Intersectional Inequalities Research Articles

A Feminist Political Economic Analysis of Platform Capitalism in the Care Sector

Despite women being increasingly engaged in labor-platform activities, little of the research conducted on this topic to date has included a feminist perspective. However, the platform economy has direct impacts on the social organization of social reproduction and is changing the main dimensions of the world of work with crucial gendered effects. This study deploys a feminist political economics approach to assess the impacts of digital labor platforms on the reconfiguration and regeneration of intersectional inequalities. The findings of this analysis of digital platforms in the care sector in Spain reveal how they profit from regulatory contexts that perpetuate existing gender, race, and migrant status inequalities, as well as labor market vulnerability, with migrant women segregated into lower-paid and more insecure jobs. JEL Classification: J3, J5, J7, O3

“It’s been a roller coaster”: insights from performing artists on the COVID-19 pandemic and cultural policy

ABSTRACT Before COVID-19, the cultural sector was already in crisis – suffering from precarious labour conditions, intersectional inequalities and insufficient public funding. During the pandemic, performing artists, particularly the self-employed, were hit hardest due to the difficulties of adapting their work to digital audiences, their fragile and unstable economic situation, and the limited financial support available to them. This article examines from a sociological standpoint how the pandemic has affected performing artists in London and Buenos Aires. We discuss, through online in-depth interviews and focus groups, the work strategies that 73 self-employed workers (musicians, actors, dancers, opera singers and circus artists) have deployed to cope with the crisis. Suggestions are made about how cultural policy can best support the recovery of the performing arts post-pandemic, while also reflecting on what our findings reveal about the prospects of cultural policy and the future of the performing arts in Argentina and the UK.

Women farmers leading and co-learning in an agroecology movement at the intersections of gender and climate

abstract This study, carried out in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, was particularly interested in women farmers’ access to social learning spaces for expanding their knowledge about farming in the context of climate change. Small-scale women and peasant farmers face historical intersectional inequalities as a result of the colonial and apartheid past which has continued to disadvantage women in the present through exclusion, limited or no access to finance, insecure or no land tenure, little bargaining power and unequal access to water. The gender prejudices and unequal access to resources experienced by women is brought into sharp relief by climate change. The article provides a case study of an agroecology movement led by women farmers that promotes climate-appropriate, low-cost farming practices using community and home gardens. The practices are tried out and further developed by women farmers themselves, relying on agroecology-informed extension services, open dialogue and the support of communities of practice. Unlike traditional top-down approaches to farmer learning common in public extension services, extension officers in the movement participate in creating conditions for co-learning and co-construction of new knowledge − that is, social learning − thus responding directly to their needs as farmers. The lead researcher joined in and observed farming and learning activities following an ethnographic approach. Farmers and other movement members were engaged in semi-structured interviews which explored the value derived from social learning (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner 2020). The article concludes that the movement is responding to many of the intersectional challenges that women farmers in the Eastern Cape face. Further, its social learning approach holds potential for expanding women farmers’ ability to provide for themselves and their communities and inform their climate change adaptation.

Homestay Accommodation for Refugees (in Europe). A Literature Review

In the aftermath of the rapidly increasing number of refugees arriving in Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nonprofit organizations, private companies, and also public institutions have promoted homestay initiatives: That is, local households hosting refugees. In order to reflect on the political issues that homestay accommodation for refugees raises, the article charts and synthesizes the available research on homestay produced in 75 works written in English, French, German, and Italian, and with a particular focus on the European context. Most of those texts were published in the second half of the 2010s and focused on the homestay initiatives that developed in the context of the so-called 2015 “refugee crisis.” We analyzed this material by focusing on three different levels: First, hospitality as an inter-individual relationship within the domestic sphere (micro level); second, refugee homestay as diverse accommodation arrangements, implemented by informal groups, nonprofit organizations, and public institutions (meso level); and, third, the (non-) contentious dimension of homestay accommodation (macrolevel). The review also identifies theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives for future studies on homestay. We call for more attention to be given to the intersectional inequalities and power relations between hosts and guests; to the life trajectories of refugees; and to the interplay between homestay initiatives and political contexts. We argue that homestay is an exemplary case to reflect on the ongoing evolution of refugee support towards solidarity practices that ambivalently interact with border regimes.

