Thirty years is a long time to wait for action. And yet, it has been thirty years since governments, advocates and activists from around the world came together to develop the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a vision from which to build global gender equality in the years ahead. Heading into International Women’s Day 2025, it’s clear that feminist activists have not been sitting around waiting for action. We continue to gain ground in making the world a more gender equal place but not all women and gender diverse people have benefitted equally. To achieve true gender justice, we must recognise and address other forms of discrimination that intersect with gendered discrimination, such as racial, economic, and disability-based discrimination.
As we stand at these feminist crossroads, we face new social, political and economic challenges, and a great deal of uncertainty. But one thing is clear. If we are to achieve rights, equality and empowerment for all women and girls, as is the UN theme for IWD 2025, we must reinforce our commitment to a feminist intersectional approach to gender equality, grounded in equity and justice. Particularly in the Australian context, it is heartening that many feminists have embraced intersectionality in theory. However, this is only a first step. To truly embed intersectional approaches into our feminist practice, there is much work still to do.
Implementing a feminist intersectional approach in practice requires first and foremost a recognition of the intersecting oppressive systems that impact on women’s lives. Second, it means taking a broader perspective of what constitutes a feminist issue. We might not immediately think of racism as a feminist issue – after all, isn’t that the job of migrant and First Nations activists? But for First Nations and migrant and refugee women it is crucial that racism is considered to be a central feminist issue because intersecting sexism and racism has material impacts on their lives.
When the Matilda’s Sam Kerr was taken to a UK police station after a fear-inducing taxi ride, she was dismissed by the police officers and even told to “calm down young missy”. Kerr stated that her poor treatment at the police station was based on race and gender discrimination, and it is indeed difficult to believe that a white man would be treated in such a denigrating manner. Beyond the patronising attitude through, Kerr was herself charged with racial harassment of which she was later found not guilty. Not only was the very legislation that has been put in place to protect people of colour from racial harassment used against her, but she also faced the extreme stress of the possibility of a two-year maximum prison sentence and was subjected to media and public scrutiny and judgement.
Sam Kerr’s is not an isolated incident. Women of colour and gender diverse people often face intersecting forms of discrimination including racism, sexism and homophobia when seeking support or speaking out. The system is not designed to protect them and, in many cases, inflicts further harm. This pattern is also evident in cases of domestic violence and coercive control, where First Nations, migrant and refugee victim-survivors are at times misidentified by authorities as the perpetrators, rather than receiving the support they need.
When it comes to speaking out against injustice, women of colour often face violence and scrutiny. Just over the last year, two highly accomplished Middle-Eastern Australian women faced significant professional backlash for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, with Antoinette Lattouf being sacked from her job at the ABC, and Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah having her research grant investigated, after both faced coordinated attacks against them.
High profile cases involving Australian women of colour show us the tip of the iceberg of how racism and sexism manifest in workplaces, schools and in the community. As Muslim women continue to be targeted with Islamophobic violence, and spaces dominated by women remain frequent targets of racial attacks such as the recent antisemitic attack on a child care centre attended by Jewish children that was set on fire – feminists must speak up and stand against such acts of violence.
The toxic combination of racism and sexism subjects migrant and refugee women to unfair scrutiny and judgement from the media and the public, it exposes them to hate and unchecked violence, makes them physically and emotionally unsafe, and it enables their use as political footballs. It also has material economic impacts, hampering their employment and advancement in the workplace, ensuring they are less likely to be employed in positions they are qualified for, and more likely to be concentrated in dangerous and lower waged industries and jobs.
Such issues must be central to feminist activism in Australia. As we approach IWD on the 8th March and the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the 21st March, let’s think about more ways we can strive to eliminate all form of discrimination, including sexism, racism, homophobia and ableism. Let’s be more like MADRE, for example, an organisation that works globally and with a broad purview to achieve gender, racial, disability and climate justice, all at the same time.
The road ahead to truly achieve gender equality and justice for all is complex and it will take deep understanding, coalition, solidarity and action. This is the challenge before us. Which road will we take?
This article was first published in the International Women’s Day edition #142 of The WRAP on March 2025.