Compare methods

	Intersectionality Analysis	Critical Discourse Analysis
Field	Gender Studies	Qualitative
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1989	Late 1970s–1990s (systematised ~1979–1995)
Originator	Kimberlé Crenshaw	Norman Fairclough; Teun A. van Dijk; Ruth Wodak
Type	Critical qualitative analytic framework	Qualitative research method
Seminal source	Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.	Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Polity Press.
Aliases	Intersectional Analysis, Intersectionality Framework, Intersectional Qualitative Analysis	CDA, Critical Linguistics, Discourse-Historical Approach, Dialectical-Relational Analysis
Related	4	6
Summary	Intersectionality analysis is a critical qualitative framework that examines how multiple social categories — such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and disability — intersect and operate together to shape lived experience, advantage, and disadvantage. Coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 and 1991, it rejects single-axis analysis that treats categories one at a time, insisting instead that overlapping systems of power produce qualitatively distinct positions that cannot be understood by adding the categories separately.	Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a qualitative method that examines how language in texts and talk constructs, sustains, and challenges relations of power, ideology, and social inequality. Drawing on linguistics, social theory, and critical philosophy, CDA treats discourse not merely as communication but as social practice — a site where dominance is reproduced and where resistance can be articulated. Developed in the late twentieth century by Norman Fairclough, Teun van Dijk, and Ruth Wodak, among others, CDA is applied to political speeches, media texts, policy documents, educational materials, and institutional interactions.