The Challenges of Intersectionality: Researching Equality in Higher Education
The Challenges of Intersectionality: Researching Equality in Higher Education

Author(s): Jasmina Husanović
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Higher Education , Social differentiation, Social Theory, Sociology of Education
Published by: Transkulturna Psihosocijalna Obrazovna Fondacija (TPO Foundation)
Keywords: intersectionality; higher education; politics of equality; feminist theory; critical realism; theory of education; class analysis;
Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the challenges of intersectionality as a productive approach to the analysis of gender (in)equality in higher education institutions through the discussion of several theoretical concerns within contemporary feminist intersectional research, informed by the empirical lens of the UNIGEM quantitative and qualitative research conducted in 2021. It offers a short outline of recent debates involving intersectionality studies, feminist standpoint theory and critical realism, and then proceeds to analyse some ways out of the constraints posed by the UNIGEM research when it comes to intersectional data pertaining to class and positionality. The argument is that the dearth of class analysis when researching the politics of equality and solidarity in higher education can be countered through future research inspired by the feminist critiques of Bourdieu’s theory of education and their prescient insights into the dynamics of class and positionality within the academia.

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