The politics, policies and practices of intersectionality: Making gender equality inclusive in and through education

• In Event: A new generation: 25 years of efforts for inclusive gender equality in education

Proposal

The concept of intersectionality allows for an expanded understanding of many facets of gender inequality associated with education, and a more nuanced approach to thinking about inclusion in education systems that go beyond equalising the numbers of girls and boys enrolling or progressing. The approach signalled by intersectionality suggests ways to address and change some of the causes of inequality and not just mark some effects.

This presentation discusses how the idea of intersectionality provides insight into understanding processes of overlap, so that gender inequalities in education can be read through an understanding of the complex systems in which they are located. Drawing on a background paper prepared for the GEM Gender Report 2020 three ways of understanding McCall’s (2005) distinction between intra-categorical, inter-categorical, and anti-categorical formulations of intersectionality are used to review some of the data on exclusion and inclusion presented in the Gender Review. The discussion draws out how work can focus on a policy approach that highlights descriptions of overlapping differences within groups defined by gender (descriptive intersectionality), undertaking an analysis of the ways that formations of power and powerlessness operate in and through education (institutional and normative intersectionality), and engaging with discursive critique of the ways ideas of gender and inclusion are formulated in education policy and practice (discursive intersectionality).

Author

• Elaine Unterhalter, Institute of Education, University College London