Recognizing and embracing the intersectionality of the people around us

Chiara Vona — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 10:17:38 +0000

Denelle Waynick Johnson, Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Chiara Vona Wed 20/12/2023 - 11:17

Recently, I was invited to reflect on intersectionality and how the different aspects of my own identity are interconnected and linked to my personal and professional path.

Intersectionality means that there are different diversity dimensions that make us unique. Some of these are visible but in fact, many of them are invisible. When thinking about what I call my intersections, the various aspects of my identity and my life, there are a few non-visible ones that jump out.

One that is important for me is that I am a woman of faith. This means that I have been able to overcome challenges by drawing on an inner source of strength that others can’t see.

Another aspect I want to highlight is that I am the child of divorced parents, and I was raised, primarily, by my mother. The divorce resulted in us living in a single-income household, which meant being raised in a less privileged socio-economic environment. What has been the consequence of this? First, it fueled my education and career ambitions simply because I didn’t want to perpetuate this cycle for my son, who would come several years later. Second, it actually continues to inform my approach to spending which tends to still be conservative.

This leads to the third intersection I want to share: I raised my son as a single mother. As such, all of my decisions were taken through the lens of a parent. It helped me frame what was important and acceptable for me — personally and professionally. Motherhood colored decisions about which jobs I took, such as ensuring the corporate culture was aligned with my values or the proximity of the company to good schools and back-up day care.

I believe that being able to identify not just as an African American woman, but also taking these other aspects into account, leads to a natural empathy. This awareness allows me to relate to others, even if their intersections are different from mine, and allows me to be an ally for them.

For example, I recognize the challenges of young parents –specifically, the need for work flexibility. I, personally, benefitted from such flexibility. And over the years have demonstrated that parents or caregivers or others can manage their personal situations, while remaining professional and effective and able to move up the corporate ladder.

But meaningful allyship goes beyond empathy. It includes supporting those who have less privilege than yourself.

Recognizing and embracing not just the diversity but the intersectionality of the people we meet – how the different aspects of their identity are connected and how this influences their life and position in society – opens our perspectives, our minds and our talent pool. It increases the ability for us to embrace diverse thinking and backgrounds. All this, in addition to being fair, benefits organizations, their people and their business. And, for us at ��ֳ�, it benefits the people we serve. How can we serve them if we are not mindful of their different backgrounds?

I want to applaud and encourage the conversations that are happening around intersectionality, at ��ֳ� and outside. It is a deeper, additional component to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it is fundamental for us to explore it to become more inclusive — both on a corporate and human level.

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Intersectionality: An analytical tool for addressing inequity

eCMSadmin — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Intersectionality: An analytical tool for addressing inequity

Laurent Schots, Global Communications & Company Reputation

eCMSadmin Fri 05/02/2021 - 01:00

At ��ֳ�, we not only believe in the power of our dreams and our imagination but also in connecting outside our company to really open our horizons. After all, continuous learning gives us food for thought to imagine a better and more sustainable tomorrow.

Our inspirational #imagine webinars aim to do just that. We invite thought leaders to join us to stimulate our curiosity and help us see the world with new eyes. Their talks help us step back and reflect on challenges and opportunities the world is facing right now.

We kicked off our 2021 #imagine webinars by welcoming Professor Nancy López, sociologist and expert in intersectionality. Her What’s your street race? talk reflected on intersectionality as a tool for practicing critical race, gender and class equity – a topic that could not be more timely, that came shortly after Martin Luther King Day.

Professor López began by inviting us to think about street race, a concept she came up with to reflect the social meanings assigned to you based on what you look like. “It’s also a relationship of power and changes depending on which country you’re in,” she explained, noting how these meanings assigned to you shape your experiences: your access s to healthcare, housing and even voting rights.

Highlighting how “we didn't create systems of racism, but we're all located in them”, the Professor pointed out the importance of understanding the historical context of our street race. Only then, she said, can we assess critically to “create a more just world anchored in human rights, not only for ourselves but also for our children”.

Exploring at how we do that, Professor López revealed that ignorant or insulting opinions can offer an opportunity for deeper conversation and reflection. She highlighted the importance of building these conversations around narratives “anchored in your experience” that at the same time “shift and create bridges of understanding for others who are different from us”.

Moving onto discussing intersectionality, Professor López described it as an analytical tool to help people understand “complexity in the world, in people, in human experiences”. It is, she said, “a new vision for illuminating inequalities and creating custom tailored solutions”. In other words, it helps us solve problems by unpacking the intersecting systems of inequality and arrangements of power.

Intersectionality can, she revealed, help us “understand how others are experiencing barriers that might be invisible to us”. Explaining that equity is about providing whatever is necessary to create fairness, Professor López noted how treating everyone the same (in other word creating equality) might not reach individuals experiencing inequities before also describing liberation.

She said that to provide the equity lifts needed we should not only work with the people impacted the most but also with “those advocates who've been working for a long time to solve these problems”.

Dr López concluded her talk with a very powerful message: “We are all different, have different histories, different cultures, speak different languages, but if we work in a spirit of human rights and solidarity, there's nothing we can't accomplish”.

During the webinar we asked our audience to reflect on what they would do within their spheres of influence to advance intersectional justice. They built this word cloud

Please watch the full webinar recording to learn more. And why not get in touch if you would like to share your own thoughts or just have a chat about intersectionality and what it means to you.

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#imagine ��ֳ� Intersectionality

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Intersectionality

Recognizing and embracing the intersectionality of the people around us

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Intersectionality: An analytical tool for addressing inequity

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