Social Class and Gender

According to intersectionality theory, various dimensions of identity, such as gender, social class, and race, can shape the life experiences of individuals in unique ways, yet cannot properly be understood in isolation from one another. Rather, every aspect of identity is continuously shaped by each of the others, so that characteristic patterns of sociocultural oppression and privilege emerge at different intersections. Gender and social class identities operate in just this way, so that social class privilege is manifested differently in the lives of women and men, and gender privilege is manifested differently in the lives of people at different social class locations. In this entry, the implications of these intersections will be illustrated via a series of examples of the interacting operations of class and ...