ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolutionary trajectory of the concept of intersectionality, with the goal of shedding light on both its centrality to contemporary feminist work and its anomalous absence from mainstream philosophizing. It develops a genealogy of the concept and considers contemporary articulations of the concept. The chapter explores critiques and controversies surrounding the concept. While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact starting point for any concept, the concept of intersectionality can be traced back at least as far as nineteenth-century black feminist thought. For nineteenth-century black feminists, race, gender, and class oppression operated in tandem to oppress black American women in the post-Civil War era in unique ways. The critical legal studies movement also influenced the evolution of the concept of intersectionality. Queer theory is an area of inquiry that has had significant impact on the concept of intersectionality.
