A Christoffersen
Biographic Data
| ID | 46022 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Christoffersen |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Christoffersen |
| SIGNATURE | CHRISTOFFERSEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6103-3733 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 96 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Taking stock of intersectionality-informed policy guidance for post-pandemic recovery
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 was a catalyst for popularizing intersectionality, an approach now recognized as central to understanding the inequitable consequences of COVID-19 and as a necessary lens for recovery. Yet, a key question remains: Did the pandemic provide the stimulus for improving or advancing operational policy-relevant guidance for intersectionality? Answering this is critical, given persistent calls for practical policy guidance for opera…
The misrecognition of intersectional justice claims
This article explores the specific history of Black and Asian women’s workplace activism and wider campaigning on workplace equality in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. Given the variety and richness of this history, I highlight particular aspects and examples to address the following questions: What were racially minoritised women’s experiences, analyses of, and campaigning concerning work in this time period, and how did these compare to thos…
Integrating Intersectionality in Policy
Addressing inequities is a pressing policy priority, particularly with growing awareness of interlocking global challenges, including pandemic recovery. Although Canada has been a leader in developing intersectionality-informed policy approaches, interest in intersectionality is growing internationally. Yet, misunderstandings persist on how to operationalize intersectionality, and calls are being made to develop clear and effective guidance to do…
Intersectionality, NGOs and executives
To what extent do the most powerful political office-holders engage with extra-parliamentary representatives from the most marginalised groups? To what extent and how are these relationships intersectional? In order to answer these questions, this article offers a novel analysis of over 78,000 UK government ministerial meetings and 293 equalities organisations. The findings show that white male ministers engage least with equalities organisations…
From Inclusion to Transformation
The popularization of intersectionality within political science, feminist scholarship, and activism has constituted nothing less than a paradigm shift (Hancock 2007a). Politics & Gender has been a critical actor in enabling change within our discipline. However, this development has been hard won and there remains much to be done to operationalize intersectionality in line with Black feminist theory, and to center women of color and other inters…
The whiteness of ‘sex discrimination’
The year 2025 will mark 50 years since the prohibition of gender discrimination in employment in Europe. Feminist narratives of this time have often been ones of progress, despite Black feminist critique of how such legislation effaced racially minoritised women’s experiences. Why was gender equality legislation designed to mainly benefit white privileged women? What discourses were involved? Meanwhile, while the term ‘white feminism’ has recentl…
Operationalising intersectionality in equality and domestic abuse policy in Scotland
This article synthesises the findings from two studies on the operationalisation of intersectionality in Scotland: one in equality policy and NGOs, and the other in domestic abuse policy-making. Drawing upon Ashlee Christoffersen's framework of applied concepts of intersectionality, this article analyses the competing and contradictory ways that intersectionality is institutionalised in Scottish policy and practice. It highlights the contestation…
There is no such thing as ‘women’s representation
Celis and Childs have called for a ‘second generation’ of feminist scholarship on representation that foregrounds intersectional heterogeneity and emphasises responsiveness to representatives beyond parliaments. We build on these important contributions, arguing that second-generation feminist scholarship and democratic design can make the greatest gains by operationalising intersectionality in close alignment with its origins in Black feminism a…
Campaigning against workplace ‘sexual harassment’ in the UK
This article examines how and in what ways workplace 'sexual harassment' achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social chan…
Is intersectional racial justice organizing possible? Confronting generic intersectionality
This article empirically charts how a discursive construction of the separation of race and racial justice organizing, and “intersectionality” serves to uphold white supremacy and efface intersectional marginalization among people of colour. Undertaking the first study of how UK policymakers and practitioners in equality organizations understand and operationalize “intersectionality”, it maps “generic intersectionality”, which is delivered to ben…
Developments in the appropriation of intersectionality by white feminism in European policy
Diversity Within”
In intersectionality studies, debates about the additive versus constitutive nature of intersectionality are long-established. This article attempts to intervene in these conversations by examining how additive, “diversity within” intersectionality works in practice. Across feminist academia, advocacy, and policymaking, there is a widely held perception that among the nongovernmental organizations constituted around identity-based inequalities (f…
Responding to inequities in public policy
The politics of intersectional practice
