INTERSECTIONALITY IN PRACTICE: Understanding Power, Lived Experience and Designing Change

Intersectionality in Practice

Understanding Power, Lived Experience and Designing Change

Intersectionality is more than a way of describing identity. It offers a way to understand how interlocking systems of power shape people’s lived experiences, relationships, opportunities, participation and access to resources.

People may share an identity related to gender, disability, age, sexuality, race or culture while having very different experiences of the same program, service, organisation or institution. These differences are shaped by their social location, relationships, economic circumstances, geographic context and encounters with systems of power.

Grounded in Black feminist thought and drawing particularly on Patricia Hill Collins’ matrix of domination, Intersectionality in Practice is a three-session facilitated online workshop series that moves from understanding intersectionality to applying it in practice.

Participants will explore four interconnected domains of power:

• Structural power: how institutions and systems organise rights, resources and opportunities

• Disciplinary power: how policies, rules, procedures and organisational practices manage people

• Hegemonic power: how dominant ideas, culture, language and representation make inequality appear normal or inevitable

• Interpersonal power: how power is experienced and reproduced through relationships and everyday interactions

Using a practical intersectionality matrix developed for the workshop, participants will examine how these domains interact with identity, social location, context and lived experience. They will then use their analysis to identify practical and accountable changes in programs, services and organisations.

What makes this series distinctive?

This workshop places power at the centre of intersectional practice.

It moves beyond listing identities or adding more population groups to an existing program. Participants examine how systems of power work together to produce different experiences of inclusion, exclusion, privilege, disadvantage, agency and resistance.

The intersectionality matrix provides a structured way to:

• explore how identity, lived experience, context and power interact

• examine structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal power

• recognise strengths, knowledge, agency and resistance alongside inequality and exclusion

• distinguish between evidence, assumptions, lived expertise and knowledge gaps

• identify whose participation, experience and knowledge must inform decisions

• consider how communities and representative organisations can participate in analysis and design

• translate intersectional analysis into practical, accountable and contextually relevant action

The matrix does not attempt to predict people’s experiences from their identities. It helps participants ask deeper questions, recognise the limits of their knowledge and identify whose lived expertise is needed to develop a grounded analysis.

How will the series be facilitated?

This is an interactive and reflective online learning experience.

The series is facilitated through a collaborative online whiteboard and includes:

• short presentations and facilitated discussions

• scenarios and practical examples

• individual and small-group activities

• power based analysis

• reflection and journalling

• opportunities to connect the framework to participants’ own work

• individual practice commitments

Participants will work with examples exploring intersections of gender, age, disability and diverse SOGIESC. They will also consider how the matrix can be adapted to different communities, sectors and contexts.

Who is this series for?

The series is designed for practitioners, facilitators, managers, leaders, advisers and program staff working across:

• community and international development

• humanitarian action and disaster response

• human and social services

• health, education and family violence services

• government and public policy

• not-for-profit and civil society organisations

• socially responsible businesses

• gender equality, disability equity and social inclusion

• organisational development

• program and service design

• monitoring, evaluation and learning

No previous specialist knowledge of intersectionality is required.

What you will learn

By the end of the series, participants will be able to:

• explain intersectionality as an approach grounded in lived experience, social location, context and power

• describe Patricia Hill Collins’ structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal domains of power

• recognise how interlocking systems of power shape different experiences of the same program, service or institution

• use an intersectionality matrix to identify inequality, exclusion, strengths, agency and opportunities

• distinguish between evidence, assumptions, lived expertise and knowledge gaps

• identify whose participation and knowledge are needed to strengthen an analysis

• translate intersectional analysis into practical changes in programs, services and organisational systems

• develop a commitment to strengthen their own intersectional practice

Event agenda

Session 1: Intersectionality, Lived Experience and the Domains of Power

Monday 2 November 2026 | 1:00–3:30 pm AEDT

The first session establishes a shared foundation for understanding intersectionality as an analysis of lived experience and interlocking systems of power.

Participants will:

• explore the Black feminist foundations of intersectionality

• consider Patricia Hill Collins’ matrix of domination

• reflect on the identities, relationships and experiences that shape people’s lives

• examine why shared identities do not necessarily produce shared experiences

• explore structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal power

• apply the four domains of power to a scenario

• reflect on how people experience, navigate and resist power

Key activity: Participants examine a scenario involving intersecting identities, experiences and systems. They explore how the four domains of power interact to shape the person’s rights, opportunities, relationships and access to resources.

Session 2: Applying the Intersectionality Matrix

Monday 16 November 2026 | 1:00–3:30 pm AEDT

The second session introduces the intersectionality matrix as a practical analytical and facilitation tool.

Participants will:

• move from identifying multiple identities to analysing interlocking systems of power

• explore completed and adaptable matrix examples

• examine how people with shared identities may experience the same program or system differently

• identify issues, strengths and opportunities across the four domains of power

• distinguish between evidence, assumptions, lived expertise and knowledge gaps

• recognise where cultural ideas and representation reinforce structural and organisational power

• identify whose perspectives, participation and expertise are missing from the analysis

Key activity: Use an intersectionality matrix to analyse how structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal power shape lived experience within a particular context.

The matrix is treated as the beginning of an inquiry. Participants identify what they know, what they are assuming, what remains unknown and who should be involved in developing a more grounded analysis.

Session 3: From Intersectional Analysis to Accountable Action

Monday 30 November 2026 | 1:00–3:30 pm AEDT

The final session focuses on translating intersectional analysis into practical and accountable action.

Participants will:

• return to their matrix analysis and identify possible responses

• test whether proposed actions are grounded in evidence and lived expertise

• consider how proposed responses address different domains of power

• examine what makes an action relevant, accessible, safe and feasible

• identify opportunities for participation, co-design and community leadership

• consider partnerships with representative and rights-holder organisations

• explore changes to programs, services, communications, policies and organisational systems

• develop an individual intersectional practice commitment

Key activity: Participants develop practical responses to the issues and power relationships identified through their matrix analysis. They consider who should participate in designing, implementing and evaluating each response, and what wider organisational or systems change may be required.

Workshop format

• Three live online sessions

• 2.5 hours per session

• 7.5 facilitated learning hours in total

• One 10-minute screen break in each session

• Collaborative online whiteboard

• Individual and small-group activities

• Facilitated discussion and reflection

• Journalling and practice commitments

• Practical examples and adaptable matrix templates

Registration includes all three sessions. Each session builds on the concepts, reflection and analysis undertaken in the previous session, so participants are encouraged to attend the complete series.

Your facilitator

Lana Woolf is the Founder and Managing Director of Community Powered Responses and the creator of Power to Praxis. She has more than 25 years of experience across community development, humanitarian action, health and human services.

Lana specialises in participatory practice, gender equality, disability equity and rights, diverse SOGIESC inclusion, intersectionality and organisational systems. Her facilitation connects critical theory, lived experience and practical tools to help people examine power and strengthen their everyday practice.