Intersectional inequities in the birthweight gap between twin and singleton births: A random effects MAIHDA analysis of 2012–2018 New York City birth data

Birthweight is a widely-used biomarker of infant health, with inequities patterned intersectionally by maternal age, race/ethnicity, nativity/immigration status, and socioeconomic status in the United States. However, studies of birthweight inequities almost exclusively focus on singleton births, neglecting high-risk twin births. We address this gap using a large sample (N = 753,180) of birth records, obtained from the 2012–2018 New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Vital Statistics, representing 99% of all births registered in NYC, and a novel random coefficients intersectional MAIHDA (Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy) model. Our results show evidence of intersectional inequities in birthweight outcomes for both twin and singleton births by maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, and nativity status. Twins have considerably lower predicted birthweights than singletons overall (−930 g on average), and this is especially true for babies born to mothers who are younger (11–19 years), older (40+), racial/ethnic minoritized, foreign-born, and have lower education. However, the magnitude of this birthweight ‘gap’ between twins and singletons varies considerably across social identity strata, ranging between 830.8 g (observed among 40+ year old Black foreign-born mothers with high school degrees) and 1013.7 g (observed among 30–39 year old Hispanic/Latina foreign-born mothers with less than high school degrees). This study underscored the needs of a high-risk population and the need for aggressive social policies to address health inequities and dismantle intersectional systems of marginalization, oppression, and socioeconomic inequality. In addition to our substantive contributions, we add to the growing methods literature on intersectional quantitative analysis by demonstrating how to apply intersectional MAIHDA with random coefficients and random slopes. We conclude with a discussion of the significant potential for this methodological extension in future research on inequities.

COVID‐19 job loss and re‐employment among partnered parents: Gender and educational variations

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines the re‐employment prospects and short‐term career consequences for mothers and fathers who lost their jobs during the COVID‐19 pandemic.BackgroundThe pandemic recession has been dubbed a “shecession,” but few studies have explored whether mothers paid a higher or lower price upon labor market re‐entry than fathers.MethodThis study draws on March 2020–December 2022 Current Population Survey data and focuses on partnered parents with children under age 13 in the household. Exploiting four‐month panels, we use multi‐level discrete‐time event history models to predict re‐employment and linear regression models to predict job‐level wage upon re‐employment, while controlling for a wide array of factors.ResultsPartnered fathers were more likely than partnered mothers to find re‐employment during the pandemic. The gender gap in re‐employment was concentrated only among parents without a bachelor's degree and persisted when all controls were held constant. Moreover, upon re‐employment, fathers had higher job‐level wages than mothers, which was consistent across educational levels. Even with the same job‐level wage before labor market exit, mothers were penalized on re‐entry relative to fathers and this penalty was rooted in gendered job segregation.ConclusionThis study extends previous research by analyzing re‐employment and a critical material outcome for parents (i.e., job‐level wage upon re‐employment) during the entire pandemic, including the “new normal” (late 2022). The results reveal the intersectional inequalities in family and work: Compared to fathers, mothers, particularly less‐educated mothers, paid a higher price for their time out of work during the pandemic.

Evaluation of a Student-Led Community-Based Veterinary Clinic for Disabled Low-Income Clients: A Case Study of the University of Florida PAWS Program.

People with disabilities experiencing low socioeconomic position are priority populations when considering access to veterinary care. In this population, intersectional inequities lead to adverse health outcomes for both those individuals and the companion animals they care for. Community-based veterinary clinics provide an opportunity to target these inequities from a culturally sensitive lens, intending to improve human and animal outcomes. We conducted a process evaluation of a student-led community-based clinic for this population to better understand client satisfaction, assess learning outcomes among veterinary students, and improve program delivery and services. During academic year 2020-2021, the monthly clinics had 162 appointments in total with a median 15 DVM candidates volunteering at each clinic. Clients and volunteers responded to survey questionnaires designed to elicit information about their experiences with the clinic, including open-ended questions for further elucidation of measurable indicators of client-, patient-, and student-level impact. Clients attributed enrollment in the clinic with improved quality-of-life and reduction of financial burden; the program saved clients approximately $2,050 per pet during the evaluation year. Furthermore, the clinic widely facilitated completion of the college's core Primary Care and Dentistry learning outcomes. Beyond curriculum-standard learning objectives, students also reported positive attitude changes and increased readiness to provide care to people with disabilities and people experiencing low socioeconomic position. The results of this evaluation have significant implications for both veterinary and public health pedagogy. Especially, they highlight the significance of community health practice in veterinary trainee education.

