Cautioning Against the Co‐optation of Intersectionality in Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming (GM) is an international strategy to advance gender equality. Recently, there has been a shift within GM—recognition that gender interacts with other forms of inequity. There is thus growing attention to intersectionality and how it can complement GM. Although advancing understandings of gender is critical, there is a need for caution. Using examples of international organizations, we argue that intersectionality cannot be an ‘add‐on’ to such efforts, as it does not prioritize gender over other factors. We show how an intersectionality approach necessitates attention to multiple factors to address the complexities of inequity.