This is the second of two articles in which feminist lawyers examine the structure and the effectiveness of antidiscrimination laws in the United States in the 1980s to establish equality.

Kimberl Crenshaw, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, University of Chicago, studies Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. She intervenes in the existing feminist analysis of sex discrimination by positing the theory of intersectionality. Notice that in 1989 she is referencing Sojourner Truth's arguments and the "separate spheres ideology"that is the cult of true womanhood proposed by the Beechers and others during the mid 19thCas continuing to influence our beliefs.

Crenshaw states her purpose:

"As examples of theoretical and political developments that miss the mark with respect to Black women because of their failure to consider intersectionality, I will briefly discuss the feminist critique of rape and separate spheres ideology, and the public policy debates concerning female-headed households within the Black community."

COURSE PACK: Read and post about Crenshaw's article "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" [1989]

1. What is intersectionality? How is it useful? How does Crenshaw make her argument?