_This article is written by Kirthi Jayakumar, founder of the Gender Security Project. _

  • The problem: Policies tend to be seen as "one-size-fits-all measures". Each policy impacts people differently based on their positionalities.
  • Why it matters: However well-intentioned, a policy can have negative impacts when it does not acknowledge the unique lived experiences of the community it addresses.
  • The solution: Creating meaningful change is possible through the lens of intersectionality.

In the stage before formulating a policy, intersectionality can help inform a policymaker of the potential intents that the policy must have.

Coined and defined by Kimberle Crenshaw in the 1980s, the concept of intersectionality has become something of a lodestar for any attempt at creating meaningful impact.

It is commonly understood as a grundnorm to acknowledge differences in lived experiences–where multiple identity attributes intersect and interact with existing systems and structures to produce unique lived experiences. Oftentimes used as a significant filter in feminism and feminist work, intersectionality has plenty to offer for public policy practitioners.

Positioning intent

Intersectionality can be a powerful guiding force in framing and implementing any policy measure. In the stage before formulating a policy, intersectionality can help inform a policymaker of the potential intents that the policy must have: Who should this policy benefit? What should the output, outcome, and long-term impact of this policy be? What resources should be deployed to make this policy come alive in action?

In the process of determining answers to these questions, a policymaker’s positionality comes into play. No policymaker shares all the lived experiences of those who will be affected by the policies they create. Inherent to their position as policymakers with authority, they enjoy a measure of power over the communities for which they create policies.

It is also more likely than not that they come from privileged backgrounds that enabled access to the position in the first place–historical privilege, access to social capital, upward mobility, access to quality education, upper class background, and perhaps even some degree of social standing. At this point, a policymaker must understand that their worldviews are invariably informed by the privileges they hold, and to make a policy from that vantage point alone is to also re-entrench systemic violence, oppression, and marginalisation.

Understanding the significance of intersectionality in framing a policy, a policymaker can start by acknowledging the limitations and asymmetry in their knowledge of the communities that may be affected by their policies–howsoever significant or minimal such an impact may be. To dispel the gaps in knowledge then, a policymaker must factor in a significant amount of time, money, effort, and resources in listening deeply to the communities that may be affected by the proposed / intended policy at multiple points in time. This can be done through town halls, regular surveys, focus-group discussions, door-to-door conversations, and even calls for suggestions through secret ballot. At the very least, deep listening must be conducted before formulating the policy, while drafting the policy in itself, while implementing the policy, and without doubt, after.

Understanding impacts before rolling out a policy is a key step in the process - and intersectionality can go a long way in enabling this understanding.

Impact over intent

Regardless of how well-intentioned a policy may be, impacts that ensue from it may not always be positive. Some may significantly benefit several and adversely impact a few–where the goal is to enable a correction of historical oppression, this may be a welcome impact. Some may produce consequences that are entirely unintended–causing deviations from the original intent and goal behind the proposed policy in itself. For instance, rolling out a project to offer a particular category of menstrual hygiene supplies may fall flat if the community has no access to clean water, prefers entirely different menstrual hygiene products, and maybe has cultural views around menstruation or copes with environmental harms that may not align with the products provided.

Understanding impacts before rolling out a policy is a key step in the process - and intersectionality can go a long way in enabling this understanding. Deploying an intersectional lens will help position the last mile first, namely the community that may be worst affected by all the imaginable adverse impacts of the intended policy, and either course-correct or provide for contingency plans to avoid that impact from manifesting altogether. It includes checking the privilege of the policymaker themselves–for a solution that one assumes is appropriate, might be very different from what the community in question wants and needs.

Work with, not for

The challenge of a top-down policy approach is that it is often an outward-in phenomenon and product, and can eventually culminate in one-size-fits all approaches. A policymaker must serve not as an authority over, but rather a conduit for the community for which they seek to craft policies. Engaging with the community becomes a significant factor, as involving them as stakeholders in shaping, moulding, rolling out, implementing, and evaluating a policy will truly create meaningful change in addressing the challenge presented.

Participation and active stake-holding is key–and can be made possible only if power is distributed, mics are passed, and a policymaker actively commits to working with the community, rather than take a saviour-led approach to work for the community. Intersectionality is a powerful tool that can extend from the personal to the professional for any policymaker. Introspection through an intersectional lens can shift personal bias and perceptions, and power inherent in positionality that might influence policy outcomes.

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