Intersectionality and policies: ideational and discursive processes

The concept of intersectionality often used in public interventions and academic debates was created at the end of the twentieth century by the black feminist movement as a way of naming the double discrimination suffered by African-American women (race and gender discrimination). Based on Crenshaw's (2016) argument that the construction of the concept of intersectionality was an essential discursive process to enable the fight against this problem, this article seeks to discuss how this theme relates to the public policy analysis literature that highlights the role of ideas, discourses, and arguments. From the analysis made in this article, it is possible to understand how the theme of intersectionality serves as an important example for discursive approaches to public policy analysis, reinforcing the role of language as an aspect to be considered in the study of the process of agenda formation and public policy change.