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Historical Background on the Matrix of Domination
In Collins’ Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, she first describes the concept of matrix thinking within the context of how black women in America encounter institutional discrimination based upon their race and gender. A prominent example of this in the 1990’s was racial segregation, especially as it related to housing, education, and employment. At the time, there was very little encouraged interaction between whites and blacks in these common sectors of society. Collins argues that this demonstrates how being black and female in America continues to perpetuate certain common experiences for African-American women. As such, African-American women live in a different world than those who are not black and female. Collins notes how this shared social struggle can actually result in the formation of a group-based collective effort, citing how the high concentration of African-American women in the domestic labor sector in combination with racial segregation in housing and schooling contributed directly to the organization of the black feminist movement. The collective wisdom shared by black women that held these specific experiences constituted a distinct viewpoint for African-American women concerning correlations between their race and gender and the resulting economic consequences.

Moolman points out the main issue concerning matrix thinking is how one accounts for the power dynamics between varying identifying categories that are ingrained in both oppression and domination instead of the traditional approach, reducing experiences to a single identity. For instance, black women’s experiences with society are used to illustrate how even though white scholars have attempted to use intersectionality in their research, they may still be inclined to default towards single-identity thinking that often fails to address all aspects of black women’s experiences, thus ignoring the organization the matrix objectively offers.

The matrix of domination in the colonial era and white society has also been carefully examined. The societal hierarchy determined by race and implemented under apartheid locates different racial populations in regards to their privilege, with African Americans usually at the bottom of the ladder. Dhamoon argues that on a global scale, the spot occupied by African Americans in such context is interchangeable with indigenous populations, as marginalized peoples are systematically working both within and across a matrix of interrelated axes of “penalty and privilege”. The interconnectivity of different identities in regards to power in racial structures in post-colonial era societies help illustrate what changes make a difference. The framework setup of the matrix of domination connects its origin theory and thought to existing struggles in the the political and social spheres of society. A closer look at both specific and broader aspects of matrix thought will shed more light on the inner-workings and mechanisms that determine how different relationship dynamics influence matrix categorizations.

May cites that an important implication that matrix thinking inspires is that it directly goes against what is often described as the socially inclusive ‘add and stir’ approach. This is often used when describing the addition of one or more identity group to existing epistemological approaches, political strategies or research methodologies. This accounts for the proper weighing of power dynamics and their impact on different groups of people. Intersectionality centers power in a multi-pronged way as shifting across different sites and scales at the same time. Therefore, it is not neutral but evolved out of histories of struggle that pursue multidimensional forms of justice.

Historical Background on Intersectionality
Kimberlé Crenshaw, the founder of the term intersectionality, brought national and scholarly credential to the term through the paper Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics in The University of Chicago Legal Forum. In the paper, she uses intersectionality to reveal how feminist movements and antiracist movements exclude and women of color. Focusing on the experiences of Black women, she dissects several court cases, influential pieces of literature, personal experiences, and doctrinal manifestations as evidence for the way Black women are oppressed through many different experiences, systems and groups.

Though the specifics differ, the basic argument is the same: Black women are oppressed in a multitude of situations because people are unable to see how their identities intersect and influence each other. Feminism has been crafted for white middle class women, only considering problems that affect this group of people. Unfortunately, this only captures a small facet of the oppression women face. By catering to the most privileged women and addressing only the problems they face, feminism alienates women of color and lower class women by refusing to accept the way other forms of oppression feed into the sexism they face. Not only does feminism completely disregard the experiences of women of color, it also solidifies the connection between womanhood and whiteness when feminists speak for “all women”. (Crenshaw:154) Oppression cannot be detangled or separated easily in the same way identities cannot be separated easily. It is impossible to address the problem of sexism without addressing racism, as many women experience both racism and sexism. This theory can also be applied to the antiracist movement, which rarely addresses the problem of sexism, even though it is thoroughly intertwined with the problem of racism. Feminism remains white, and antiracism remains male. In essence, any theory that tries to measure the extent and manner of oppression Black women face will be wholly incorrect without using intersectionality.

