Intersecting Inequalities: Reflecting on the Subjects and Objects of Equality

The creation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) brings together equality strands that have previously been conceived in a discrete manner, politically, legally and institutionally. Its establishment raises the possibility that UK equality institutions might be better able to engage with issues of 'intersectionality'. This article considers whether this potential is likely to be realised. It suggests that two distinct approaches are emerging in response to the challenge of multiple inequalities. One entails the EHRC retaining a separate strands approach to equality, with its notion of structural inequality and discrete, frequently competing, groups; a second entails the embrace of a diversity agenda in which we are all complex individuals seeking an equal opportunity to thrive in the market-place. Given the potential limitations of these approaches - the first may not be sufficiently flexible to allow for a joined-up approach to multiple inequalities, while the second may subordinate equality considerations to those of greater economy productivity - the article asks whether others way of negotiating the demands intersectionality might be open to the EHRC.