Privilege and disadvantage in contesting intersectional representation claims

While most research on the political representation of women focuses on their descriptive and substantive representation in legislatures, this paper proposes new approaches to the study of representation, by focusing on the feminist movement as a political actor that represents women and gender minorities. The feminist movement is a crucial vehicle for the articulation of women's and gender minorities’ perspectives because it provides a place where they can define their priorities independently from political parties and other associations. However, the definition of their priorities may entail conflict as women and gender minorities are not a homogenous group. Research on the feminist movement shows how it continues to be dominated by white, middle-class, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied women. Being women marked by intersectional relationships of power depending on their class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and ability, when the movement claims to represent women and gender minorities it contributes to the creation of positions of privilege and disadvantage. Hence, this paper builds on the claims-making approach and the scholarship on social movements and intersectionality to interrogate how power structures embedded within the process of political participation shape the descriptive, substantive, and constitutive representation of women and gender minorities, as well as examines how power structures are sustained and contested. The empirical analysis focuses on manifestos written by the Catalan feminist movement and on interviews with feminist activists.