Addressing the “Hidden Curriculum” in Political Science Publishing

Across the academy, there is growing concern over diversity within academic institutions. According to recent research published in three top political science journals, members of historically marginalized groups remain underrepresented and marginalized in submissions, publications, and even reviewer pools (Ayoub 2022; Bell et al. 2020; Reinhardt, Windsor, and King 2022). Expectations that scholars, especially early career researchers (ECRs), “publish or perish” thus exacerbate intersectional inequalities within the discipline (Briscoe-Palmer and Mattocks 2021; McKenzie 2017; Steinþórsdóttir et al. 2018). Further, the overwhelming pressure to publish at all costs can commodify knowledge production and foster a toxic, competitive environment based on peer rivalry rather than collaboration for the sake of advancing knowledge (Horta and Li 2023, 269–70, 271–72).

Enfleshing the Work of Social Production: Gender, Race and Agency

The hidden dynamics of reproductive labor raise troubling moral questions related to labor exploitation, gender inequality and complicity in complex structures of injustice with far-reaching consequences. An intersectional analysis illuminates how beliefs and practices around sex and gender encode oppressive economic relations and how domestic workers’ race, gender and citizenship status compound their experiences of exploitation. Even as the pandemic has exacerbated intersectional inequalities, it offers an opportunity to examine the factors contributing to these entrenched patterns of exploitation and to consider how societies can return to a “new normal” in its aftermath. Toward that end, this article analyzes the structures and ideologies contributing to these entrenched patterns in order to frame them in terms of social injustice rather than isolated choices made by virtuous or vicious mothers alone. Next it considers how Catholic teaching both contributes to exploitation and offers resources for reform. A “new normal” will require significant changes in structures, incentives, ideologies, and formation, given the intersectional operations of power at play and their reinforcement by cultural and religious narratives alike.

Digital Ethnography? Our Experiences in the Use of SenseMaker for Understanding Gendered Climate Vulnerabilities amongst Marginalized Agrarian Communities

Digital innovations and interventions can potentially revolutionize agri-food systems, especially in coping with climate challenges. On a similar note, digital research tools and methods are increasingly popular for the efficient collection and analysis of real-time, large-scale data. It is claimed that these methods can also minimize subjective biases that are prevalent in traditional qualitative research. However, given the digital divide, especially affecting women and marginalized communities, these innovations could potentially introduce further disparities. To assess these contradictions, we piloted SenseMaker, a digital ethnography tool designed to capture individual, embodied experiences, biases, and perceptions to map vulnerabilities and resilience to climate impacts in the Gaya District in Bihar. Our research shows that this digital tool allows for a systematic co-design of the research framework, allows for the collection of large volumes of data in a relatively short time, and a co-analysis of the research data by the researchers and the researched. This process allowed us to map and capture the complexities of intersectional inequalities in relation to climate change vulnerability. However, we also noted that the application of the tool is influenced by the prior exposure to technology (digital devices) of both the enumerators and researched groups and requires significant resources when implemented in contexts where there is a need to translate the data from local dialects and languages to more dominant languages (English). Most importantly, perceptions, positionalities, and biases of researchers can significantly impact the design of the tool’s signification framework, reiterating the fact that researcher bias persists regardless of technological innovations in research methodology.

A qualitative study of the dynamics of access to remote antenatal care through the lens of candidacy.

