The importance of intersectionality in evolving our thinking and approach to DEI

By Veronica Patton-Cemm, Consulting Director - Insights

The recent headlines associated with the 2021 census have focused on a nation in flux as the cultural understanding of what it means to be British shifts in line with the changing populace. While many headlines have focused on the decrease in the number of self-declared Christians, what it most fascinating from a data and insights perspective is the role of intersectionality in how people self-identify and how this impacts the thinking around and approaches to DEI.

Following from the events of 2020 – from the murder of George Floyd to increasing global awareness of racial injustice – businesses focused on defining an approach to DEI, crafting messaging, campaigns, and strategies with the aim of creating more equitable and diverse workplaces. The intervening years have also seen a rise in prominence of topics such as sustainability and climate change, as well as inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

While the intensity of this movement has decreased over the past few years, there are still many businesses working to maintain engagement with DEI. Yet often these businesses struggle to evolve their thinking around DEI. For some businesses, their DEI journey began by addressing individual and specific aspects of diversity, usually starting with gender and race/ethnicity (mirroring the regulatory approach of the US and UK) before moving into aspects such as neurodiversity and disability. But as the results of the census show us, diversity is complex and intersectional.

This means the thinking around and approach to DEI strategy and governance must reflect this complexity. For example, it is too simplistic to focus on race when aspects of religion are also at play or to focus on gender and not also think of how neurodiversity leads to different professional and personal outcomes for men vs women. Instead, when we think about our approach to diversity, it’s critical to expand how we think about it by applying the lens of intersectionality.

So, what is intersectionality? The term was created in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage.

This is particularly relevant in our current economic environment when Black and minority ethnic people are 2.5 times more likely to be in relative poverty and are falling faster and further below the poverty line in the cost-of-living crisis, according to research from social charity Runnymeade Trust.

Intersectionality means understanding that the rise in use of other ‘main’ languages such as Romanian, Polish, and Panjabi has an impact of educational and professional outcomes. Recent research from The Sutton Trust on public attitudes towards accents found that ethnic minority accents (Afro-Caribbean, Indian) are the lowest ranked, and that significant numbers of workers are concerned that they are discriminated against because of their regional or ethnic accent. One in four (25%) reported having been mocked, criticised, or singled out for their accent in work settings, increasing to almost half (46%) in social settings. 

From an ESG perspective, we must ensure we are applying an intersectionality lens, so that we view DEI as both part of the ‘S’ in how we assess and advise businesses and as part of the impact climate change has on the world. Looking at the former, understanding and applying a lens of intersectionality plays a key role in the development and application of policies and strategies. It is not enough to create a disability strategy or policy without understanding that the disability employment gap is wider for disabled men and older disabled people and the employment rate lower for disabled people with a mental health condition (ONS, Employment of disabled people 2021). When we look at the impact of ESG, we work with the knowledge that those in the ’Global South’ will be disproportionately affected by climate change. It will widen existing inequalities, undermine efforts at poverty reduction and worsen health inequity.

To develop and deliver truly impactful change, there is a need to understand the complexities of the data and information we use and to apply that intersectional thinking. Doing this means we can create truly comprehensive and transparent DEI strategies that lead to improvements and foster a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment for everyone.