ARTICLES Race-Class-Gender Theory: An Image(ry) Problem Ivy Ken Published online: 4 August 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract For over 100 years, but particularly since the 1980s, scholars have heavily relied on images of race, class, and gender as ‘‘intersecting’’ and ‘‘inter- locking’’ forms of oppression and disempowerment. This imagery has helped feminists develop the empirically grounded theoretical premises that (1) race, class, and gender are social structural locations, (2) structural locations shape perspec- tives, (3) no individual is all-oppressed or all-oppressing, (4) the meanings of race, class, and gender are localized, and (5) race, class, and gender depend on and (6) mutually constitute each other. In this article I synthesize these premises to reveal some opportunities for theoretical development that may inspire a new generation of race-class-gender scholarship. I argue that while intersection is fairly limited as a conceptual image, the interlocking imagery can help us identify how the relation- ships among these structures of oppression have become institutionalized. Keywords Race Á Gender Á Class Á Intersection Á Inequality Introduction When a three-dimensional puzzle in the shape of a truncated octahedron is put together, it has eight hexagon faces and six square faces. It looks a bit like a small wood ball with sides. An organization that makes this puzzle states that ‘‘no force is necessary’’ to take the puzzle pieces apart or to reassemble them since ‘‘the wood Ivy Ken (formerly Ivy Kennelly) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at George Washington University, where she teaches courses in race, class, gender, and sociological theory. Her recent work explores new metaphors for understanding the relationships among race, class, gender, and other forms of oppression and privilege. I. Ken (&) Department of Sociology, George Washington University, 801 22 Street NW, Phillips Hall 409, Washington, DC 20052, USA e-mail: ivyken@gwu.edu 123 Gend. Issues (2007) 24:1–20 DOI 10.1007/s12147-007-9005-9