The limits of tolerance and equality,or towards a 'new tolerance' and equality

Women's Equality in Transition: Intersectionality in Northern Ireland's/ North of Ireland's Equality Legislation Women have been invisible in mainstream analyses of the Northern Irish conflict. The prodigious literature is uninformed by gender analysis. These absences have discursive and material implications for tackling women’s equality in a society in transition from armed conflict. Feminist intersectional theory aids understanding of the Northern Irish context by bringing into view issues of gender, sect, class and colonial state formation. The tentative intersectional theoretical framework developed in this paper is tested in an empirical study of women’s poverty. This supports the argument that intersectional analysis is required if the approach to women’s equality in Northern Ireland/ the North of Ireland is to benefit the most marginalized women and thereby improve the prospects of building a more stable and peaceable society.