Using intersectionality in policymaking and analysis: summary findings

What does it mean to take an intersectional approach to policymaking?

The 'intersectional approach' can be best understood as a way of identifying, understanding and tackling structural inequality in a given context that accounts for the lived experience of people with intersecting identities. For example, intersectionality helps us to understand how people experience services, such as education and healthcare, differently as a result of their identity and unequal power dynamics. Understanding these differences helps us to develop more effective policies.

An intersectional approach means that policymakers (and analysts):

• Do not give a higher status to any one social category's inequality or experience of discrimination but encourages us to focus on complex relationships and interactions.^[6] For example, it might be an aim to increase young men's participation in the labour market. But to be successful, an employability policy for a young disabled man may need to consider very different factors to an employability policy for a young, care-experienced man.
• "Analyse their own power dynamics as much as the world they wish to change".^[7] An intersectional approach asks policymakers to assess how their own experiences impact on their ability to develop, deliver and evaluate policies in an equitable way.
• Put evidence into context, including the historical and contemporary structures of inequality in wider society, and within local contexts.^[8] Local contexts could include, for example, education, employment, and healthcare settings. It is crucial to examine the interaction between individuals and institutions (e.g. central government, local government, public bodies) as this will provide an indicator of likely policy success and failure.