Intersectionality and structural gendered racism: Theoretical considerations for Black women, children, and families impacted by child protective services in the United States

Introduction

Recent research highlights how poor Black mothers and children are negatively and disproportionately affected by child protective services (CPS). For example, Black children are more likely to be the subject of maltreatment reports compared to all other children in CPS. The author utilizes the frameworks of intersectionality and structural gendered racism to explore the causes of this overrepresentation in CPS. In addition, Williams-Butler provides key recommendations to CPS practitioners and administrators to improve their work and mitigate potential harm to the Black women, children, and families they serve.

Abigail Williams-Butler is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Williams-Butler’s research focuses on the experiences of youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Methods and Findings

The author uses the framework of intersectionality and structural gendered racism to understand how race, gender, and class oppression interact with each other to produce unique barriers for Black women and their children in CPS. Intersectionality is the idea that multiple, overlapping identities interact to shape distinct experiences with power, privilege, and oppression within society. In other words, the impact of holding different intersecting identities is greater than holding each identity alone. Structured gendered racism specifically refers to how racism and sexism overlap to shape inequalities. Key implications of these frameworks are discussed below.

CPS’s origins are critical to understanding the overrepresentation of poor Black women in contact with CPS. CPS was originally founded to legally punish those who harmed children. Williams-Butler highlights how “from its very foundation, CPS had an interdependent relationship with the criminal justice system, or carceral State, with the goal of punishing parents deemed unfit.” The attributes associated with this characterization of unfit parents have been disproportionately ascribed to poor Black mothers. As discussed below, power dynamics can also emerge between the Black mothers and the predominantly white, middle class caseworkers in CPS that can lead to discrimination in the parental evaluation process.  

Key implications of intersectionality and gendered structural racism for poor Black women in CPS:

• Race: Research on CPS found that racial discrimination or bias can shape the evaluation process and outcomes of cases involving Black families. For example, CPS case workers can subjectively and negatively postulate on the intent of Black mothers who are reported. These biases have led to poorer rates of reunification and time to reunification for Black youth compared to white youth.
• Poverty: Williams-Butler highlights how mandated reporting from educational, healthcare, and social service systems can lead to high surveillance of Black mothers who can feel constantly policed. This aspect of constant reporting and surveillance has enduring consequences like Black families avoiding social service providers out of fear of child removal.
• Gender: The author highlights how poor Black mothers are often targeted for CPS referrals within their communities as well, especially if the neighborhood is more racially heterogenous. This disproportionate level of scrutiny stems, partly, from maternal standards being rooted in an ideology that centers middle-class white women as the epitome of motherhood. As a result, Black mothers face stereotypes that contrast with the expectations of motherhood, which leads to even greater surveillance of their lives.

Understanding how these different systems of oppression interact and compound for poor Black women and their families in CPS gives context to “their struggles in dealing with a system that primarily seeks to regulate, surveil, police and control Black women’s bodies, parenting practices, and communities.”

Recommendations for practice and policy:

• Policymakers can leverage abolition / reform options: Williams-Butler highlights research that advocates for abolition of CPS in favor of more community-based approaches. She also points towards key reforms possible at the policy level. For example, one recommendation to mitigate racial disparities is ending the offering of financial incentives to remove children from homes, which disproportionately affects Black families in poverty.

• Practitioners can adopt an intersectional lens: As discussed, Williams-Butler highlights how stereotypes and biases against Black women are rooted in the intersection of race, gender, and class. For CPS workers, recognizing these unique challenges and barriers poor Black women face in the CPS system (e.g. how they are initially reported and recommendations made against them) is critical to implementing more equitable practices. To more effectively advocate for poor Black mothers, practitioners, especially those who are not racialized as Black, must recognize how structured gendered racism shapes power dynamics between themselves (who are already in a power position) and the mothers they serve. 

Conclusions

Overall, Williams-Butler uses frameworks on intersectionality and structured gendered racism to help practitioners and policymakers understand how race, gender, and class disproportionately impact poor Black women and their children in the CPS system. The author highlights how these intersecting forms of oppression can create worse outcomes for this population that, if unacknowledged, can be perpetuated within CPS. 

The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of applying these frameworks in practice when engaging with poor Black families throughout the CPS referral and evaluation process, as well as exploring broader possibilities to abolish or reform CPS.