Intersectional Identity in Supply Chains

Sor Juana navigated multiple, intersecting identities—woman, Mexican, mixed-race, poor, intellectual—and wrote incisively about how power operates across these categories. Applied to ethical consumption, this means understanding that exploitation in supply chains is never single-axis; women workers, workers of color, workers in the Global South, migrants, and others face compounded vulnerabilities. A truly ethical approach recognizes these intersections rather than treating all labor injustice as equivalent. Sor Juana's own example—fighting for intellectual recognition while experiencing racism and sexism—illuminates how systems of oppression overlap. Ethical consumers examine whose labor they're consuming: not just that workers are paid fairly, but that production systems don't disproportionately burden already-marginalized people. This intersectional lens moves beyond surface-level ethical consumption to justice-centered consumption that recognizes complex realities.