Intersectionality and Its Role in Health and Wellness
- Naima Smith
- Oct 7, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 29
Intersectionality and Its Role in Health and Wellness:
If you truly want to understand the systemic factors that affect the health of a nation, you must first understand intersectionality. Intersectionality is a framework that helps us understand how different aspects of a person’s identity (such as gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, and age) interact to shape their life experiences. Coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, the term emphasizes that social categories do not exist separately but overlap, creating unique layers of privilege or oppression. For example, the experiences of a Black woman like myself cannot be fully understood by looking at race and gender in isolation; both identities interact to influence how she is treated and what opportunities or barriers she faces.
In the realm of health and wellness, intersectionality is crucial because it highlights why certain groups experience greater health disparities than others. For example, African Americans have higher rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes than any other population in the US. This is because access to quality healthcare, nutritious food, safe housing, and fitness opportunities can be limited by systemic inequalities. Also, women's mental and physical health is declining across the nation because medical studies are mostly done on men due to the hormonal changes in women each month, which makes studying women more costly. Women of color also may experience higher rates of maternal mortality due to racial bias in medicine, while low-income communities often have fewer wellness resources and greater exposure to stress. People's health and their medical decisions do not exist in a vacuum.
Intersectionality also takes education levels into account. Health literacy is directly tied to education level, and as a rough estimate, more than half of U.S. adults (54%) have literacy below a “sixth-grade” equivalent level. Doctors are often overloaded with patients, which leaves little time to explain ailments and treatments to each patient they see. And as a patient, how are you supposed to know what questions to ask without basic knowledge of how the human body works and the correct words to use to even phrase the question?
Understanding intersectionality encourages a more holistic approach to wellness—one that goes beyond individual choices and considers the broader social conditions that shape health. It calls on health professionals, coaches, and wellness advocates to recognize and address these interconnected factors, ensuring that programs and policies are inclusive and equitable. By embracing intersectional thinking, we can move toward a model that supports collective empowerment, rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, and fosters well-being for every body and every identity.
If you enjoyed learning about this topic, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Best in Health,
Coach Nai
References:
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Collins, P. H. (2015). Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112142
Bowleg, L. (2012). The problem with the phrase women and minorities: Intersectionality—An important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 102(7), 1267–1273. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300750
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Health literacy in Healthy People 2030. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. (2021). Black/African American health disparities. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality. https://www.cdc.gov
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2022). Improving representation in clinical trials and research. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26479
Mirin, A. A. (2021). Gender disparity in the funding of diseases by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Journal of Women’s Health, 30(7), 956–963. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8682
Artiga, S., Hill, L., & Orgera, K. (2020). Health coverage by race and ethnicity, 2010–2019. Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org
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