Intersectional Justice and Multiple Oppressions

Sor Juana wasn't only fighting for intellectual freedom; she was simultaneously resisting patriarchal control, colonial hierarchies, class restrictions, and institutional power. She understood that her oppression was multiply structured. Modern worker justice must similarly recognize that workers don't face single, isolated injustices but rather intersecting oppressions. Women workers face both wage discrimination and sexual harassment. Immigrant workers face labor exploitation plus immigration enforcement. Workers of color face racism plus economic exploitation. Disabled workers face both discrimination and wage theft. LGBTQ+ workers face both discrimination and precarious employment. Sor Juana's example insists on addressing all these dimensions together, not sequentially. This means worker movements must center the most marginalized—the workers facing multiple oppressions—rather than focusing only on single issues. It means recognizing how racism, sexism, ableism, and other systems intensify labor exploitation. Justice requires transforming not only wages and hours but also challenging discrimination, affirming dignity across all dimensions of identity, and building movements led by workers experiencing multiple oppressions. Her tradition demands that we see workers whole, in all their complexity, and fight for their complete liberation across all the systems that constrain them.