The recent intensification of both intersecting inequalities and demands for change calls for an intersectional approach which can account for the complexity of factors and processes structuring social relations, risk and outcomes. Yet intersectionality is thought to be a challenging theory to apply, and represents a puzzle to policymakers and practitioners navigating policy area and equality strand silos. Based on the first empirical study inter…
Equalities ‘devolved’
Researching Intersectionality
This essay explores ethical issues in researching ‘intersectionality’, focusing in particular on: positionality in relation to topic and research relationships; and the relationship of intersectional positionality to ‘insider/outsider’ status. I argue that reflection on intersectional positionality is a key ethical consideration of social research, and propose some guiding questions for this purpose
Gender mainstreaming in the United Kingdom
Intersectionality and the determinants of health
Despite Canada's leadership in the field of population health, there have been few successes in reducing the country's health inequities. There is an increasing recognition that regardless of the progress made to date, significant gaps remain in comprehending fully the root causes of inequities, including the complex ways in which the determinants of health relate, intersect and mutually reinforce one another. Calls are being made to draw on the …
The politics of intersectional practice
The recent intensification of both intersecting inequalities and demands for change calls for an intersectional approach which can account for the complexity of factors and processes structuring social relations, risk and outcomes. Yet intersectionality is thought to be a challenging theory to apply, and represents a puzzle to policymakers and practitioners navigating policy area and equality strand silos. Based on the first empirical study inter…
Diversity Within”
In intersectionality studies, debates about the additive versus constitutive nature of intersectionality are long-established. This article attempts to intervene in these conversations by examining how additive, “diversity within” intersectionality works in practice. Across feminist academia, advocacy, and policymaking, there is a widely held perception that among the nongovernmental organizations constituted around identity-based inequalities (f…
Responding to inequities in public policy
There is no such thing as ‘women’s representation
Celis and Childs have called for a ‘second generation’ of feminist scholarship on representation that foregrounds intersectional heterogeneity and emphasises responsiveness to representatives beyond parliaments. We build on these important contributions, arguing that second-generation feminist scholarship and democratic design can make the greatest gains by operationalising intersectionality in close alignment with its origins in Black feminism a…
Developments in the appropriation of intersectionality by white feminism in European policy
Equalities ‘devolved’
Operationalising intersectionality in equality and domestic abuse policy in Scotland
This article synthesises the findings from two studies on the operationalisation of intersectionality in Scotland: one in equality policy and NGOs, and the other in domestic abuse policy-making. Drawing upon Ashlee Christoffersen's framework of applied concepts of intersectionality, this article analyses the competing and contradictory ways that intersectionality is institutionalised in Scottish policy and practice. It highlights the contestation…
Researching Intersectionality
This essay explores ethical issues in researching ‘intersectionality’, focusing in particular on: positionality in relation to topic and research relationships; and the relationship of intersectional positionality to ‘insider/outsider’ status. I argue that reflection on intersectional positionality is a key ethical consideration of social research, and propose some guiding questions for this purpose
From Inclusion to Transformation
The popularization of intersectionality within political science, feminist scholarship, and activism has constituted nothing less than a paradigm shift (Hancock 2007a). Politics & Gender has been a critical actor in enabling change within our discipline. However, this development has been hard won and there remains much to be done to operationalize intersectionality in line with Black feminist theory, and to center women of color and other inters…
Gender mainstreaming in the United Kingdom
The whiteness of ‘sex discrimination’
The year 2025 will mark 50 years since the prohibition of gender discrimination in employment in Europe. Feminist narratives of this time have often been ones of progress, despite Black feminist critique of how such legislation effaced racially minoritised women’s experiences. Why was gender equality legislation designed to mainly benefit white privileged women? What discourses were involved? Meanwhile, while the term ‘white feminism’ has recentl…
Intersectionality and the determinants of health
Despite Canada's leadership in the field of population health, there have been few successes in reducing the country's health inequities. There is an increasing recognition that regardless of the progress made to date, significant gaps remain in comprehending fully the root causes of inequities, including the complex ways in which the determinants of health relate, intersect and mutually reinforce one another. Calls are being made to draw on the …
Gender mainstreaming in the United Kingdom
Researching Intersectionality
This essay explores ethical issues in researching ‘intersectionality’, focusing in particular on: positionality in relation to topic and research relationships; and the relationship of intersectional positionality to ‘insider/outsider’ status. I argue that reflection on intersectional positionality is a key ethical consideration of social research, and propose some guiding questions for this purpose
Equalities ‘devolved’
Responding to inequities in public policy
The politics of intersectional practice
The recent intensification of both intersecting inequalities and demands for change calls for an intersectional approach which can account for the complexity of factors and processes structuring social relations, risk and outcomes. Yet intersectionality is thought to be a challenging theory to apply, and represents a puzzle to policymakers and practitioners navigating policy area and equality strand silos. Based on the first empirical study inter…
Is intersectional racial justice organizing possible? Confronting generic intersectionality
This article empirically charts how a discursive construction of the separation of race and racial justice organizing, and “intersectionality” serves to uphold white supremacy and efface intersectional marginalization among people of colour. Undertaking the first study of how UK policymakers and practitioners in equality organizations understand and operationalize “intersectionality”, it maps “generic intersectionality”, which is delivered to ben…
Developments in the appropriation of intersectionality by white feminism in European policy
Diversity Within”
In intersectionality studies, debates about the additive versus constitutive nature of intersectionality are long-established. This article attempts to intervene in these conversations by examining how additive, “diversity within” intersectionality works in practice. Across feminist academia, advocacy, and policymaking, there is a widely held perception that among the nongovernmental organizations constituted around identity-based inequalities (f…
Campaigning against workplace ‘sexual harassment’ in the UK
This article examines how and in what ways workplace 'sexual harassment' achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social chan…
The whiteness of ‘sex discrimination’
The year 2025 will mark 50 years since the prohibition of gender discrimination in employment in Europe. Feminist narratives of this time have often been ones of progress, despite Black feminist critique of how such legislation effaced racially minoritised women’s experiences. Why was gender equality legislation designed to mainly benefit white privileged women? What discourses were involved? Meanwhile, while the term ‘white feminism’ has recentl…
Operationalising intersectionality in equality and domestic abuse policy in Scotland
This article synthesises the findings from two studies on the operationalisation of intersectionality in Scotland: one in equality policy and NGOs, and the other in domestic abuse policy-making. Drawing upon Ashlee Christoffersen's framework of applied concepts of intersectionality, this article analyses the competing and contradictory ways that intersectionality is institutionalised in Scottish policy and practice. It highlights the contestation…
There is no such thing as ‘women’s representation
Celis and Childs have called for a ‘second generation’ of feminist scholarship on representation that foregrounds intersectional heterogeneity and emphasises responsiveness to representatives beyond parliaments. We build on these important contributions, arguing that second-generation feminist scholarship and democratic design can make the greatest gains by operationalising intersectionality in close alignment with its origins in Black feminism a…
The misrecognition of intersectional justice claims
This article explores the specific history of Black and Asian women’s workplace activism and wider campaigning on workplace equality in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. Given the variety and richness of this history, I highlight particular aspects and examples to address the following questions: What were racially minoritised women’s experiences, analyses of, and campaigning concerning work in this time period, and how did these compare to thos…
Integrating Intersectionality in Policy
Addressing inequities is a pressing policy priority, particularly with growing awareness of interlocking global challenges, including pandemic recovery. Although Canada has been a leader in developing intersectionality-informed policy approaches, interest in intersectionality is growing internationally. Yet, misunderstandings persist on how to operationalize intersectionality, and calls are being made to develop clear and effective guidance to do…
Intersectionality, NGOs and executives
To what extent do the most powerful political office-holders engage with extra-parliamentary representatives from the most marginalised groups? To what extent and how are these relationships intersectional? In order to answer these questions, this article offers a novel analysis of over 78,000 UK government ministerial meetings and 293 equalities organisations. The findings show that white male ministers engage least with equalities organisations…
From Inclusion to Transformation
The popularization of intersectionality within political science, feminist scholarship, and activism has constituted nothing less than a paradigm shift (Hancock 2007a). Politics & Gender has been a critical actor in enabling change within our discipline. However, this development has been hard won and there remains much to be done to operationalize intersectionality in line with Black feminist theory, and to center women of color and other inters…
Taking stock of intersectionality-informed policy guidance for post-pandemic recovery
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 was a catalyst for popularizing intersectionality, an approach now recognized as central to understanding the inequitable consequences of COVID-19 and as a necessary lens for recovery. Yet, a key question remains: Did the pandemic provide the stimulus for improving or advancing operational policy-relevant guidance for intersectionality? Answering this is critical, given persistent calls for practical policy guidance for opera…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (14 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Intersectionality (13 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Feminism (7 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (6 works)