Applying Intersectionality & Complexity Theory to Address the Social Determinants of Women’s Health

It is now well recognized that the compounding effects of lack of access to education create far reaching implications for income, access to the goods and services of society, and women’s physical and psychological health. A social determinants of health (SDH) perspective takes aim at the structural causes-ofthe-causes of social and material deprivation that lead to ill health. This paper builds on previous work (McGibbon & Etowa, 2007; McGibbon, 2009; McPherson & McGibbon, 2010) to describe how feminist intersectionality theory can be applied in tandem with complexity theory to support the amelioration of inequities in the social determinants of women’s health. We explore the ways that this bridging can further our understanding of social and economic marginalization of women. A brief overview of feminist intersectionality theory is presented, with an emphasis on its utility for extending an analysis of intersections of the SDH. We hope to stimulate a debate about how feminist intersectionality theory, feminist political economy, and complexity theory are natural antecedents to inform public policy to address SDH inequities in women’s health. A case example grounds our theoretical discussion in the everyday pointy edges of how material deprivation unfolds in women’s everyday lived experience.