This is a question I hear a lot. Demographic and social identity data is complex to collect and how to preserve lived experiences in data analysis is not always immediately clear.   When you incorporate demographic data into your research, you’ll need to consider how you’ll represent the nuanced experiences of a diverse group of humans

If I have the relevant data on each of the demographic categories in my project, can’t I just easily combine them? I can clearly see the impact of being male, or the impact of being Hispanic, or the impact of being in a mid-income category, why would I need some specific intersectional profile that’s different than the sum of those factors?  

It’s easier to illustrate intersectionality than it is to explain it. We've put together an example on the site here. We illustrate how to use data to get closer to telling a demographic story with an equity lens.

The term was coined by Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor at UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, where she specializes in race and gender issues. Dr. Crenshaw says "Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking"