Gender and citizenship in a multicultural context - June 2009
Intersectionality and the Implementation of EU Antidiscrimination legislation :
An overview of concepts, policies and issues
The aims of the Genderace Project are to evaluate the effectiveness of Racial Discrimination laws from the point of view of the target group and in a gender perspective as well as to improve understanding of the phenomenon of double discrimination.
In order to do so the project has explored issues of discrimination, double discrimination based on “race” and gender, intersectionality and multiple discrimination from an extensive review of both official publications from the uropean Commission as well as through academic literature. (WP3: ‘Race’ and Gender Overview) Whilst this has focused on the European Union, attention has also been paid to relevant legal and sociological literature from Canada and the US.
Through an intersectionality approach, Genderace investigates the impact of gender on the experience, application and uses made of legislation with regard to
racialized1 discrimination2
First identified within juridical procedures, it was Crenshaw’s (1989) intention for the term to be recognized through antidiscrimination legislation in the US within
the discourse of justice. From the pioneer work of black feminists, intersectionality has since become significant within the vocabulary and understanding of feminist
studies across Europe.
In evaluating these studies, we have focused on those that best address our themes and have found methodologies
applied in order to differentiate the impact of specific milieus and contexts as especially useful. (Cf, e.g. Phoenix, Wekker, Berreswill).
1 Racialized discrimination is used here to point out the social construction of assumed membership in a group based on physical features, skin colour or cultural or ethnic characteristics for ideological purposes of exclusion or to identify and/ or to ascribe certain behavioural characteristics that would imply inferiority or would legitimate discrimination.
2 It may be possible in some instances/ countries to control for the impact of racialized ethnic origins on the experience and use of legislation concerning gender discrimination in the fields of employment, occupational training and education.
