A Critical Review of Doing Intersectionality Repertoires of Feminist Practices in France and Canada

Lepinard, E. (2014). Doing intersectionality repertoires of feminist practices in France and Canada. Gender & Society, 0891243214542430.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

A critical review of Lepinard (2014) article will be done to evaluate the purpose of the author, the strengths and the weaknesses the articles content and ideas portray. Lepinard (2014) has used intersectionality to refer and analyze different axes in the feminist theory on oppression. Social categorizations such as gender, class, and race have been used to analyze how they relate to the minority women groups within France and Canada. The author has investigated the extent to which political and theoretical premises of intersectionality have and have not been adopted by womens rights organizations. Intersectionality has been used as a repertoire that can be used by a womens organization. The article has aimed at documenting ways in which feminist associations react to challenges such as the inclusion of vulnerable women to many forms of oppression. Different repertoires have been indicated to cause opposing political consequences for the women.

The author compares many feminist associations to elucidate the factors that explain intersectionality id included by some organizations while others discharge its significance. Intersectionality according to the article is a tool that analyzes political and social practices such as feminist practices. It has enabled researchers to unveil how disparities within social relations have caused silencing of the minority groups of women and their marginalization. Various studies from other authors on intersectionality have been analyzed, and they have influenced the argument of the author. For instance, Strolovitchs argument on intersectionality deepens the understanding of the author through embracing a comparative perspective between majority and minority women and as one of the ways, a firm can represent and frame the political interests of disadvantaged intersectional groups. The author emphasizes, Strolovitch documents the mechanisms by which these organizations tend to privilege claims and issues that will benfit a majority of the constituency. The article has also focused on the intersectional interests perceives, articulated and defined by the womens right associations.

A three-level comparative framework is developed to answer the queries from intersectionality of women's associations. France and Canada have been chosen as the research areas because they offer concrete examples of national models of citizenship on minority group and migrants inclusion. The main variables targeted in the two nationalities are organizations identity and function of the organization. Interviews with feminist activists that work in 50 women's associations have been used. One person was interviewed for each firm. The firms chosen are from big cities in the countries such as Quebec, Ontario, and Paris. The snowball sampling technique identified service-oriented firms with an immigrant identity. The activists involved in the interview gave information on their funding sources, priorities, relationship with other women's rights firms and their positioning on controversial issues in the society. The interviews lasted 60 to 180 minutes and coded using ATLAS.ti. Twenty-five different codes were used for 778 quotations. Intersectional recognition repertoire assumes that women have particular desires and political interests while intersectional solidarity indicates that structural power relations is attentive to minority women issues. The third repertoire from the data collected indicates that disparities among women create subcategories of vulnerable women while the fourth one ensures that there is individual recognition of each woman's experience and responds to the needs of the minority women.

The intended audience of the article is the minority group of women and women's rights organizations who live in France and Canada. They can be able to realize the repertoires that can be used to guide their practice. The author has not defined the major terminologies focused on the paper. Words such as intersectionality, minority women, women's movements and recognition have not been explained in both the literature review section as well as the data collection part. The reader, therefore, does not clearly understand some terms and has to find the meaning of the words from external sources other than the article.

The information offered is well researched. Information from secondary sources is well cited. Different scholarly articles have also been reviewed to offer enough information on the topic of study based on previous studied done by other authors. The data collection and analysis process has been well illustrated. The conclusion offered is, therefore, authentic and precise for future studies as a reference. The methodology of the study is clearly outlined where the questions of the interviews conducted are indicated to each representative of the firms and some of their responses offered. The expected results are also well outlined through the analysis of the four repertoires.

The article is easy to follow as a reader. It would have however been better if the author subdivided the article into an introduction, literature review, methodology, analysis, results and conclusion sections for clarity. The study done suits the desired audience because it has targeted the minority and disadvantaged women in France and Canada. The author has even included quotes from various respondents to gather enough information for the study as well as a way to provide evidence of the some of the responses gathered. There are tables within the article for easy illustration on the responses the participants gave. They make the analysis of the article easy.

The study, however, has lacked to involve community groups that have no regular activities and a small constituency and has only concentrated on the organizations that have a permanent structure and officers. Credible sources of research should be from 10 years before the date of publishing the document. The references should, therefore, be from 2004 to 2013. The author has however used references from 1996, 1998, and 2000, which makes some of the information outdated for use in the article. Not all information is precise especially of it is dated earlier than 2004.

In conclusion, the critical review has analyzed the purpose of the article, its strengths, and weaknesses. The author has focused on how women's rights organizations have adopted intersectionality. Literature review and interviews with women in different firms in France and Canada were used to provide information on the study. There were four repertoires analyzed namely intersectional recognition, gender first, individual recognition and intersectional solidarity. The article was well-researched and well suit for the intended audience. It has however lacked to target respondents from community groups that have no regular activities.

Reference

Lepinard, E. (2014). Doing intersectionality repertoires of feminist practices in France and Canada. Gender & Society, 0891243214542430.