We aimed to explore the experiences and perspectives of pregnant women, antenatal healthcare professionals, and system leaders to understand the impact of the implementation of remote provision of antenatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. We conducted a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 93 participants, including 45 individuals who had been pregnant during the study period, 34 health care professionals, and 14 managers and system-level stakeholders. Analysis was based on the constant comparative method and used the theoretical framework of candidacy. We found that remote antenatal care had far-reaching effects on access when understood through the lens of candidacy. It altered women's own identification of themselves and their babies as eligible for antenatal care. Navigating services became more challenging, often requiring considerable digital literacy and sociocultural capital. Services became less permeable, meaning that they were more difficult to use and demanding of the personal and social resources of users. Remote consultations were seen as more transactional in character and were limited by lack of face-to-face contact and safe spaces, making it more difficult for women to make their needs - both clinical and social - known, and for professionals to assess them. Operational and institutional challenges, including problems in sharing of antenatal records, were consequential. There were suggestions that a shift to remote provision of antenatal care might increase risks of inequities in access to care in relation to every feature of candidacy we characterised. It is important to recognise the implications for access to antenatal care of a shift to remote delivery. It is not a simple swap: it restructures many aspects of candidacy for care in ways that pose risks of amplifying existing intersectional inequalities that lead to poorer outcomes. Addressing these challenges through policy and practice action is needed to tackle these risks.

From food access to food sovereignty: Striving to meet university student needs

The ongoing neoliberalization of higher education has meant that college and university students at state institutions face declining state support for their education, increasing debt, precarious post-graduation job opportunities, and a dominant cul­tural emphasis on personal responsibility rather than collective care. These neoliberal conditions exacerbate structural inequities (along various axes, including race, economic status, disability, etc.) within student populations. This paper explores two aspects of inequity in food insecurity among students: specific challenges and inequities students face by virtue of their position as college students, and intersectional inequities faced by some stu­dents by virtue of other identities to which they belong. This paper presents findings from two research efforts at Western Washington University, a public university in the USA Pacific Northwest. First, we share findings from a 2018 qualitative, interview-based study of food-insecure students on the campus. We then draw from our experiences as practitioners and present critical reflections on our own campus food security efforts, differentiating between those that address food security (access), food justice, and food sovereignty. Our findings from the qualitative study suggest that students feel a sense of personal responsibility for their food insecurity, and that food-insecure students both rely on social networks for support and feel stigma­tized by their food insecurity. Our critical reflec­tions on campus programs reveal that most of the traditional food security efforts (e.g. emergency aid, food pantries) neglect to either effectively support BIPOC students and others most affected by food insecurity, or provide a sustained community-support mechanism for food-insecure students in general. We position food sovereignty-oriented programs as a way forward in addressing the inter­sectional inequities faced by students, and also in bolstering communities of support.

Who Gains Mental Health Benefits from Work Autonomy? The Roles of Gender and Occupational Class

In recent years, improving work autonomy as an important priority in the UK labour market has been shown to enhance employee mental health and well-being. However, previous theories and empirical studies have paid little attention to the intersectional inequalities in the mental health benefits of work autonomy, preventing us from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the mental consequences of work autonomy. By integrating literature from occupational psychology, gender and social class, this study develops theoretical hypotheses regarding whether and how the mental health benefits of work autonomy vary alongside the intersectional axes of gender and occupational class and tests these hypotheses using long-term panel data in the UK (2010–2021). Overall, we find that those from higher occupational class and male employees acquire significantly more mental health benefits from high work autonomy compared with those from lower occupational class and female employees. Moreover, further analyses show significant intersectional inequalities of gender and occupational class. While male employees from all occupational classes gain significant mental health benefits from work autonomy, only female employees from higher (but not lower) occupational classes benefit from work autonomy. These findings contribute to the literature in the sociology of work by demonstrating the intersectional inequalities in mental health consequences of work autonomy, especially for women in the lower occupational class, highlighting the need for a more gender- and occupation-sensitive design in future labour market policies.

Accounting for inequalities: divided selves and divided states in International Relations

Ontological security studies have added complexity to the state level of analysis in International Relations (IR) by embracing an approach that permits moving across and between levels of analysis without calcifying an assumption as to who or what constitutes the key actors of international politics. I draw on a case study of gender-based violence and subsequent responses to argue that ontological security studies in IR have thus far failed to fully account for intersectional inequalities within social narratives of security. I argue that the state is incapable of providing ontological security because of inherent inequalities that underlie national identity. It is only in attending to those inequalities that we can attend to the biases at the heart of the state. Looking to ontological insecurity in the context of trauma provides a delineated means of accessing these dynamics in a way that is formulated around a pathologised ontological insecurity (rather than an existential, and therefore normalised, process of ontological insecurity). Through the case study of the murder of Sarah Everard and the responses, the value and necessity of an intersectional approach is made clear: trauma responses that are positioned as transgressive by the patriarchal and White supremacist dominating narrative are used within that narrative to undermine the credibility of alternative narratives of security. The state adopts a technique of dividing identity and constructing normatively oppressed identities as transgressive to consolidate the state narrative of security.

