Feminists

privileges her over me as a working-class kid?

In actual fact, my class has really been the single most determining disadvantage in my life, in objective terms. My sex hasn't been a big deal in those regards -- i.e. when it came to education and employment, the areas where equality strictly speaking is the big issue. My class denied me just about every opportunity going, in those areas. It was even, arguably, the determining factor in the life-threatening sexual assault I was a victim of: rich kids didn't hitchhike everywhere they went.

Intersectionality, intersectionality.

I'll be quite happy to talk about the intersecting disadvantages of my life here, and oddly enough, I am not living in fear of the opprobrium of the group if I do.

The thing is, I can distinguish between myself and women. And I know that if any woman is oppressed or exploited or abused because she is a woman, none of us is safe.

I overcame my class disadvantage -- to some extent, in fact what could be considered quite a large extent. I'm not working-class in objective terms now. But I'll always be a woman, and I'll always be subject to the disadvantages associated with that status, and I'll always stand in solidarity with other women because of the common set of problems it brings, even if we experience them to varying degrees, and in varying combinations with other problems.