Intersectional feminism in safeguarding practices

I'm pleased to share our new practice paper, 'A peace for all women', a project that has been in the works at Conciliation Resources for some time. In the peacebuilding world, we too often see "women" treated as a single, uniform group in peace processes. But the reality in situations of conflict is far more nuanced. Women's experiences are shaped by the intersection of their gender, their age, their disability status, their ethnicity, their religion and where they live. Working with our partners in contexts including #Bangsamoro, #Liberia, and #Yemen, we’ve seen how "blanket" approaches to inclusion can accidentally deepen the erasure of those already most marginalised. This paper is our attempt to move beyond the theory of intersectionality and show what it looks like in practice: · Using language that resonates with the lived experiences of local women · Moving past quotas to understand how power and privilege actually function in peace spaces · Using everything from digital spaces to intergenerational dialogues to ensure a wider range of voices are heard As one peacebuilder beautifully put it: “understanding intersectionality is like wearing glasses that allow you to see the conflict more clearly.” Let us know what you think. You can read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/ed4VnUA2 

Want to go beyond ‘sex-disaggregated data’ and actually uncover root inequalities? This toolkit walks you through how to do it—from team setup to policy recommendations: It gives tips on how to.. Build a diverse, interdisciplinary team → Include people with lived experience, gender specialists, and local actors to avoid narrow or biased analysis. Ground your work in power, not just categories → The toolkit encourages asking: Who holds power? Who faces constraints?—across gender, race, disability, class, migration status, and more. Use intersectional guiding questions → Go beyond “What are women’s needs?” to “How do different groups of women and men experience this differently—and why?” Map structural barriers and compounding risks → Identify how systems (legal, economic, cultural) reinforce inequality across intersecting identities. Apply ethics and safeguarding at every step → Includes tips on informed consent, privacy, and avoiding retraumatization when working with vulnerable groups. Well worth downloading. #IntersectionalGenderAnalysis #GenderAnalysis 🔔 Follow me for similar content

Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) centers the voices and agency of women’s rights organizations in crisis and humanitarian settings. This document explores how feminist MEAL ensures inclusive, participatory, and transformative processes. By embedding gender justice and intersectionality, it challenges traditional evaluation frameworks, emphasizing advocacy, learning, and systemic change. Research across six countries—Colombia, DRC, Haiti, Nepal, Nigeria, and Ukraine—highlights how women’s organizations localize MEAL to ensure community-led evaluation. Key themes include co-design, participatory decision-making, and feminist indicators capturing systemic shifts. Through adaptive approaches, these organizations navigate crises while amplifying women’s voices for advocacy and policy influence. Beyond methodology, feminist MEAL shifts power dynamics, strengthens accountability, and drives social change. This document details how women’s organizations use data to challenge exclusionary evaluation practices and promote ethical safeguards. By fostering collaboration and reinforcing women’s leadership, feminist MEAL enhances learning and accountability in humanitarian action.

In India, feminism cannot ignore caste or religion because social oppression is intersectional. Upper-caste women (often Hindu) historically led early feminist movements in India (19th–20th century), focusing on issues like widow remarriage, women’s education, and banning sati. Lower-caste women (Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes) face double oppression : caste + gender. Their priorities are often land rights, anti-untouchability, labor rights, and protection from caste-based violence. Sometimes upper-caste feminism unintentionally ignores or marginalizes Dalit women’s issues, this is a critique of “mainstream” Indian feminism. Religion is deeply intertwined with social norms, marriage, and inheritance laws. Feminist demands often clash with religious or customary laws. For example: debates around Uniform Civil Code, triple talaq, Hindu inheritance laws : feminism interacts with religious practices differently depending on caste and community. Women from religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, etc.) may face unique challenges that upper-caste Hindu feminism does not address.

Every woman I know carries a mental checklist—a silent, subconscious survival guide to navigate the spaces we move through. Keys between fingers. Texting a friend when we get home. Choosing the well-lit route, even if it’s longer. Calculating risks in ways that most men never have to think about. This isn’t just about safety—it’s about existing in a world that so often feels hostile. A world where violence against women is an everyday reality, not a distant statistic. And yet, conversations about safety often exclude the voices of those who navigate this tightrope daily. For women, this awareness permeates every facet of life: - Personally: Deciding what to wear, how to respond to unwanted advances, and when to speak up or stay silent. - Professionally: Managing workplace harassment, the power dynamics of male-dominated spaces, or simply staying “agreeable” to avoid conflict. And while ALL women live with some degree of this reality, it’s crucial to acknowledge that the degree varies. Women of colour, disabled women, and others face compounded layers of vulnerability. Intersectionality isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the framework we need to understand how different women experience safety. Men will never fully understand this reality—not because they’re incapable, but because they don’t live it. The challenge is for men to listen without defensiveness, to believe women’s experiences without demanding proof, and to recognise that this isn’t just “our issue”—it’s a societal one. To my sisters: What struggles do you face that men in your life might not even think about? Let’s make these invisible experiences visible, because understanding starts with sharing, and change starts with listening.

By the time a young person is labelled, we are no longer diagnosing the problem. We are managing its consequences. In secondary school, behaviour becomes the dominant lens. But behaviour is not neutral. It is interpreted. And those interpretations are shaped by: Bias. Expectation. Institutional norms. And critically, how a young person has been positioned over time. What is often missing from this conversation is how early those trajectories begin to form. And how unevenly they are experienced. Intersectionality is not an abstract concept in this context. It is lived reality. A Black boy navigating transition into secondary school is not entering a neutral environment. He is entering a space where: Adultification may already be at play. Behaviour may be read differently. Support may be applied inconsistently. When these dynamics are not recognised early, they compound. This is why our work focuses on intersectional safeguarding at early educational transitions. Not as a reactive safeguarding tool, but as a preventative framework. One that recognises that risk is not just behavioural. It is relational, structural, and cumulative. And if we want to reduce exclusions and long-term harm, we have to intervene where those dynamics first take shape.

Racism in Safeguarding Children: This is a ground-breaking moment for child protection in the UK — the first of its kind and a huge step forward. The report exposes the uncomfortable truth about how race and racism are often ignored in safeguarding reviews. It lays bare how racial bias, adultification, and blind spots around intersectionality leave Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children more exposed and at higher risk of serious injury or death. The message is clear: urgent changes are needed. That means tackling racism head-on in safeguarding practices, boosting cultural competency training, and making sure intersectionality is fully embedded in how we protect children. https://lnkd.in/e8KEV9rE