2015/12/10 by Liam Kofi Bright, Daniel Malinsky, Morgan Thompson · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Gender Politics and Representation #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Gender Diversity and Inequality
paper · doi:10.1086/684173
Social scientists report difficulties in drawing out testable predictions from the literature on intersectionality theory. We alleviate that difficulty by showing that some characteristic claims of the intersectionality literature can be interpreted causally. The formalism of graphical causal modeling allows claims about the causal effects of occupying intersecting identity categories to be clearly represented and submitted to empirical testing. After outlining this causal interpretation of intersectional theory, we address some concerns that have been expressed in the literature claiming that membership in demographic categories can have causal effects.