ABSTRACT
According to one prominent analysis of discrimination, a necessary condition of discrimination is membership of a social group. The intersectionality literature can be understood as presenting a challenge to the social group conception of discrimination. This chapter explains the notion of intersectionality and evaluates whether the social group conception of discrimination survives a possible intersectionality critique. It identifies the consequences of the normative dimensions of intersectionality for the notion of discrimination. The chapter outlines the origins of the intersectionality framework, in particular Kimberle Williams Crenshaw's argument that women of color are excluded by 'single-axis' approaches to discrimination. The strand of the intersectionality literature that focuses on its implications for personal identity articulates intersectionality as an 'antiessentialist' critique. The antiessentialist strand of intersectionality is closely related to arguments that were developed by women of color in the 1980s pointing out that the interests, experiences, social standing and political goals of women of color are often different from those of white women.
