Intersectionality, Innovation, and Influence

Intersectionality is described as one of the most significant contributions of feminist theory to the study of social inequality and sociology more broadly. Yet, there is reason to wonder whether the discipline of sociology has fully embraced intersectionality’s analytical and theoretical potential.

To answer this question, Professor Shelley Correll and graduate student Claire Daviss explore how intersectionality has traveled, from 1990 to the present, through four sociology journals: the discipline’s two top generalist journals — the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology — and two of the discipline’s leading specialty journals focused on gender and race — Gender & Society and the Du Bois Review. We find that, while intersectionality has been embraced by specialty journals focused on gender and race, high-prestige generalist journals have been far less likely to adopt intersectional frameworks, even in articles that are focused on gender and race.

In the next stage of this research, we are conducting a survey on intersectionality sociology research and who produces it. We have identified a list of research articles that mention intersectionality in the main text. We are now reaching out to the authors of those articles asking them to complete this survey.

Goal of the survey

The goal of the survey is to understand the gender and racial identities of scholars who have mentioned intersectionality in their academic research articles in recent decades. We plan to use these data to describe aggregate trends in the gender and racial composition of intersectionality scholars.

Why self-report

By relying on self-reported gender and racial identities, we avoid having to use approaches such as inferring these identities based on names or photos. These alternative approaches are subject to problematic errors, as they come with the risk of misidentifying persons’ gender or race. Using self-reported data will allow us to better estimate field-wide trends in the gender and racial diversity of scholars who use intersectional approaches in their research.

Protection of your data

Your data will be kept confidential. No one outside the research team will have access to the data, and all results will be reported in the aggregate.

Ready to respond? If you received an email from one of us or from our shared email account (scorrell_lab [at] stanford.edu (scorrell_lab[at]stanford[dot]edu)), please use the link provided to complete the survey. If you cannot locate the survey, please reach out!

Questions for the researchers? Please send any questions you may have to Claire Daviss (cdaviss [at] stanford.edu (cdaviss[at]stanford[dot]edu)) or Shelley Correll (scorrell [at] stanford.edu (scorrell[at]stanford[dot]edu)).