French Literature Reviews - 2026

É. Lépinard, S. Mazouz, Pour l’intersectionnalité
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Pour l’intersectionnalité

Éléonore Lépinard

Sarah Mazouz

Anamosa, 2021

No, the concept of intersectionality does not pose a threat to society or academia, nor does it dissolve class in favor of race or gender. Quite the contrary: this analytical tool carries both a conceptual and a political imperative—a much-needed, rich, and well-argued synthesis to understand what is truly at stake.

Attacks on the social sciences are becoming increasingly frequent. These attacks specifically target certain critical studies, notably those addressing racial discrimination, gender studies, and intersectionality.

Building on a seminal 2019 article published in the journal Mouvements, which has been thoroughly revised and updated, this book offers a timely and essential overview of what the notion of intersectionality truly entails. The authors, both sociologists, begin by revisiting the history of a concept developed over thirty years ago by feminist women of color to identify and examine how various structures of power—specifically class, race, and gender—intersect and co-construct one another. They then examine the resistance, "fears," distorted rhetoric, and other political instrumentalities that intersectionality often provokes, particularly in France. Yet, defending intersectional approaches ultimately means engaging more accurately with the complex, multifaceted social experiences of individuals, thereby laying the groundwork for genuine social transformation.

Éléonore Lépinard is a sociologist and professor of gender studies at the University of Lausanne. Her research focuses on feminist movements and theories, intersectionality, gender, and law. She is the author, with Marylène Lieber, of Les Théories en études de genre ("Repères", La Découverte, 2020) and Feminist Trouble: Intersectionality Politics in Post-secular Times (Oxford, 2020). She has also co-edited several volumes, including Genre et islamophobie (ENS Éditions, 2021, with O. Sarrasin and L. Gianettoni), Intersectionality in Feminist and Queer Movements (Routledge, 2020, with E. Evans), and L’Intersectionnalité: Enjeux théoriques et politiques (with F. Fassa and M. Roca i Escoda, La Dispute, 2016).

Sarah Mazouz is a sociologist, a research fellow at CNRS (Ceraps), and a member of the Convergences Migrations Institute. Her work relies on ethnographic research and draws upon critical race studies, the sociology of law, the sociology of public policy, and the critical anthropology of morality. She is the author of Race ("Le mot est faible", Anamosa, 2020). In La République et ses autres: Politiques de l’altérité dans la France des années 2000 (ENS Éditions, 2017), she demonstrates how immigration, nation, and racialization intersect within the social space.

View the book on the publisher's website…

*

The concept of intersectionality emerged from feminist scholarship led by women of color to analyze how systems of power, including race, gender, and class, interact to shape individual experiences. Within the broader field of sociology and critical studies, this framework seeks to move beyond single-axis analyses of inequality. The authors situate the current debate within the context of contemporary social science, where critical approaches to discrimination frequently face public and political scrutiny regarding their potential impact on social cohesion.

In the French context, the reception of intersectionality has been marked by resistance and political debate. The authors examine how the term is discussed in public discourse and why it remains a subject of controversy. By clarifying the theoretical foundations of the concept, the work highlights how intersectional perspectives aim to account for the multifaceted nature of social reality. Readers interested in the history of feminist theory and the sociology of power in contemporary France may find this synthesis of the intellectual and political stakes relevant.

You can read an interview with the authors on Diacritik.com…