Intersectionality is the recognition that social identities or categorizations (such as race, class, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity) create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
The term was coined by lawyer, civil rights advocate, and critical race theory scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the “various ways in which race and gender intersect in shaping structural and political aspects of violence against women of color”. In other words, the effects of discrimination and disadvantage are more acute for those who belong to multiple marginalized groups, as the inequities they experience reinforce each other.
For example, a queer black woman may experience the world on the basis of her sexuality, gender, and race — an experience based on how those identities intersect in her life. Intersectionality recognizes that oppression cannot be reduced to only one part of an identity; each oppression is dependent on and shapes the other. Understanding intersectionality is essential to combatting the interwoven prejudices people face in their daily lives.
(Source: adapted from https://vpfo.ubc.ca/2021/03/intersectionality-what-is-it-and-why-it-matters/)