If you’ve ever wondered why some diversity initiatives feel like they’re not moving the needle, the answer might lie in a single word: intersectionality.
What Is Intersectionality?
Coined by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality challenges us to understand how overlapping identities—such as race, gender, age, and class—interact to shape lived experience.
It’s not just about being a woman or being Black. It’s about the compounded reality of being a Black woman navigating systems that were not designed with you in mind.
As I progress in my doctoral research, intersectionality has become a cornerstone of my inquiry. The evidence is clear: when organisations treat identity categories in isolation, they miss the compounded barriers that many of us face every day.
The NHS Picture: Progress, But With Gaps
In the NHS, we often celebrate progress in gender representation. We track workforce data for staff from Black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds.
But what happens when we look at the intersection of race and gender?
In 2023, while 26.4% of NHS staff came from BME backgrounds, only 10.8% of executive board members did. For BME women, the percentage was even lower.
In the South East, BME representation at the executive level was 13.7%, but for women from those backgrounds, it dropped to just 6%.
These figures reveal something critical: this isn’t a pipeline issue. It’s a pattern.
Intersectionality helps explain why minority ethnic women often face a unique leadership journey—marked by fewer stretch opportunities, being reduced to “diversity hires,” and experiencing double scrutiny in leadership spaces.
Why Intersectionality Must Lead the Way
We can’t fix what we don’t fully understand. If we’re serious about building inclusive leadership in the NHS, intersectionality can’t remain an academic concept. It must become the lens through which we examine culture, policy, recruitment, and progression.
Because without it, we’ll keep designing solutions that serve the dominant experience—and leave the rest of us behind.
Do your leadership practices centre intersectionality?
