2015 has, undoubtedly, been quite a year for feminism. This year, we have witnessed the seemingly unwavering dominance of the controversial “white liberal feminist” label, the mainstream resurgence of the term “intersectionality,” and the relational chasm between both intersectional feminism and white liberal feminism.

Mainstream, white, cisgender, able-bodied, and middle-class, heterosexual liberal feminism has been the subject of quite a few headlines. From Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech and Taylor Swift's VMA Twitter feud with Nicki Minaj, right through to Nancy Lee Grahn’s criticism of Viola Davis’ Emmy speech, it seems when liberal feminism speaks, we are expected to listen.

Now, I maintain the strong belief that voicing the oppressive experiences of white, cisgender, able-bodied, middle-class females - in and of itself - is not at all problematic. It is, in fact, very necessary.

The oppressive experiences of the aforementioned women deserve to be voiced and heard. The issue exists when these voices work, silence, or even dismiss the voices of ‘other’ types of women who also deserve to have their voices heard.

Liberal feminism has, in many cases, worked to create a one-dimensional, monolithic construction of womanhood. This form of feminism has resulted in founding a politics on a very specific type of experience, asserting the normative experience of all women from the point of view such women.

This, in turn, has led to articulations from the likes of actress Patricia Arquette who said in her Oscar speech: “It’s time for all the women...and all the men who love women and all the gay people and all the people of colour that we’ve fought for, to fight for us now.” Rhetorically, Arquette rendered women of colour, queer women of colour, and queer white women as somehow not of fitting into the category of “all the women.” By referring to “all the women” - but not actually encapsulating the experiences of all individual groups of women - this form of feminism works against those who often need this platform the most.

Liberal feminism has the ability to espouse a limited conception of gender as an analytical theory. It has centralised a specific group while simultaneously silencing and dismissing the voices of the ‘others’. The centralisation of white, cisgender, able-bodied, heterosexual, middle-class women means their ideological experience is expressed as the normative experience of all women. This, white liberal feminism has the ability to disempower - and marginalise - those whose experiences fall out of the non-normative experiences of their identity.

There is an almost humorous irony that comes with the overarching dominance of liberal feminism within the feminist discourse. In its call for women to be treated equal to men, this feminism still fails to address the fact that all women are not treated equal to each other. It is essential, then, that for the positive progression of feminism, we must understand this: identities are multidimensional. Our experiences in the world are simultaneously informed by different identities - gender being only one, with class, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and ability making up the others.

Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Show all 22 1 /22 Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Katharine Hepburn “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Betty Friedan “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Maya Angelou “I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Emmeline Pankhurst “I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Nawal El Saadawi “They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Germaine Greer “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Naomi Wolf “A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Atwood “Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Bette Davis “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Jane Austen “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Gloria Steinem “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Anais Nin “I hate men who are afraid of women's strength” Creative Commons Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Elizabeth Warren “I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Malala Yousafzai “In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education” Getty Images Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images

So here it is. Intersectionality. Intersectionality provides us with the ability to understand how homogeneous perceptions of womanhood are destructive and actually participate in the oppression of those women who are deemed to be outside of non-normative construct. Intersectional feminism attempts to change monolithic understandings of womanhood, allowing us to question and expand who we see as women.

The formal genesis of our mainstream understanding of intersectionality is often understood to be the coining of the term by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. However, the sentiment behind Intersectionality existed long before then. Intersectional feminism, thus, works to decentralise the dominant narrative of liberal feminism as the uniform voice for all women. It takes into account the varying systems of oppression that interlock and result in unique experiences for women within the world.

Feminism, in its purest definition, has undoubtedly brought about a diverse range women throughout history. However, mainstream feminism has historically eliminated the voices of women of colour, queer women, women of different classes, disabled women, and the other non-normative identities that all play a role in the experiences of women in the world.

Feminism should not vitiate the methods through which other segments of the female category inform and articulate their experiences. All women do not have the same story, the same body, the same sexuality, the same experiences. Feminism, in turn, must refrain from articulating one singular voice and view the experiences of females through an intersectional lens if it is to be a means to fight towards equality for all women.