Intersectionality Action Plan project

What is intersectionality?

Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, and Black feminist legal theory, says ‘intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways how multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantages sometimes compound themselves, and they create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking about anti-racism, or feminism, or whatever social justice structures we have.’

Why an Intersectionality Action Plan?

The community service delivery system in Australia has traditionally viewed people and provided services around a single attribute or issue, e.g. gender identity, sexual orientation, migration status, etc. As Audre Lorde said, ‘there is no such thing as a single issue struggle, because we do not live single issue lives.’ Our service delivery, research and project work continues to uncover the barriers we need to overcome to become a just, equitable and inclusive organisation for all Victorian women, nonbinary and gender diverse people.

How will the Action Plan work?

Underpinned by feminist, intersectional principles, the Action Plan will initially be introspective, looking rigorously at WIRE’s practices, policies and frameworks to identify the systemic inequalities operating within WIRE encompassing the individual, organisational and cultural levels.

Using a human centred approach and centering the voices of the people most affected by oppression, the Intersectionality Action Plan will work with communities and individuals to help identify focus areas, priorities, and possible solutions.

WIRE will partner with people with lived experience, and researchers around racism, feminism, intersectionality, community services and financial inclusion, to ensure robustness of research.

For queries about the Intersectionality Action Plan or her consultancy services, contact project lead and Dr Nilmini Fernando at project2@wire.org.au.