Christine Williams Williams stresses the importance of applying an intersectional lens to sociological inquiry. In rethinking her earlier work, in which she developed the concept of the “glass escalator,” Williams describes how she has learned to incorporate an intersectional approach to her research that includes race, class, and sexuality, in addition to gender. She discusses how theoretical shifts within the discipline ultimately work to improve the sociological stories we tell. She offers insight into the consequential differences between the interview study and participant research

ABSTRACT

Defi nitely, yes. Reading that book today reminds me of how little I had incorporated “intersectionality” into my sociology in the early 1990s. Intersectionality is an approach to studying gender that takes race/ethnicity, class, and sexuality into account. Th is approach treats gender not as an abstract and timeless essence, but as an embodied and historical practice. It insists that claims about gender take into consideration how the particular men or women whose experiences are being analyzed are located in social space. Moreover, as a geometric metaphor, intersectionality draws attention to how meanings

of social identities are socially constructed through binary oppositions: masculine/feminine, male/female, white/Black, straight/queer, rich/poor.