Intersectional power struggles in feminist movements: An analysis of resistance and counter‐resistance to intersectionality

Abstract

AbstractThis article develops an analytical framework to study the power struggles between majoritized women and minoritized women within feminist movements in relation to the adoption of intersectional practices. It employs a multi‐sided concept of power that takes domination and both individual and collective empowerment into consideration. The analytical framework encompasses the informal norms that foster resistance to intersectional practices by majoritized women, as well as the strategies and actions undertaken by minoritized women in order to challenge their subordination. The empirical analysis illustrates the mechanisms that create positions of marginalization among women, it stresses the role of the emotional dimension in transforming feminist practices, and it shows the importance of the intersectional wound. Moreover, in focusing on the processes that create difference, it avoids essentializing minoritized women. Building on interviews with activists from the Catalan feminist movement, the examination of intra‐movement power struggles considers multiple axes of inequality, including race, gender identity, sexuality, and ability.