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Essay On Intersectionality

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Over 70 women died in 2016 due to domestic or family violence abuse in Australia (Destroy the Joint, 2017). This is a grim statistic but helps in reminding us of the enormity of the problem. Some women are, however, more at risk than others including women with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and culturally and linguistically diverse women (Phillips and Vandenbroek, 2014).

Intersectionality, first defined by civil rights advocate Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, describes how experiences of oppression vary from person to person, as people are an amalgamation of different factors and belongings including race, religion, sexuality, gender and so on (Crenshaw, 1989). Primarily, it acknowledges the challenges faced by people who experience multiple layers of structural …show more content…

However, intersectionality specifically aims to address disadvantage caused by oppressive institutions such as racism, sexism, ableism and homophobia (Crenshaw, 1989). This means that we ought to combat systemic oppressions not only at an individual level but also structural level. In the context of domestic and family violence against women, this intersectional approach might require women’s domestic violence services to work collaboratively with social justice movements and be in concert with Indigenous, LGBTIQ and Disability rights and advocacy groups. There are obvious constraints to this, however, as social work intervention is bound by State regulations and legal frameworks and many community organisations rely on Government funding for resources (Thompson, 2002, p719). Regardless of the limitations, collaboration with advocacy services or at least an attentiveness to issues outside the organisation’s main focus area should always be encouraged. Thompson (2002, p719) argues that we should never underestimate the capacity of social work to combat social

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