While historically feminism is a collection of different ideas around gender activism, the movement has predominantly explored the adversity of women from white society without fully considering the oppression that women of colour have faced throughout history and the disadvantages they still face in society today.

In 1991 critical race theory scholar Kimberl Crenshaw examined in the Stanford Law Journal how mainstream feminism can neglect intersectionality, a term that acknowledges race, gender diversity, sexuality and disability.

Contemporary feminist and antiracist discourses have failed to consider the intersections of racism and patriarchy, she wrote, when exploring the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of colour.

Some groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have found their issues excluded from the central and mainstream conversations, particularly in relation to domestic violence.