Applying an intersectionality framework to health services research

Intersectionality is a transformative analytic tool for identifying and challenging how intersecting, systemic power relations generate differential outcomes in quality of life (P. Collins, 2019; Crenshaw, 1989). Intersectionality identifies how varied forms of power relations are interconnected and mutually constituted: simultaneously influencing and influenced by one another. As these power relations interact to shape social experiences, they result in social inequalities including unequal distributions of harm, violence, and neglect. Too often, social problems are approached through singular categories of experience (e.g., class, race, or gender) under the assumption that these categories are not mutually constituted. Intersectionality instead highlights the intersection and interactions between such categories, with close attention to the social power conferred or limited given inclusion in a given constellation of categories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).