionality: inequalities and its intersections are relevant at the level of experiences of people in society Political intersectionality: inequalities and their intersections are relevant at the level of political strategies

8 Understanding intersectionality Intersectionality should be understood as dynamic and institutional or interactive (McCall 2005; Hancock 2007; Marx Ferree 2009). Rather than identifying points of intersection, we should see the dimensions on inequality themselves as dynamic and in changing, mutually constituted relationships with each other from which they cannot be disentangled (Walby 2007). This gives historically realized social relations in any place or time an irreducible complexity in themselves, from which the abstraction of any dimension of comparison (such as “race” or “gender”) is an imperfect but potentially useful conceptual achievement of simplification, not an inherent property of the world (Marx Ferree 2009).

9 Understanding intersectionality The “intersection of gender and race” is not any number of specific locations occupied by individuals or groups (such as Black women), but a process through which “race” takes on multiple “gendered” meanings for particular women and men (and for those not neatly located in either of those categories) depending on whether, how and by whom race-gender is seen as relevant for their sexuality, reproduction, political authority, employment or housing. These domains (and others) are to be understood as organizational fields in which multidimensional forms of inequality are experienced, contested and reproduced in historically changing forms (Marx Ferree 2009).

10 Political intersectionality Intersectional struggles and positive attention for intersectionality have always been present in inequality movements, certainly in the women’s movement. The movements that have developed around different inequalities have very different framings of what the problem is and what should be done about it They have very different levels of institutionalization and power That includes very different historical legacies of intersectional struggles within the movements These struggles are about intersectional bias in the movements: about privileges and exclusion within the movements All this structures the patterns of possible alliances between movements and the possible emergence of an “Oppression Olympics” (Martinez ) 1. Martinez, Elizabeth “Beyond Black/White: The Racisms of our Times.” Social Justice 20 (1/2): 22–34.

11 Political intersectionality The policies and laws that have been developed around different inequalities also have very different framings of what the problem is and what should be done about it They have very different historical legacies of institutionalization of policies addressing different inequalities and intersectional struggles, resulting in very different levels of institutionalization and power There is always intersectional bias in the policies and laws addressing inequalities, inequality policies are often creating ‘new’ privileges and ‘new’ exclusions The current European developments create a momentum and a need for reflection on the possible and desirable strategies to deal with structural and political intersectionality

12 A closer look at how intersections are seen… In terms of when and where intersections matter In terms of what movements and politics have taken up

13 Table 1. Comparing four social categories that are linked to inequalities (Verloo 2006) Representations of social categories GenderRace/ethnicitySexual orientation Class Range of positionsDichotomousMultipleThree/Four or more Dichotomous Origin of social category Contested: Nature /Nurture Contested: Nature/ Culture Nature [constructed] Socio-economic construct Location of inequality Organization of labor, intimacy and citizenship Organization of citizenship and labor [intimacy] Mostly organization of intimacy and citizenship Organization of labor Mechanisms (re)producing inequality Material (resources) Discursive (norms) (Sexist) Violence Discursive (norms) Material (resources) (Racist) violence Discursive (norms) [material, violence] Material (resources)

14 Comparing political and policy activities as connected to four social categories (Verloo) Representations of social categories: GenderRace/ethnicitySexual orientation Class Political cleavageSocial movement Parties InstitutionsManyGrowingFewMany GoalsEquality, difference and deconstruction Multiple goals Equality; assimilation vs. multiculturalism is a hot topic Equality, difference, deconstruction Multiple goals Accepting abolishment of class difference as a goal ClaimsRedistribution and recognition RecognitionRedistribution Political strategiesStruggle for equal treatment, positive action, mainstreaming Struggle for equal treatment Redistribution, some positive action

15 Intersectionality in theory and practice There is more than we see It is a useful exercise to think how our understanding of gender is made through our understanding of class, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity.. age, disability The differences in how movements, citizens and politics see the range of positions across inequality dimensions, the origins of the categories made, the locations that are most important, or the mechanisms that (re)produce inequality are best seen as historically made It is useful to wonder about these differences, not because they are ‘true’, but because they structure possible alliances

16 Intersectionality in theory and practice It is even more useful to keep in mind the differences at the level of political mobilization: in the degree to which inequalities have translated into political cleavages, institutions, in the range of their goals, their claims, and their political strategies

17 Current developments at European level The new EU Directives ‘ fix’ a particular understanding of inequalities A ‘widened’ set of inequality categories that get attention Sex, racial or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, disability and sexual orientation Denying intersectionality, talking about multiple discrimination A ‘shrunk’ understanding of ways of dealing with inequalities as compared to gender equality policies Gender equality policies in the EU currently do include attention for: the level of social structures and institutions; the level of states or EU institutions, and for the private sphere… The EU approach to multiple discrimination lacks all this. The main problem causing inequality is seen to be discrimination, to be addressed by equal treatment, preventing discrimination, and some positive measures

18 Current EWL strategies Since the beginning of this debate the EWL has been asking the EC to ensure a uniform protection for all grounds of discrimination, including a strengthening of European gender equality legislation in order to avoid a hierarchy of rights between the different grounds of discrimination. EWL has also stressed the need of gender mainstreaming in any new EU anti- discrimination directive.

19 Thinking about strategies Differentiating between different strategies: Equal treatment: no unequal protection Positive action and targeted activities: differentiation useful? Mainstreaming: differentiation useful?

20 Thinking about strategies How to think about differentiation? Use ideas on the different range of positions across inequality dimensions, the different origins of the categories made, the different locations that are most important, or the different mechanisms that (re)produce inequality Be very much aware of different ideas in movements and interest groups, of the differences at the level of political mobilization, the degree to which inequalities have translated into political cleavages, institutions, in the range of their goals, their claims, and their political strategies Be aware of the privileged position of gender in terms of institutionalization…

21 Calls for action so far Expose and fight intersectional bias Reframe and stretch existing legal provisions and policies (Sattertwaite 2005) Equality mainstreaming Deliberation? Or struggle? No answer yet to whether single bodies or separate bodies work best, yet differentiation seems key

22 This means: pioneering work ahead… Looking forward to the discussions!

23 References Hancock, Ange-Marie When Multiplication Doesn’t Equal Quick Addition: Examining Intersectionality as a Research Paradigm. Perspectives on Politics, 5(1): Marx Ferree, Myra Inequality, Intersectionality and the Politics of Discourse: Framing Feminist Alliances, in Emanuela Lombardo, Petra Meier and Mieke Verloo. The discursive politics of gender equality. Stretching, bending and policy making. Routledge McCall, Leslie The Complexity of Intersectionality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30 (3): Satterttwaite, Margaret L Crossing Borders, Claiming Rights: Using Human Rights Law to Empower Women Migrant Workers, YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. pp Verloo, Mieke Multiple Inequalities, Intersectionality and the European Union. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3): 211–228. Walby, Sylvia Complexity Theory, Systems Theory, and Multiple Intersecting Social Inequalities. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 37( 4):