Intersectionality is a term that when used in feminism explains how issues that women face, are often seen from a white middle-class narrative. The middle-class feminist narrative, however, does not consider additional factors that can impact a woman’s positionality and 
experiences, such as disability status, race and Social Economic Status (SES) (Crenshaw, 1991). Intersectionality when used in a feminist context, shows the multiple factors that women of colour, disabled, trans and low SES women face with identity politics and how this can differ greatly from the experiences of a white, middle-class woman and was a focus in third wave feminism, where the different experiences of non-white middle-class women were centralised (Walker, 1992). The need to consider intersectionality when examining feminist issues can be seen by looking at discipline in US state schools and how discipline impacts children from minority backgrounds.
In the US state educational system, African American girls are disproportionately more likely to be disciplined than white girls, this is particularly notable with the introduction of zero tolerance and African American girls being disciplined for minor issues, such as making ‘excessive noise’ or ‘being confrontational’ (NWLC, 2014). African American girls are six times more likely to be disciplined than white girls with 12% of all African American girls excluded from pre-school to grade 12 (NWLC, 2014).
It is argued that children as young as 3 years old are aware of gender and are already conforming to ‘traditional gender stereotypes’ (Skelton et al, 2012), Pane & Rocco (2014) discuss that this directly affects African American girls, as they do not fit into patriarchal middle-class notions of femininity, such as being passive and softly spoken (Arnot & Mac an Ghaill, 2006). These hegemonic stereotypes of femininity and passivity often lead to negative perceptions of African American girls as being loud, disruptive, confrontational and disobedient which leads teachers to feel that they have to correct their behaviour more, in order to bring them in line with their own social values (NWLC, 2014).
However, these negative stereotypes of black women can lead to long-term barriers to education as drop-out rates tend to be higher amongst children that are continually disciplined (NSLC, 2014). The School To Prison Pipeline (STPP) theory can further help understand how discipline in education can affect children in the US. The STPP theory centres on how schools are constructed in a way that fails children from low SES and minority backgrounds through the use of widely excepted classroom disciplinary methods (Pane & Rocco, 2014). These methods of discipline include removing children from their classroom, which can impact on their engagement and interest in education (Pane & Rocco, 2014). Thus, children who are repeatedly disciplined at school may eventually drop out and are at an increased risk of entering the juvenile prison system (Pane & Rocco, 2014), with Black and Latinx females up to three times more likely to end up incarcerated than white people (Sentencing project, 2016: p14)
Reference List
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Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp1241-1299. doi:10.2307/1229039
Jackson Jr., J. P.(2001). Social Scientists for Social Justice: Making the Case against Segregation. New York: NYU Press. Retrieved March 4, 2019, from Project MUSE database.
National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). (2014). Unlocking Opportunity for African American Girls. A Call to Action for Educational Equity. 1 (1), pp6-46.
Pane, D. & Rocco, T. (2014) The Issue / School-to-Prison Pipeline. In: Transforming the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Educational Futures (Rethinking Theory and Practice), vol 60. SensePublishers, Rotterdam
The Sentencing Project. (2016). Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons. The Color of Justice. 1 (1), pp1-25.
Skelton, C., Francis, B., & Smulyan, L. (2012). The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Education, SAGE Publications, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. pp120-134.
Walker, R. (1992). Becoming the Third Wave, US. pp397-401.
