See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225937429 When Black + Lesbian + Woman ≠ Black Lesbian Woman: The Methodological Challenges of Qualitative and... Article in Sex Roles · September 2008 DOI: 10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z CITATIONS READS 367 3,660 1 author: Lisa Bowleg George Washington University 63 PUBLICATIONS 1,647 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Lisa Bowleg on 24 November 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Sex Roles (2008) 59:312–325 DOI 10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE When Black + Lesbian + Woman ≠ Black Lesbian Woman: The Methodological Challenges of Qualitative and Quantitative Intersectionality Research Lisa Bowleg Published online: 21 March 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract The notion that social identities and social Keywords Intersectionality research methods . inequality based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex/ Black lesbians gender are intersectional rather than additive poses a variety of thorny methodological challenges. Using research with Black lesbians (Bowleg, manuscripts in preparation; Introduction Bowleg et al., Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2008; Bowleg et al., Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde’s(1984) description of “... 10:229–240, 2004; Bowleg et al., Journal of Lesbian constantly being encouraged to pluck out some aspect of Studies, 7:87–108, 2003) as a foundation, I examine how myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing these challenges shape measurement, analysis, and inter- and denying the other parts of the self” (p. 120) highlights pretation. I argue that a key dilemma for intersectionality eloquently the complexity of intersectionality. For Lorde researchers is that the additive (e.g., Black + Lesbian + and other Black lesbians, one’s identity as a Black lesbian Woman) versus intersectional (e.g., Black Lesbian Woman) is the meaningful whole; it is not a mere addition of assumption inherent in measurement and qualitative and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex/gender. For research- quantitative data analyses contradicts the central tenet of ers interested in designing and conducting intersectionality intersectionality: social identities and inequality are inter- research, the notion that social identities and social dependent for groups such as Black lesbians, not mutually inequality based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex/gender exclusive. In light of this, interpretation becomes one of the (and one could add a host of other identities such as class, most substantial tools in the intersectionality researcher’s disability status, etc.) are interdependent and mutually methodological toolbox. constitutive (i.e., intersectional; Collins 1995, 1998; Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Weber and Parra-Medina 2003), rather than independent and uni-dimensional poses a variety of thorny methodological challenges. These challenges shape key The Trials and Tribulations Study was supported by a 2000 University aspects of the research process such as measurement, data of Rhode Island Council of Higher Education Grant. analysis, and interpretation. Using research with Black I presented portions of this article as Black + Woman + Lesbian? lesbians as a foundation (Bowleg, manuscripts in prepara- Black x Woman x Lesbian?: Some Conceptual and Methodological Challenges of Intersectionality Research at the “Practical Issues in tion; Bowleg et al. 2008, 2004, 2003), I focus in this article LGBT Research” symposium at the August 2006 Annual Convention on some of the methodological challenges of conducting of the American Psychological Association Convention, New Orleans, intersectionality research using qualitative and quantitative LA, USA. methods. L. Bowleg (*) The solipsism that equates women with Whiteness, and Department of Community Health and Prevention Program, Blackness with men rendering the experiences of people who School of Public Health, Drexel University, are women and Black invisible (Hull et al. 1982; Spelman 1505 Race Street, Mailstop 1032, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192, USA 1998) pervades contemporary scholarship, policy, and e-mail: [email protected] thought. Copious examples exist, but one will suffice. In Sex Roles (2008) 59:312–325 313 1994, the National Institutes of Health released guidelines the methodological issues that arise in intersectionality requiring researchers to describe their plans for the research, I address here three issues with which intersec- “Inclusion of Women and Minorities.” The rationale for tionality researchers must grapple: developing questions to the guidelines were sound but the continued declaration of measure intersectionality, analyzing intersectionality data, “women and minorities” as if these were two mutually and interpreting them. exclusive groups signaled an entrenched misunderstanding of how women’s experiences as women also intersect with Black Lesbians in Micro and Macro Perspective: A Brief their experiences as members of ethnic minority groups, as Overview well as other historically oppressed social groups. The discipline of psychology has not fared well in terms Because the lives of Black lesbians are rooted in structural of promoting the understanding of intersectionality. Despite inequalities based on the intersections of sexual orientation, an abundance of theories on social identity within psychol- sex, gender, and race (see Greene 1995), Black lesbians are ogy, the prevailing view of social identities is one of uni- an ideal population in which to study intersectionality. dimensionality and independence, rather than intersection. Intersectionality examines how distinctive social power A notable exception is Ransford’s(1980) multiple jeopar- relations mutually construct each other, not just that social dy-advantage (MJA) hypothesis which posits that people hierarchies exist (Collins 1998). At the micro level, a small occupy various social status positions that intersect to create empirical literature base has examined the intimate relation- a “unique social space” (p. 277). This unique space manifests ships (Hall and Greene 2002; Mays and Cochran 1988; as outcomes that one’s social status location (e.g., race) alone Peplau et al. 1997), health care (Cochran and Mays 1988), cannot explain. Instead, this space can be explained only by mental health (Cochran and Mays 1994), workplace the intersection of one of more social status positions (e.g., (Bowleg et al. 2008), active coping (Bowleg et al. 2004), race, sex, class, sexual orientation) to yield multiple jeopardy and multiple minority stress and resilience (Bowleg et al. (i.e., the intersection of two or more low social status 2003) experiences of Black lesbians. Other relevant positions) or multiple advantage (i.e., the intersection of two scholarship, most of it focused on predominantly White or more high social status positions). Deaux’s(1993) work middle-class lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations reconstructing social identity to recognize multiple dimen- has addressed the minority stress experiences of LGBs sions of social identity is another exception to the rule, as (Brooks 1981; DiPlacido 1998; Meyer 2003) and the dual- are numerous examples within feminist psychology. identity experiences of lesbians (Fingerhut et al. 2005). Though explicit mention of the term intersectionality is A macro level analysis of economic inequality from an rare, feminist psychology has been far more progressive intersectional perspective demonstrates aptly how the social than mainstream psychology in recognizing the intersec- hierarchies of race, sex, and sexual orientation are mutually tions between women’s experiences of structural inequality constructed in the lives of Black lesbians. According to the based on race, gender, class, and sexual orientation (e.g., National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s (NGLTF; Dang and Greene 1997; Reid and Comas-Diaz 1990; Weber 1998). Frazer 2004) analysis of Black same-sex household data Not surprisingly, the Black feminist literature is replete from the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, Black same-sex couples with narratives and analysis of Black women’s experiences reported an annual median household income ($49,000) of of the intersections of race, gender, class, and/or sexual $2,000, lower than that of their Black married heterosexual orientation (see Collins 1991; Davis 1983; Hooks 1981) counterparts ($51,000). Black female same-sex couples and notions of double (Beale 1970) and triple jeopardy however reported a median income of $9,000 less than (Greene 1995) based on these identities. But while a Black married heterosexual couples, $7,000 less than Black plethora of scholarship on the intersection of race, class, male same-sex couples, and a stunning $21,000 and $29,000 gender, and sexual orientation exists in the multidisciplin- less than White female and male same sex couples ary literature, there is a paucity of literature on intersection- respectively, illustrating clearly how structural inequalities ality from a methodological perspective (Cuadraz and Uttal grounded in intersections of race, sex, and sexual orientation 1999;McCall2005). Thus, researchers interested in affect Black female same-sex couples adversely. conducting intersectionality research often have to self- teach and learn through trial and error. My goal in writing this article is to help intersectionality researchers sidestep Pitfalls and Insights: Lessons