Although intersectionality has largely been theorized, research categorizing intersectional equality policies is still relatively little developed. To which extent are equality policies in the European Union (EU) intersectionality-oriented? How is intersectionality operationalized in policies? Existing literature answers these questions by focusing essentially on the institutional mechanisms resulting from the operationalization process, like laws and equality bodies. This paper aims at enhancing the traditional categorization of (multiple and/or) intersectional equality policies by adding less-institutional criteria, like the presence of an “intersectional vocabulary” in both policy and legislative documents and the implementation efforts of national governments for supporting specific groups “at intersections”. Policies towards Roma women in the new Central and Eastern European Member States (CEEMS) are used as test-cases to check the reliability of the proposed “new” criteria set.