Patricia Hill Collins had the same idea, naming it "Black Feminist Thought". She wrote a book entitled Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, defining "Black Feminist Thought" very similarly to intersectionality with a focus on the plight of Black women in face of the world, the white feminist movement, and the male antiracism movement. Though she does not cite Kimberlé Crenshaw or discuss intersectionality directly, she clearly moves along the same thought pathway, even citing the same passages cited by Crenshaw. The book, though not directly connected to intersectionality, helped further the thought process started by Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Intersectionality and the Matrix of Domination
Both intersectionality and the matrix of domination help sociologists understand power relationships and systems of oppression in society. The matrix of domination looks at the overall organization of power in society while intersectionality is used to understand a specific social location of an identity using mutually constructing features of oppression.

The concept of intersectionality today is used to move away from one dimensional thinking in the matrix of domination approach by allowing for different power dynamics of different identity categories at the same time. Researchers in public health are using Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework to show how social categories intersect to identify health disparities that evolve from factors beyond an individual’s personal health. Ferlatte applied an IBPA framework and used structural interviews to identify barriers to the allocation of HIV prevention funding for gay men. He highlighted policy more likely to cause harm than reduce the epidemic stemming from policy makers missing the ‘intersections of oppression, sex panic, and medicalization’.

Intersectionality can also be used to correct for the over-attribution of traits to groups and be used to emphasize unique experiences within a group. As a result, the field of social work is introducing intersectional approaches in their research and client interactions. At the University of Arkansas, the curriculum for a Master of Social Work (MSW) is being amended to include the Multi-Systems Life Course (MSLC) approach. Christy and Valandra apply an MSLC approach to intimate partner violence and economic abuse against poor women of color to explain that symbols of safety (such as police) in one population can be symbols of oppression in another. By teaching this approach to future social workers, the default recommendation for these women to file a police report is amended and an intervention rooted in the individual case can emerge.

Implications of the Matrix of Domination
Many approaches have been used that consider the concepts of identity, societal structures, and representation to be mutually exclusive, but the introduction of Patricia Hill Collins’ matrix of domination addresses the interlocking patterns of privilege and marginalization along the lines of race, class, gender, and class inside social institutions as well as at the community level. With this work has come greater recognition of the various effects that each identity holds in different societal contexts, in both the micro- and macro-level structures within the systems of oppression that exist.

In Female Criminality
In April Bernard's article, “The Intersectional Alternative: Explaining Female Criminality”, Bernard applies Patricia Hill Collins’ work to the study of feminist criminology, as a means of explaining the cumulative effects of identity in a system of oppression on women’s decisions to commit a crime. Bernard employs an intersectional approach to dissect the complexities that act as determinant factors in a woman’s decision to partake in criminal activities, and more specifically, the limiting pressures of a patriarchal society. In particular, this article is framed in response to Robert Merton’s claims about deviance as a response to a lack of adequate resources to achieve cultural goals, as Bernard employs an intersectional paradigm model that explores female criminality as an expression of constraint and circumscription, rather than a “strained reality”. With this alternative framework, Bernard suggests that societal goals are not unanimous, and are instead shaped by individuals’ experiences in economic, political, and social spaces; for marginalized women, access to the means through which they build success are impacted by micro- and macro-level norms and histories that have created indicators of class (e.g. racial, economic, political, sexual) and subjugated them to limited networks. Thus, identity makes women with marginalized identities more vulnerable in the legal system, subjugates to oppressive states within multiple institutions, and creating a need for policies that move toward creating an equitable reality for them.

In the Welfare State
In the United States, especially, the matrix of domination has implications within the welfare state. Several sociological studies on the welfare state take note of state-market relations while ignoring the salient roles held by other identities such as gender, race, class, language, and age, among others. Due to the nature of the welfare state, there has not been much regard for exploring the existence of multiple axes of oppression which has led to lineation of categories of race, class, and gender. In “Politics, Gender, and Concepts”, Gary Goertz and Amy Mazur assert that literature about the welfare state should focus on the relationship between social positions and social policies, as well as provide a framework for investigations into the causal effects of class, gender, and race. As such, using the idea of a matrix of domination in these kinds of studies provides a basis for empirical research on the relationship between social positions and policies, and also, for a comparison between the outcomes of social policies on marginalized and privileged women.