An Intersectional Exploration: The Experiences of Southern, Rural, Black and White Women Participating in an Empowerment-Based Entrepreneurial Program
Intersectionality is gaining ground as a desired way of deepening our understanding of persisting inequalities engendered by poverty. Combining an intersectional framework and the idea of strategic gender needs developed by Moser (1993), this study explores the experiences and perceptions of empowerment among rural black and white women in the southern U.S. and highlights the significance of intersectionality in exploring such issues. The findings reveal a diversity of experiences and perceptions of empowerment within the broader construction of womanhood. This paper raises the question about the shared identity of womanhood in rural southern communities. Such an understanding compels us to look closer at how oppressive ideologies become embedded within institutional structures and constrain our understanding of rural poverty. Additionally, this understanding calls us to investigate the capacity of anti-poverty and asset development efforts to work for different groups of women. Efforts such as these hold major implications for the social work profession and others who are challenged to understand and adequately address poverty in rural communities.
Gather in my name, my skin, my everything...('Gather in my name' : Maya Angelou 1974)
Purpose 
 
 
 
 
Based on a performance of a conversation between my white mother and myself – her mixed race black daughter – the purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the complexity of the intersection of migration, racism, sexism, disability, and class within the space and place of the dynamics of our relationship. “Migration” and “borders” metaphors explore the “in between space that is neither here nor there” addressing key issues such as “migratory subjectivity” or, in other words, the translation of the process of inclusion and exclusion across the borders of oppressive social constructions to the lived emotional experience of being a mother and a daughter. 
 
 
 
 
Design/methodology/approach 
 
 
 
 
I explore my lived experience as black woman raised by a white Mum. My decision to use intersectionality as a tool with which to explore my personal experiences was based on me finding it enabled me to fully engage with the freedom of exploration, without feeling the need to “fit” with what was expected, in other words to be free to be able to express the “[…] lived experience of a presumed ‘Other’ and to experience it viscerally” (Orbe and Boylorn, 2014, p. 15). 
 
 
 
 
Findings 
 
 
 
 
A truthful account to aid the understanding of the complexities faced in the lived experience of a white mother and her black daughter. 
 
 
 
 
Research limitations/implications 
 
 
 
 
This piece has no limitations, and contains far reaching implications for social work practice and research methods. 
 
 
 
 
Practical implications 
 
 
 
 
This piece is embedded in social education and can be used as a research tool for best practice in anti-racist, black feminist practice. 
 
 
 
 
Social implications 
 
 
 
 
Social implications include a potential impact on diverse communities, with relevance to community engagement, social work practice placements, and critical reflection, and also education of the young to help them understand their own journeys. 
 
 
 
 
Originality/value 
 
 
 
 
This is an original report of an evidence-based lived experience, integrating theory to practice.
Females’ Labor Force Participation and Intimate Femicide: An Empirical Assessment of the Backlash Hypothesis
Using data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports in conjunction with 1990 U.S. census data in a cross-sectional analysis, this paper tests the proposition that increased participation of women in the paid labor force will elevate the incidence of females’ intimate homicide victimization. In part, results support the backlash hypothesis. Specifically, they suggest that a growth in the female labor force participation rate decreases the poverty rate. Reductions in the poverty rate, in turn, augment the incidence of intimate lethal violence against women. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results.