What Is Intersectionality and Factors That Affect Intersectionality

Introduction

The assignment for week 2 is to write an essay on how certain factors may affect the behavior of a person. These factors are:

• Stereotype
• Prejudice
• Discrimination
• Selective Perception
• Projection
• Halo Effect
• Tokenism
• Intersectionality

Based on the meaning of these factors I find intersectionality, Tokenism and stereotype even though all these have a common theme which is the treatment or judgement of others based on some preconceived notions.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage; a theoretical approach based on such a premise (Oxford dictionary).

In easier words intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, a group or a social problem as affected by several discriminations or disadvantages (YW Boston, 2017).

This factor is interesting to me because this is a subject that is broadly covered by the media and several groups. Intersectionality is one of the underlying causes for the Feminist and Black Lives Matters Movements.

The latter is more focused on the unjust execution of black people by the police in the USA. I would imagine that intersectionality can cause managers to treat people that fall into certain categories (such as Black females) in a certain way that is different from people that fall into other groups. This treatment will be noticed by other employees and that can affect their motivation or their own treatments of these employees. One provable fact is that intersectionality can be the underlying cause for protests.

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Tokenism

Tokenism has the same underlying meaning as intersectionality but goes one step further. The practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly” (Sherrer, 2018). There is something deceitful about Tokenism, because it means that people aren’t being hired based on their qualifications, but to present a message or a defense without an actual attack or accusation.

An indicator of tokenism is the presence of one or very few employees of a specific background. If you are for instance the only black female in your company, it might be draining because you have no familiar support group who can identify with the struggles you may or may not have. You also might end up not getting a fair treatment or frustrated for being hired for a job you are not fully qualified for.

Stereotypes

Stereotyping in the workplace is making assumptions about people based on a person’s gender or culture or is based on religious or physical attributes (Leonard, 2018). Stereotyping can have different effects on job performance. Stereotyping could lead to harassing and discriminatory situations. We can all admit to not feeling safe in an environment where you could be discriminated against or harassed. The impact on your performance when being harassed is obvious.

Other studies show that stereotyping can cause high pressured situations because of someone’s efforts to disprove or at least avoid proving the stereotypes that are targeting their social identity. On the other side the effort to disprove or avoid proving the stereotypes could be an extra motivation to perform better and can lead to better results.

References

1. Leonard K., (November, 2018). How Does Stereotyping Affect the Workplace Environment?.
2. Retrieved from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/stereotyping-affect-workplace-environment-78286.html
3. Steven H. Appelbaum Richard Wenger Carolina Pachon Buitrago Ravneet Kaur , (2016),’
4. The effects of old-age stereotypes on organizational productivity (part one)’, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 48 Iss 4 pp. 181 – 188.
5. Sherrer K. (February, 2018). What Is Tokenism, and Why Does It Matter in the Workplace?.
6. Retrieved from: https://business.vanderbilt.edu/news/2018/02/26/tokenism-in-the-workplace/
7. Spencer S., Logel C., Davies P., (2016). Stereotype Threat. Annual review of Psychology. Vol. 67:415-437.
8. Retrieved From: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-psych-073115-103235
9. YW Boston Blog. (March, 2017). What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me?
10. Retrieved from: https://www.ywboston.org/2017/03/what-is-intersectionality-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me/