Every one of us has multiple, nuanced identities that help form our lives. Gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, among others intersect and interact to shape who we are and what challenges and contradictions we confront. As an introduction to a broader analysis of power, the Power Flower promotes a fuller understanding of intersectionality that helps us become more integrated and sensitive human beings and more effective leaders and activists.

The Power Flower explores our intersecting identities and the ways that they contribute to both oppression and privilege, illustrating how power is relational and always dynamic. Intersectionality shapes our potential for both exercising authority and becoming compelling, collaborative, and transformative organizers and leaders. By reflecting on how these forces operate in people’s lives, we deepen our understanding of how identity, power, subordination, and exclusion affect our organizations, ourselves as individuals, and our social change strategies. We realize that to solve the injustices of our time, we need to join forces across our identities to build interconnected movements and action strategies.

This tool is part of the We Rise Toolkit.