Activating Your Empathy with an Intersectional Approach Beyond International Women’s Day
The first time I had ever heard of International Women’s Day was in 2013 when I was studying and living in Ecuador. Since that time, el día de la mujer has expanded into more consistent conversations in our collective narrative about women in leadership, sexual assault, and reproductive rights. These topics gained momentum as Hillary Clinton lost her bid for the US presidency to an openly misogynist candidate, as women told their #metoo stories of sexual assault and violence, and as the US Supreme Court heard arguments that would jeopardize a woman’s right to an abortion. The global Women’s March in 2017 highlighted these issues and catalyzed some changes. Yet, women still face disrespect, discrimination, and violence—all of which have intensified during the covid-19 pandemic.
This year, as many celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s Herstory Month to uplift women around the world, my focus will be on centering the achievements and struggles of women of color and transgender women specifically—women who are often left out of the conversations about leadership, safety, and human rights. With this intersectional approach, I acknowledge how each woman’s unique combination of identities impacts her privilege and experiences with discrimination.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, civil rights advocate and a scholar of critical race theory, coined the term intersectionality as she recognized that each person's blend of identities determined how society treated them. For example, "women" gained the right to vote in the United States in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment. However, this was a right only given to white, literate women. Native American women were granted US citizenship (the irony!) in 1924, but it wasn’t until 1962 that all states permitted them to vote. Forty-five years after the 19th amendment, the Voting Rights Act finally gave Black women the right to vote. Today, transgender women still struggle for their rights as they fight against voter suppression laws that require proof of ID—often displaying their deadname—to vote as the person they are. So just because women were given the right to vote in 1920, does not mean all women were. When I think about celebrating and standing up for women, I will be empathizing and acting with an intersectional approach.
As you consider what you could do to be intentional about your advocacy for women, show up for the issues that go beyond the dominant, privileged narrative. Take an intersectional approach and:
Show up for Black women who are threatened, traumatized, and murdered by law enforcement.
Show up for immigrant women who are overworked, underpaid, and mistreated in jobs that maim their bodies and chip away at their wellbeing.
Show up for indigenous women who go missing and are murdered without media attention or honest investigations.
Show up for transgender girls and women who face daily discrimination in school, healthcare, and access to housing.
Show up for Asian women who face heightened harassment and violence due to racist stigmas and misogyny.
Show up for women who choose to cover their hair in hijab or wear their hair natural.
Show up for women who ask you to have their back even if the issue doesn’t impact you personally.
And what does “showing up” look like, you ask? It means doing the work to listen, learn and act for the wellbeing of the most marginalized women. In her book, Inclusion on Purpose, Ruchika Tulshyan explains six strategies for turning empathy into action:
Be uncomfortable – listen and learn about experiences outside of your own.
Reflect on what you don’t know – take time to notice the gap in your knowledge and then get hungry to learn more.
Invite feedback – and accept it with gratitude and grace.
Limit defensiveness – If you notice this feeling rising in you, take a deep breath, take note of your reaction, and process it in a different space and time.
Grow from your mistakes – reflect on how you can do better and do it.
Expect change to take time – keep equity and justice top-of-mind and know that patience is part of the process.
Each of these actions will support compassionate empathy that requires more than just thinking and feeling. As you actively participate in the empathy process, you can adopt an intersectional approach so that the most vulnerable and mistreated in our communities and workplaces are heard. So that they're treated like their lives matter. So that women, but especially women of color and trans women, can thrive.