Intersecting Inequalities in Access to Justice for Trans and Non-binary Sex Workers in Canada

IntroductionIn the context of renewed debate about Canada’s “end demand” sex work laws, we took an intersectional approach to characterize experiences with the criminal legal system and perceived access to justice among transgender (trans) and nonbinary sex workers in Canada.MethodsThe Trans PULSE Canada community-based study collected multimode survey data in fall 2019. Data were cross-stratified by lifetime sex work and sex assigned at birth, ethnoracial group, or household income. Age adjustment did not meaningfully impact results.ResultsOf 2012 included participants (median age = 30, 66.5% assigned female at birth, 48.9% non-binary), 280 (16.1%) had ever done sex work. While access to justice was limited for trans and non-binary people overall, sex workers were more likely to anticipate (72.1% vs. 50.5%) and experience (43.2% vs. 15.7%) police mistreatment. In the previous 5 years, sex workers were more likely to experience violence for any reason (61.4% vs. 27.4% of other participants) or due to being trans or non-binary (41.4% vs. 14.0%), and to have avoided calling 911 for police (51.4% vs. 18.1%). Few sex workers trusted that they would be treated fairly by police if they experienced physical (10.8% vs. 34.9%) or sexual (4.7% vs. 20.6%) violence. Intersectional inequalities included that sex workers assigned male at birth and street-based workers were most likely to have experienced gender-based violence, and that Indigenous and racialized sex workers reported higher levels of police mistreatment and 911 avoidance.ConclusionsOverall, trans and non-binary people in Canada reported high levels of violence and limited access to justice. Sex workers faced large inequities in these outcomes, which were exacerbated for transfeminine, Indigenous, racialized, and street-based workers.Policy ImplicationsThese findings challenge the notion that Canadian sex work laws protect sex workers and highlight the limitations of formal legal protections for trans people. These inequities must be addressed in sex work legal reform efforts.

Intersectional inequalities in stricto sensu postgraduate programs in physical education

Resumo O objetivo foi identificar se há, no corpo docente, assimetrias de gênero, raça e especialmente a interseccionalidade de gênero e raça no acesso acadêmico aos programas de pós-graduação stricto sensu em educação física no Brasil; bem como verificar se as linhas de pesquisa envolvem as referidas temáticas. Foi realizado um levantamento do quantitativo de pesquisadores/professores de todos os programas de pós-graduação stricto sensu em educação física no Brasil a partir de busca prévia dos dados cadastrados e disponibilizados pela CAPES e de posterior consulta aos sítios eletrônicos de cada programa para identificação de sexo, cor da pele e linhas de pesquisa. Observamos que 65,8% dos docentes são homens brancos, enquanto uma pequena parte (0,52%) corresponde a mulheres negras. As linhas e projetos existentes têm pouca relação com as questões raciais e de gênero. Além disto, verificou-se que os pesquisadores contemplados com bolsa de Produtividade em Pesquisa (PQ) são majoritariamente pessoas do sexo masculino, de cor de pele branca ou amarela e que produzem a partir das ciências biomédicas. Conclui-se, portanto, que as desigualdades interseccionais de gênero e raça estão muito presentes nos programas de pós-graduação em educação física e que temáticas de gênero e raça são escassas.

