Ethnicities, citizenship and feminisms: Theorizing the political practices of intersectionality

This article explores the present state of theorizing about the political practices of the intersections of feminisms and ethnicity. This particular question raises the larger question of the political practices of difference, or the ways the intersections of multiple identities can be translated into political practice. The article looks first at the way in which this issue has emerged, both from the political practice of the Canadian women's movement and from the intellectual challenge of postmodernism. Following a brief examination of Canadian feminist writings on the analysis of intersections of gender and ethnicity, the text looks at the political practices of intersectionality through the question of citizenship and the relationship between the public and private spheres. Although some interesting arguments are to be found in the literature about the potential for the development of coalition politics that take account of difference but also of common citizenship, it is not at all clear that this will be the direction that will be taken by the politics of the women's movement in Canada.