Disparities in fruit and vegetable intake at the intersection of gender and education in northern Sweden: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundEven though the existence of inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption has been well established, it is not clear how it is patterned across intersections of multiple social positions and identities. This study aims to investigate disparities in fruit and vegetable intake between groups at the intersection of education and gender in northern Sweden, and to estimate the discriminatory accuracy of the intersectional groups.MethodsCross-sectional data from the 2018 Health on Equal Terms survey conducted in four regions in northern Sweden was used (N = 21,853). Four intersectional groups were created: high and low educated men, and high and low educated women. Prevalence differences corresponding to joint, referent, and excess intersectional inequalities, were estimated for three outcomes: inadequate fruit and vegetable intake combined, inadequate fruit intake, and inadequate vegetable intake. The discriminatory accuracy of the intersectional groups was estimated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve.ResultsLow educated men had the highest prevalence of inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables combined (81.4%), fruits (83.4%), and vegetables (84.9%), while high educated women had the lowest (47.7, 60.2, and 51.8%, respectively). The joint disparities between high educated women and low educated men were both significant and substantial for all outcomes (34.6 percentage points (pp.), 25.2 pp., and 31.2 pp., adjusted), although differences in magnitude were noted between fruit and vegetable intake. The joint disparities were mostly explained by the two referent disparities for gender and education. The excess intersectional disparity - the part of the joint disparity not explained by either referent disparity – was negative for all three outcomes (-5.5 pp., − 4.2 pp., and − 4.6 pp. respectively, adjusted). The discriminatory accuracy of the intersectional groups was moderate (0.67, 0.65, and 0.68 respectively).ConclusionsAn intersectional approach can provide a more detailed view of inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption between groups combining several social positions. The moderate discriminatory accuracy observed here suggests that interventions and policies aiming to reduce diet inequalities should not solely be targeted at certain groups, but also be universal.

Higher Education, Inequalities, and a Tetralemma: Reflections on Depictions of Neonationalism and the Knowledge Society

In this article, we reflect on debates about the position of the university in contexts of widening intersectional inequalities, neonationalism, and questions regarding the capacity of the knowledge society to adequately address the range of vulnerabilities associated with the Anthropocene. We review a role we proposed for universities after the 2008 financial crisis, considering that, as particularly located institutions with links across a range of systems, they could help resolve a tetralemma, which pulled in four different directions needing to reconcile aspirations for economic growth, equity, democracy, and sustainability. Drawing on research conducted in the subsequent decades, we show that higher education systems and universities have not adequately taken the challenge of providing a space to address the different demands associated with the tetralemma. We consider some of the systemic and institutional changes needed for this to happen and propose three conditions of possibility for continuing the transnational and open idea of a university in hard times.

"Youth speaking truth to power": intersectional decolonial activism in Namibia.

This article portrays a recent movement towards intersectional activism in urban Namibia. Since 2020, young Namibian activists have come together in campaigns to decolonize public space through removing colonial monuments and renaming streets. These have been linked to enduring structural violence and issues of gender and sexuality, especially queer and women's reproductive rights politics, which have been expressly framed as perpetuated by coloniality. I argue that the Namibian protests amount to new political forms of intersectional decoloniality that challenge the notion of decolonial activism as identity politics. The Namibian case demonstrates that decolonial movements may not only emphatically not be steeped in essentialist politics but also that activists may oppose an identity-based politics which postcolonial ruling elites have promoted. I show that, for the Namibian movements' ideology and practice, a fully intersectional approach has become central. They consciously juxtapose colonial memory with a living vision for the future to confront and situate colonial and apartheid history. Young Namibian activists challenge the intersectional inequalities and injustices, which, they argue, postcolonial Namibia inherited from its colonial-apartheid past: class inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and gender-based violence.

Automation Anxiety and Augmentation Aspiration: Subtexts of the Future of Work

AbstractHow are gender, class, and race imagined in relation to automation and augmentation in popular books on the future of work? This paper problematises intersectional inequality subtexts in books on the future of work to develop new research directions. The paper shows how automation anxiety is conceptualised as relating to the threat that men might lose their jobs. While working‐class men are constructed as unable to reinvent themselves, middle‐class men are presented as unable to remain the main provider for a nuclear family. Augmentation aspirations relate to how social and emotional skills are considered as future‐proof, but who gets credit for displaying such skills remains uncertain. Creating and working with machines is also considered future‐proof, but there are silences around inequality subtexts in relation to data, the designers, and the design of those technologies. The article suggests a research agenda that can be used to understand how inequalities emerge and how they can be diminished in discussions about automation and augmentation in the future of work.